Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Williams v. Pennsylvania, a case chal­leng­ing for­mer Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in an appeal of a case that had been tried in Philadelphia while Castille was the city’s dis­trict attor­ney. Terrance Williams (pic­tured) was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Philadelphia in 1984 for the mur­der of a man pros­e­cu­tors had described to…

On October 2, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Kimber Edwards to life with­out parole. Edwards had faced exe­cu­tion on October 6 for the alleged murder-for-hire killing…

On October 1, Virginia exe­cut­ed Alfredo Prieto (pic­tured) before the U.S. Supreme Court had decid­ed whether to grant a stay on his chal­lenge to Virginia’s use of an exe­cu­tion drug obtained from Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Robert Lee, Prieto’s attor­ney, said,​“The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States were con­sid­er­ing Mr. Prieto’s request for a stay of exe­cu­tion but the Virginia Department of Corrections went ahead with the…

Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich said he is​“more open” to the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty after hear­ing Pope Francis’ address to Congress. Gingrich, who con­vert­ed to Catholicism sev­er­al years ago, said he was​“very impressed” with Pope Francis’ com­ments. In an appear­ance on HuffPost Live, Gingrich high­light­ed the work he has done on crim­i­nal jus­tice reform, say­ing,​“I very deeply believe we need to…

An unusu­al­ly high num­ber of exe­cu­tions are sched­uled for late September and ear­ly October — five states intend to car­ry out six exe­cu­tions in nine days. Pieces in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post describe the larg­er issues raised by the cas­es in this​“burst of lethal activ­i­ty.” In the Los Angeles Times, Scott Martelle exam­ined the three exe­cu­tions sched­uled for con­sec­u­tive days in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Virginia, con­clud­ing,​“So…

Virginia may exe­cute Alfredo Prieto on October 1 despite con­cerns by dis­abil­i­ty advo­cates that he may be intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. Governor Terry McAuliffe (pic­tured) announced on September 28 that he would not grant Prieto a reprieve. Gov. McAuliffe issued a state­ment say­ing​“It is the Governor’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure that the laws of the Commonwealth are prop­er­ly car­ried out unless cir­cum­stances mer­it a stay or…

Defense lawyers have filed a motion in the case of Richard Glossip (pic­tured) alleg­ing that two wit­ness­es who have come for­ward with evi­dence of Glossip’s inno­cence have been intim­i­dat­ed by pros­e­cu­tors. Glossip was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of Barry Van Treese, based upon the tes­ti­mo­ny of the actu­al killer, Justin Sneed, who was spared the death penal­ty in exhange for tes­ti­fy­ing that Glossip had offered him thou­sands of dollars to…

Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and for­mer State Corrections Deputy Director Vanessa O’Donnell have joined the effort to spare Kelly Gissendaner, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Georgia on September 29 for recruit­ing Gregory Owen, with whom she was roman­ti­cal­ly involved, to mur­der her hus­band. Owen made a deal with pros­e­cu­tors for a life sen­tence and will be eli­gi­ble for parole in 8 years. Justice…

A group of for­mer Georgia pris­on­ers is call­ing for clemen­cy for Kelly Gissendaner, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on September 29. The women say Gissendaner gave them hope and helped them turn their lives around. Nikki Roberts said she spoke to Gissendaner through a heat­ing vent after Roberts had been placed in​“lock­down” for try­ing to slit her wrists. Gissendaner told her,​“Don’t wish death on your­self. You sound like you’ve got some sense.”…

In an his­toric address before a joint ses­sion of the United States Congress, Pope Francis called for the abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Linking to the broad­er theme of pro­tect­ing human life and dig­ni­ty, he said,​“This con­vic­tion has led me, from the begin­ning of my min­istry, to advo­cate at dif­fer­ent lev­els for the glob­al abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. I am con­vinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is…