Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit says that “Adam Kelly Ward (pictured) has been afflicted with mental illness his entire life.” Yet Texas will execute him on March 22 unless the U.S. Supreme Court grants him a stay to review his case. Ward’s lawyers argue that the execution of a person who is severely mentally ill constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and that, for that reason, Ward should not be executed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied review of that issue on March…

Baptist ethicist and theologian Dr. Roger E. Olson (pictured) recently issued a call “for Christian churches to publicly stand against the death penalty for Christian reasons.” A professor of Christian Theology and Ethics at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Dr. Olson writes in an essay for the theology website Patheos.com that “authentic Christians must oppose the death penalty.” He says that, while “[t]here are many secular reasons to abolish the death penalty,” there…

A new article by Cornell Law School Professor John Blume (pictured) and Lindsey Vann of Justice 360 analyzes South Carolina’s experience with the death penalty over the last 40 years and argues that capital punishment in the Palmetto State continues to exhibit the same arbitrary and discriminatory features that led the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the death penalty in 1972. Using Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent in Glossip v. Gross as a guide, Blume and Vann point to unreliability…

In a divided 4 – 3 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court on March 16, 2016 authorized the state to try for a second time to execute death row inmate Romell Broom (pictured, after the state’s failed first attempt to execute him). The court majority held that a second execution attempt would not violate constitutional protections against twice placing a defendant in jeopardy of life, nor constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Ohio first tried to execute Broom on September 15, 2009, but the attempt…

United States District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis (pictured) ruled on March 15 that federal death row inmate Ronell Wilson is ineligible for the death penalty because he has intellectual disability. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment when applied to people diagnosed with intellectual disability, then known as mental retardation. Wilson was first sentenced to death in New York federal district court in…

In two separate op-eds, an Ohio Supreme Court Justice and a death row exoneree from Ohio expressed concerns about wrongful convictions that have led them to believe the death penalty should be abolished. In The Highland County Press, Justice Paul Pfeifer (pictured, r.) wrote about the “long and complex” case of Thomas Keenan, who was granted a new trial because prosecutors illegally withheld evidence. Pfeifer points to the misconduct in Keenan’s case as a reason why the death penalty should be…

Darryl Hunt (pictured), an exoneree and anti-death penalty advocate, was found dead in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on March 13, 2016. Hunt was wrongfully convicted of the 1984 rape and murder of Deborah Sykes, a newspaper copy editor. Prosecutors sought the death penalty against him, but he received a life sentence because a single juror refused to vote for death. His conviction was overturned in 1989 and prosecutors offered Hunt a deal for time served, in exchange for pleading guilty.

The recent book, 13 Ways of Looking at the Death Penalty, by Mario Marazziti, explores the United States’ continuing use of the death penalty in a world community that is increasingly rejecting the practice. The Philadelphia Inquirer calls the book “an interesting, compelling look at the cultural and religious underpinnings of the death penalty and how we got here. More important, [Marazziti’s] interviews with U.S. death-row inmates — living and now-deceased — their survivors, and their…

Creighton Horton spent 30 years as a prosecutor with the Salt Lake District Attorney’s Office and Utah Attorney General’s Office before retiring in 2009. In a recent op-ed, he said his experience handling capital cases led him to believe Utah should abolish the death penalty. Horton noted the negative impact the death penalty can have on victims’ families. “If a capital case goes to trial and the jury returns a verdict of death, that pronouncement is probably the last satisfaction the victim’s…

UPDATE: Wesbrook was executed on Mar. 9. EARLIER: Coy Wesbrook is scheduled to be executed in Texas on March 9. If the execution proceeds, it will be the eighth in the U.S. this year, half of which have been in Texas. Wesbrook killed five people after a confrontation with his ex-wife. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that defendants with intellectual disability (formerly referred to as “mental retardation”) are exempt from the death penalty. Wesbrook was tested for intellectual disability at the…