Publications & Testimony

Questions about the appro­pri­ate­ness of new lethal injec­tion meth­ods have recent­ly stayed exe­cu­tions in Louisiana and Ohio and caused the Florida Supreme Court to order a hear­ing pri­or to the next exe­cu­tion there. In Louisiana, Christopher Sepulvado received a 90-day stay to allow a fed­er­al court to deter­mine whether the state’s new pro­to­col vio­lates his con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tion against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. He was…

A pend­ing fed­er­al law­suit in Missouri asserts that a state law shroud­ing the mak­ers of lethal injec­tion drugs in secre­cy is a form of pri­or cen­sor­ship and an inter­fer­ence with the pulic’s right to free­dom of speech and free­dom of the press under the First Amendment. U.S. District Court Judge Beth Phillips, who has already expressed con­cern about with­hold­ing this infor­ma­tion from a death row defen­dant fac­ing exe­cu­tion, is expect­ed to rule soon on this broad­er prob­lem. The…

In a debate held by the Boston Globe, all five Democratic can­di­dates for gov­er­nor of Massachusetts said they oppose the death penal­ty for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Candidate Don Berwick said, ​“The death penal­ty has no place in our jurispru­dence.” Juliette Kayyem, in an ear­li­er state­ment on her Facebook page, said, ​“I have, based on my prin­ci­ples and on my work in death penal­ty appeals lit­i­ga­tion in Alabama, always opposed the…

On February 5, Texas is sched­uled to exe­cute Suzanne Basso. Basso would become the 14^th woman exe­cut­ed in the United States since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976. Basso is con­fined to a wheel chair and has a his­to­ry of men­tal ill­ness. Basso was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing a men­tal­ly dis­abled man, osten­si­bly for insur­ance mon­ey. Others con­vict­ed in the offense did not receive the death penal­ty. A recent arti­cle in the Arizona Republic not­ed an…

Prison offi­cials in Texas are review­ing poli­cies cur­rent­ly requir­ing all death row inmates to be iso­lat­ed one to a cell for 23 hours a day. Executions in Texas are car­ried out in Huntsville, and the local chap­ter of the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers’ union sup­ports chang­ing death-row prac­tices. Chapter pres­i­dent Lance Lowry said, ​“The cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers and tax­pay­ers would ben­e­fit from an eas­ing of the cur­rent poli­cies. Most death row offend­ers could be housed two to a cell. Some…

On January 30 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the gov­ern­ment would seek the death penal­ty in the fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tion of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. DPIC has a num­ber of resources about the fed­er­al death penal­ty, includ­ing a list of fed­er­al death row inmates with descrip­tions of their cas­es, infor­ma­tion about crimes eli­gi­ble for the fed­er­al death penal­ty, a break­down of out­comes in fed­er­al cap­i­tal cas­es, and…

DPIC recent­ly added a new web­page con­cern­ing death sen­tences in 2013. This resource includes the name, race, and coun­ty of sen­tenc­ing for each of the 80 defen­dants sen­tenced to death last year, as well as the names of the lead­ing states and coun­ties. The num­ber of new death sen­tences hand­ed down was equal to the sec­ond low­est num­ber since 1976. By race, 40% of those sen­tenced to death were white, 39% were black, 19% were Latino, and 2.5% were of oth­er races.…

The par­ents of a slain cor­rec­tions offi­cer in Colorado have asked to tes­ti­fy in oppo­si­tion to a death sen­tence for their son’s alleged killer, but pros­e­cu­tors have chal­lenged their right to inter­vene. Eric Autobee​’s (pic­tured) par­ents say that their son ​“would not have want­ed some­one killed in his name.” Prosecutors main­tain Colorado law only allows vic­tim impact state­ments to dis­cuss the harm that result­ed from the crime. The Autobees, in a…

Just one week before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Christopher Sepulvado, Louisiana announced it has been unable to find pen­to­bar­bi­tal for its lethal injec­tions and instead may apply a new pro­ce­dure used only once before in the U.S. If the state can­not obtain pen­to­bar­bi­tal, it will employ the two-drug pro­ce­dure used by Ohio on January16 to exe­cute Dennis McGuire, an exe­cu­tion that result­ed in gasp­ing sounds and move­ments by the inmate over an extend­ed peri­od of…

Attorneys for a Missouri inmate fac­ing immi­nent exe­cu­tion have assert­ed that the Department of Corrections has vio­lat­ed state and fed­er­al laws in acquir­ing its lethal injec­tion drugs. Herbert Smulls is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on January 29, but a chal­lenge has been filed in fed­er­al court alleg­ing that the state’s pen­to­bar­bi­tal was obtained from a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy in Oklahoma, which is unli­censed in Missouri. The suit also stat­ed the drug has not been…