Publications & Testimony

A recent sur­vey by the Kinder Institute of Houston, Texas, found that more than two-thirds (69%) of area res­i­dents pre­ferred alter­na­tive sen­tences over the death penal­ty, and that num­ber is grow­ing as the pop­u­la­tion becomes more diverse. The sur­vey asked whether per­sons con­vict­ed of first-degree mur­der should receive a death sen­tence, life in prison with­out parole, or life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after 25 years. Only 28% of respon­dents chose the death…

President Obama has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to review the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in the U.S. fol­low­ing the failed exe­cu­tion of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on April 29. The President not­ed con­cerns about inno­cence and racial bias: ​“In the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in this coun­try, we have seen sig­nif­i­cant prob­lems — racial bias, uneven appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty, you know, sit­u­a­tions in which there were…

On April 30 Ohio Governor John Kasich com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Arthur Tyler to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The deci­sion fol­lowed a rec­om­men­da­tion for clemen­cy from Cuyahoga County pros­e­cu­tor Tim McGinty. Following a hear­ing on the case, the Ohio Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed com­mu­ta­tion of Tyler’s sen­tence to life with parole: six of the eleven mem­bers rec­om­mend­ed imme­di­ate parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty for Tyler, and the…

Randy Workman (pic­tured) is a for­mer war­den of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, where he over­saw 32 exe­cu­tions. In a recent inter­view, he was crit­i­cal of many aspects of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. He said the death penal­ty failed the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and wast­ed mon­ey: ​“We spend mil­lions of dol­lars on these cas­es and going through the process and the end result is the fam­i­ly, do they feel vin­di­cat­ed? I’d say 90% of the time the…

On April 29, Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett died of a heart attack approx­i­mate­ly 40 min­utes after the state began admin­is­ter­ing a new lethal injection…

Three for­mer Chief Justices of the Oregon Supreme Court have recent­ly called for an end to the death penal­ty in their state. Retired Chief Justice Wallace P. Carson, Jr. (l.), was the most recent Justice to call for a change: ​“In my opin­ion, the excep­tion­al cost of death penal­ty cas­es and the seem­ing­ly hap­haz­ard selec­tion of which cas­es deserve the death penal­ty out­weigh any per­ceived pub­lic ben­e­fit of this sanc­tion,” Carson said. ​“The fair­ly recent addition…

On April 28 a study pub­lished in the pres­tigous Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indi­cat­ed that far more inno­cent peo­ple have been sen­tenced to death than those found through the legal process. According to the study, many inno­cent defen­dants are prob­a­bly not being iden­ti­fied because they were tak­en off death row and giv­en a less­er sen­tence. The rate of exon­er­a­tions for those sen­tenced to death would be over twice as high if all cas­es were giv­en the…

On April 23 the U.S. Supreme Court rein­stat­ed the death sen­tence of Kentucky inmate Robert Woodall, revers­ing an ear­li­er rul­ing by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. At Woodall’s tri­al, his attor­ney asked the judge to instruct the jury not to draw any neg­a­tive infer­ence from the fact that Woodall had not tes­ti­fied in the sen­tenc­ing phase. The judge refused to give the instruc­tion. The 6^th Circuit held that the fail­ure to instruct the jury was a…

In a peti­tion to the Ohio Parole Board, Cuyahoga County pros­e­cu­tor Tim McGinty (pic­tured) request­ed the death sen­tence of Arthur Tyler be reduced to life in prison with­out parole. McGinty said, ​“At the time of Tyler’s tri­al, Ohio law did not allow for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a sen­tence of life with­out parole for an aggra­vat­ed mur­der conviction.…In light of the lim­it­ed sen­tenc­ing options, the absence of the option of a sentence…

UPDATE: On April 23, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held that the inmates fac­ing exe­cu­tion do not have a right to be informed of the source of the drugs that will be used in their exe­cu­tions. The Court lift­ed the stays of exe­cu­tion, which means they could occur on April 29. ‑Earlier: On April 21, the Oklahoma Supreme Court indef­i­nite­ly stayed the exe­cu­tions of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner so it could resolve the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of a state…