Publications & Testimony

On May 16, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a bill known as the ​“Michael Morton Act” that will require pros­e­cu­tors to open their files to defen­dants and keep records of the evi­dence they dis­close. The Act is named for Michael Morton (pic­tured), who was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to life in prison in 1987. He was exon­er­at­ed in 2011 after DNA evi­dence revealed that some­one else had mur­dered his wife. Morton’s lawyers dis­cov­ered that the orig­i­nal pros­e­cu­tor had with­held evidence…

At a recent event at Willamette University in Oregon, var­i­ous state lead­ers in the fields of law and crim­i­nal jus­tice spoke crit­i­cal­ly about the state’s death penal­ty. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul De Muniz (pic­tured) said the death penal­ty was ​“bad pub­lic pol­i­cy,” almost nev­er result­ing in an exe­cu­tion. He spoke of hav­ing defend­ed a mur­der­er sen­tenced to death in 1988. Twenty-five years lat­er, the Justice not­ed, he is now retired after a full…

The British man­u­fac­tur­er Hikma Pharmaceuticals recent­ly announced new rules to restrict the sup­ply of its prod­ucts for unin­tend­ed uses, such as car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions in the United States. Earlier this year, Reprieve, a legal advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion based in London, found that a U.S. sub­sidiary of Hikma sold 100 grams of phe­no­bar­bi­tal to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Arkansas decid­ed to use the new, untest­ed drug in their lethal…

A recent arti­cle in The Nation by David Love, the Director of Witness to Innocence, under­scored the impor­tant role of peo­ple like Kirk Bloodsworth and Shujaa Graham (pic­tured), who were once on death row and now have been freed. These and many of the 140 oth­er peo­ple who have been exon­er­at­ed from death row have trav­eled the coun­try, speak­ing to leg­is­la­tors, stu­dents, church groups, and the gen­er­al pub­lic about the risks of…

Lawyers for Clemente Javier Aguirre recent­ly pre­sent­ed the results of DNA test­ing to a Florida court, cast­ing seri­ous doubt on his guilt. Aguirre was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of two women in 2006. Although the DNA evi­dence was avail­able at the time of his tri­al, Aguirre’s tri­al lawyer nev­er request­ed test­ing of the crime-scene evi­dence. Aguirre’s cur­rent lawyers said that DNA results from dozens of items did not reveal Aguirre’s blood at the crime scene. Instead, the…

As Nebraska​’s leg­is­la­ture began debate on a bill to repeal the death penal­ty, one sen­a­tor explained how his views on the issue had evolved. In an op-ed in the Lincoln Journal Star, Sen. Colby Coash said that his par­tic­i­pa­tion with a group cel­e­brat­ing an exe­cu­tion led him to oppose the death penal­ty: ​“I made a deci­sion dur­ing my shame that I would no longer be a part of some­one’s death.” A sec­ond influ­ence was his con­ver­sa­tions with rel­a­tives of mur­der vic­tims. He…

Women Who Kill Men: California Courts, Gender, and the Press exam­ines the role that gen­der played in the tri­als of women accused of mur­der in California between 1870 – 1958. The authors trace the chang­ing views of the pub­lic towards women and how these views may have affect­ed the out­comes of the cas­es. Some defen­dants faced the death penal­ty and were exe­cut­ed; some were spared. Often the pub­lic was deeply fas­ci­nat­ed with all aspects of the tri­al and…

Colorado recent­ly set an exe­cu­tion date in August for Nathan Dunlap, who has been con­vict­ed of mul­ti­ple mur­ders. This would be first exe­cu­tion in the state in 16 years. In an edi­to­r­i­al, the Aurora Sentinel rec­om­mend­ed that the gov­er­nor spare his life, not because of doubts about his guilt, but because of doubts about oth­er aspects of the process that led to his death sen­tence: ​“There is sim­ply too much doubt about the effec­tive­ness of the death penal­ty. There is too…

Nancy Mullane, a reporter for KALW Radio in San Francisco, is one of the few reporters to vis­it California​’s death row at San Quentin Prison. In the block she vis­it­ed, there were 500 inmates, in 4‑by-10 foot cells, stacked five tiers high. The cells are about the size of a walk-in clos­et. Many of the inmates have been on death row for over 20 years. Inmates can show­er every oth­er day. One of the inmates she met with, Justin Helzer, had stabbed him­self in both eyes. He later…

On May 6, more than 20 for­mer judges and pros­e­cu­tors, reli­gious lead­ers, men­tal health experts, and many oth­ers called on Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (pic­tured) to com­mute Nathan Dunlap’s death sen­tence to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The group’s state­ment cit­ed racial and geo­graph­ic dis­par­i­ties in the state’s appli­ca­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as rea­sons why Dunlap should not be exe­cut­ed. Among those send­ing let­ters supporting…