Publications & Testimony

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…

The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky’s second-largest newspaper, announced it was ending its long-held support for the death penalty, and now believes the state legislature should abolish capital punishment. Describing its previous position as “keep it but fix it,” the editors stated, “we must now concede that the death penalty is not going to be fixed and, in fact, probably cannot be fixed at any defensible cost to taxpayers.” Citing the 2011 American Bar Association assessment of Kentucky’s…

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a per curiam decision on March 7 granting a new trial to Louisiana death row inmate Michael Wearry as a result of multiple acts of misconduct by prosecutors in his case. No physical evidence linked Wearry to the murder. His conviction was based largely on the testimony of an informant, Sam Scott, who came forward two years after the crime with an account that did not match the details of the crime. Scott altered his story over the course of four different…

UPDATE: Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill into law on March 7. Previously: The Florida legislature passed a bill on March 3 to restructure its death penalty statute in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Hurst v. Florida, which declared the state’s death penalty procedures unconstitutional. The bill modifies Florida’s practice of permitting judges to impose death sentences without the unanimous agreement of jurors by requiring that at least ten jurors recommend death before the judge…

Jefferson County, Alabama Circuit Judge Tracie Todd (pictured) ruled on March 3 that Alabama’s capital sentencing procedure violates the U.S. Constitution. Judge Todd barred the death penalty for four capital murder defendants, saying that Alabama’s use of judicial override violates the Sixth Amendment. Under Alabama’s system, at least 10 jurors must agree in order to recommend a death sentence, but a judge can override the jury’s recommendation and impose death even if the jury recommended a…

Delaware public defenders have filed a brief in the Delaware Supreme Court arguing that the state’s death sentencing procedures are unconstitutional. In their brief, the defenders describe “multiple constitutional problems” that they say “require Delaware’s death penalty scheme to be substantially restructured.” These include several procedures that they say are unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 8 – 1 decision in Hurst v. Florida. Delaware allows juries to render…

Stephen Urquhart (pictured), a Republican state senator in Utah, supported the death penalty until about a year ago, when a friend convinced him that capital punishment didn’t fit his conservative beliefs. Now Urquhart sees the death penalty as inefficient, costly, and wrong and is the lead sponsor of a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. He said concerns about the cost of the death penalty and the risk of executing an innocent person changed his stance on the issue. In discussions with…