Publications & Testimony

On September 4, Oklahoma released a report from its inves­ti­ga­tion into the botched exe­cu­tion of Clayton Lockett. The review, which was con­duct­ed by inves­ti­ga­tors from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, found sev­er­al prob­lems that may have con­tributed to the pro­longed exe­cu­tion attempt on April 29. The exe­cu­tion was stopped by the war­den, cur­tains were drawn in the cham­ber, but the inmate died after­wards, report­ed­ly from the residues of the lethal drugs in his…

Baptist min­is­ter and civ­il rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton spoke in oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty in a recent debate at the Yale Political Union. Sharpton not­ed the dis­propo­tion of blacks who are to sen­tenced to death com­pared to whites. He also raised con­cerns about the risk of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent, point­ing out that many inmates have been exon­er­at­ed from death row. He said the low­er mur­der rates in states that do not…

UPDATE: Both defen­dants freed after judge over­turns con­vic­tions. EARLIER: Henry McCollum (l.) and Leon Brown (r.), two broth­ers who were con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death in 1984, may soon be freed because of evi­dence uncov­ered by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. McCollum was 19 and Brown was 15 when they con­fessed to the rape and mur­der of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie. Both men are intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled — McCollum has…

DPIC is begin­ning a new series of pod­casts based on the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in each state. The series will first present the states that have end­ed the death penal­ty. Three pod­casts, fea­tur­ing Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine, are now avail­able. These short audio clips sum­ma­rize the his­to­ry sur­round­ing the repeal of the death penal­ty in those states, includ­ing famous cas­es, issues that spurred leg­is­la­tors to take action, and subsequent…

After the botched exe­cu­tion of Clayton Lockett on April 29, Oklahoma offi­cials sent his body to Texas for an inde­pen­dent autop­sy. Now it appears that Texas will with­hold impor­tant infor­ma­tion revealed in the course of the autop­sy from the pub­lic at Oklahoma’s request. The autop­sy was per­formed by the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office. Earlier, Michael Thompson, Commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, said the Lockett…

On July 16, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney (pic­tured) held that the delays and arbi­trari­ness of California​’s death penal­ty sys­tem ren­dered it uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Judge Carney vacat­ed the death sen­tence of Ernest Jones, who has spent near­ly 20 years on death row. On August 21, California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced the state will appeal the rul­ing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Below are excerpts from Judge Carney’s…

A law­suit filed in fed­er­al court in Oklahoma on August 25 by var­i­ous news orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Oklahoma Observer and the Guardian US, seeks to give media wit­ness­es a more com­plete view of exe­cu­tions than is cur­rent­ly allowed. The peti­tion alleges that the right to wit­ness the entire exe­cu­tion is pro­tect­ed by the First Amendment, stat­ing, ​“The abil­i­ty of the press to wit­ness the par­tic­u­lar facts and cir­cum­stances of…

After Ohio​’s two-hour attempt­ed exe­cu­tion of Rommel Broom (pic­tured) in 2009, it explored alter­na­tive meth­ods, includ­ing an intra­mus­cu­lar injec­tion of mida­zo­lam and hydro­mor­phone. Gregory Trout, an attor­ney with the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction expressed con­cerns to Dr. Mark Dershwitz, the state’s expert wit­ness on lethal injec­tions, about whether these drugs would result in ​“gasp­ing for air in a hyper­ven­ti­lat­ing fash­ion, with eyes still…