Publications & Testimony

Donald Cabana, the for­mer war­den of the Mississippi State Penitentiary who died recent­ly, spent many years active­ly oppos­ing the death penal­ty. Having super­vised sev­er­al exe­cu­tions, Cabana was par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­turbed about one in which the inmate may have been inno­cent. He said, “[H]owever we do it, in the name of jus­tice, in the name of law and order, in the name of ret­ri­bu­tion, you … do not have the right to ask me, or any prison offi­cial, to bloody my…

Following the pro­vi­sions of Florida​’s recent­ly passed ​“Timely Justice Act,” the clerk of the state’s Supreme Court has iden­ti­fied 132 inmates on death row who are ​“war­rant ready,” based on their appeals. However, few­er than 20 of those inmates have begun the exec­u­tive clemen­cy process that must be com­plet­ed before an exe­cu­tion can take place. Once the gov­er­nor sig­nals that the clemen­cy process is over for an inmate, a death war­rant must be signed in 30 days,…

On October 10, the European Union com­mem­o­rat­ed World Day Against the Death Penalty, coin­cid­ing with events around the world chal­leng­ing the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe released a state­ment, not­ing, ​“Voices in favor of the death penal­ty with­in some parts of soci­ety, includ­ing in our con­ti­nent, show that…

Wyoming​’s Casper Star-Tribune recent­ly point­ed out why many fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims favor life-with­out-parole sen­tences over the death penal­ty . “[I]t may be a sur­prise that many fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims pre­fer the life with­out parole sen­tence, sim­ply because it puts the killer away for­ev­er with­out the decades-long court appeals that can accom­pa­ny a death sen­tence,” the paper wrote. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed that there is only one per­son on the state’s death row, and…

Former Virginia attor­neys gen­er­al Mark L. Earley Sr. (pic­tured) and Anthony F. Troy recent­ly called for changes to the state’s death penal­ty based on a September report from the American Bar Association. Writing in the Washington Post, the past law enforce­ment lead­ers called for changes to the restric­tive laws gov­ern­ing the shar­ing of evi­dence pri­or to tri­als, amend­ments to jury instruc­tions so that jurors in death cas­es could better…

On the open­ing day of the U.S. Supreme Court’s new term, the Justices announced they would not review the case of Warren Hill, a death row inmate in Georgia with mul­ti­ple find­ings of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. Hill peti­tioned the Court after three men­tal health experts, who ini­tial­ly said he was not men­tal­ly dis­abled, changed their assess­ment. The exe­cu­tion of inmates with men­tal retar­da­tion was ruled uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 2002, but Georgia has…

On October 4, Ohio announced it will be obtain­ing its exe­cu­tion drug, pen­to­bar­bi­tal, from a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy if it is not avail­able from the man­u­fac­tur­er. Texas made a sim­i­lar announce­ment a few days ear­ler. In the past, some com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies have been impli­cat­ed in pro­vid­ing con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed drugs with fatal side effects. These local com­pa­nies are not reg­u­lat­ed by the Food and Drug Administration. Florida…

Since DPIC released its new report, The 2% Death Penalty, on October 2, both nation­al and inter­na­tion­al media have been report­ing on its find­ings. The Washington Post not­ed, ​“Two per­cent of the coun­ties in the coun­try were respon­si­ble for [most] 685 of 1,320 exe­cu­tions from 1976, when the Supreme Court rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty, to 2012.” The Los Angeles Times, quot­ed DPIC’s Executive…

On October 2 the Death Penalty Information Center released a new report, The 2% Death Penalty: How a Minority of Counties Produce Most Death Cases at Enormous Costs to All. The report shows that, con­trary to the assump­tion that the death penal­ty is wide­ly used in the U.S., only a few juris­dic­tions employ cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment exten­sive­ly. Only 2% of the coun­ties in the U.S. have been respon­si­ble for the major­i­ty of cas­es lead­ing to exe­cu­tions since 1976. Likewise, only…

An analy­sis of the death penal­ty in Utah shows how rarely it has been used in recent years. Prosecutors have sought it in only 7 cas­es in the last 5 years, and none has result­ed in a death sen­tence. Utah has had only 1 exe­cu­tion in the past 13 years. Experts have offered sev­er­al rea­sons for the declin­ing use: the alter­na­tive sen­tence of life with­out parole is now ava­ial­ble; the appeal of a death sen­tence is cost­ly and slow; and many vic­tims’ fam­i­lies wish to see a more timely…