Publications & Testimony

On June 12, the State Bar of Texas dis­barred Burleson County District Attorney Charles Sebesta, the pros­e­cu­tor whose mis­con­duct led to the wrong­ful con­vic­tion of death row exoneree Anthony Graves (pic­tured, r.). The bar found that Sebesta vio­lat­ed no few­er than five of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, includ­ing mak­ing a false state­ment to a court, using evi­dence known to be false, and fail­ing to dis­close excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence to the defense. In 2006, the…

As the antic­i­pat­ed late-June deci­sion by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Oklahoma lethal injec­tion case, Glossip v. Gross, approach­es, the Oklahoma state courts have ruled that a media law­suit seek­ing dis­cov­ery and depo­si­tions relat­ing to the state’s botched exe­cu­tion of Clayton Lockett may pro­ceed. On June 8, the Oklahoma Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly denied a motion filed by Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to block action in Branstetter v. Fallin, a law­suit filed…

In a press release on June 9, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) announced its pol­i­cy affirm­ing ​“that phar­ma­cists, as health­care providers who are ded­i­cat­ed to achiev­ing opti­mal health out­comes and pre­serv­ing life, should not par­tic­i­pate in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” ASHP rep­re­sents 40,000 mem­bers, includ­ing phar­ma­cists who serve as patient-care providers in acute and ambu­la­to­ry set­tings. The orga­ni­za­tion also includes stu­dent phar­ma­cists and pharmacy…

Testimony of Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center before the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee in con­nec­tion with Pennsylvania’s death penal­ty mora­to­ri­um (Harrisburg, June 11,…

On June 9, Richard Strong was exe­cut­ed in Missouri, despite the fact that four Justices of the Supreme Court would have grant­ed him a stay and despite evi­dence that he suf­fered from severe men­tal ill­ness. A broad chal­lenge to Missouri’s secre­tive lethal injec­tion process (Zink v. Lombardi) has yet to be resolved, and Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan vot­ed to stay Strong’s exe­cu­tion because of that chal­lenge. However, five votes are need­ed to…

Harris County, Texas pros­e­cu­tors announced on June 8 that they have dis­missed charges against Alfred Dewayne Brown, who had been sen­tenced to death in 2005 for the mur­ders of a Houston police offi­cer and a store clerk dur­ing a rob­bery. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had over­turned Brown’s con­vic­tion last year because pros­e­cu­tors with­held a phone record that sup­port­ed Brown’s ali­bi. Prosecutors in 2013 said that the phone record had been inadvertently…

With lethal injec­tion in admin­is­tra­tive cri­sis and fac­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenges, some states are look­ing towards abo­li­tion and oth­ers towards alter­na­tive meth­ods of…

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory grant­ed par­dons to Leon Brown (l.) and Henry McCollum (cen­ter, r.), allow­ing the two men to receive com­pen­sa­tion for their wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Brown and McCollum are half-broth­ers who were con­vict­ed of the 1983 mur­der of an 11-year-old girl and sen­tenced to death. McCollum spent 30 years on death row before being exon­er­at­ed by DNA evi­dence in 2014. Brown was released after 30 years in jail, eight of them…

A new poll by Quinnipiac has found that more Americans pre­fer life with­out parole (48%) than the death penal­ty (43%) for peo­ple con­vict­ed of mur­der. Since Quinnipiac last asked the ques­tion in 2013, sup­port for life with­out parole has risen by five per­cent­age points and dropped for the death penal­ty by five points. A June 2014 ABC News/​Washington Post poll also showed that more Americans pre­ferred life with­out parole to the death penal­ty. Quinnipiac found that 58% of…