Publications & Testimony

Anthony Ray Hinton (pictured, l.) has been exonerated after spending nearly 30 years on Alabama’s death row. He will be released on April 3. Hinton was convicted of the 1985 murders of two fast-food restaurant managers based upon the testimony of a state forensic examiner that the bullets in the two murders came from a gun found in Hinton’s house. The prosecutor, who had a documented history of racial bias, said he could tell Hinton was guilty and “evil” just by looking at him. Hinton was…

Former prison warden, Frank Thompson, has urged repeal of Delaware’s death penalty. In an op-ed for The News Journal of Delaware, the former warden, who has personally overseen two executions, describes “the immeasurable burden that th[e execution] process places on correctional officers” and the trauma experienced by correctional officers who must carry out executions. Thompson says, “Many of us who have taken part in this process live with nightmares, especially those of us who have…

Executions around the world declined by 22% last year, according to Amnesty International’s 2014 annual report on death sentences and executions. The report — released on April 1 — indicates that an estimated 607 people were executed worldwide in 2014, compared to 778 in 2013. The global totals do not include executions in China, where data on the death penalty is considered a state secret. On a regional level, Amnesty reported notable declines in Sub-Saharan Africa, where both the total number…

On March 30, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) adopted a resolution discouraging pharmacist participation in executions. The House of Delegates of the 62,000 member organization passed the policy, which states, “The American Pharmacists Association discourages pharmacist participation in executions on the basis that such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as providers of health care.” William Fassett, professor emeritus of pharmacotherapy at Washington…

On Monday, March 30, the U.S. Supreme Court granted review of three Kansas death penalty cases and heard oral argument in a Louisiana case that presented questions on the role of the federal courts in determining whether a state prisoner who faces the death penalty has intellectual disability. In the cases of Kansas v. Reginald Carr, Kansas v. Jonathan Carr, and Kansas v. Sidney Gleason, the Court granted review of the Kansas Supreme Court’s decisions overturning the defendants’ death sentences…

In a new article for the University of Chicago Law Review, Professors Carol S. Steiker (left) of the University of Texas School of Law and Jordan M. Steiker (right) of Harvard Law School examine the racial history of the American death penalty and what they describe as the U.S. Supreme Court’s “deafening silence” on the subject of race and capital punishment. They assert that the story of the death penalty “cannot be told without detailed attention to race.” The Steikers’ article recounts the…

A recent article in Mother Jones examines lingering questions in the determination of which inmates are exempt from execution because of mental incompetency. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ford v. Wainwright that a person could not be executed if he or she was “unaware of the punishment they’re about to suffer and why they are to suffer it.” The 2007 ruling in Panetti v. Quarterman updated that decision, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing, “A prisoner’s awareness of the State’s…

According to a new poll by Public Policy Polling, a majority of Pennsylvanians find some form of a life sentence to be preferable to the death penalty, and more support the death penalty moratorium imposed by Governor Tom Wolf than oppose it. When asked what sentence they preferred for people convicted of murder, 54% of respondents selected some form of life sentence, while 42% preferred the death penalty. 50% were in favor of the Commonwealth’s death penalty moratorium, including 29% who say…

UPDATE: After Louisiana denied compensation to Mr. Ford — who is in hospice care, dying from Stage 4 cancer — Stroud gave an interview to the Huffington Post in which he says “death penalty prosecutions are a badge of showing how out-of-touch we are with other civilized societies… . We can’t trust the government to fix potholes. Why should we believe they can design a death penalty system that’s fair?” PREVIOUSLY: In a letter to the Shreveport (Louisiana) Times, attorney A.M. “Marty” Stroud III…