Publications & Testimony

A recent arti­cle in The Atlantic by Marc Bookman (pic­tured) shows how threats of the death penal­ty can con­tribute to false con­fes­sions. The piece recounts a Pennsylvania mur­der case in which two defen­dants, Russell Weinberger and Felix Rodriguez, admit­ted to a mur­der they did not com­mit, lead­ing to their impris­on­ment for over 21 years. Rodriguez described his inter­ro­ga­tion:​“First they showed me pic­tures of the dead guy. I started…

On August 7, the Special Master assigned to review the case of Reginald Clemons (pic­tured) in Missouri announced that pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence indi­cat­ing detec­tives beat Clemons into con­fess­ing to rape and mur­der that led to his death sen­tence. Clemons recant­ed the con­fes­sion, but a tape of it was played at tri­al and he was con­vict­ed in 1993. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked him to the rape. Judge Michael Manners, who conducted…

A new report by the London-based Death Penalty Project explores the use of manda­to­ry death sen­tenc­ing in Malaysia. In the U.S., the Supreme Court barred the use of manda­to­ry death sen­tences in 1976, hold­ing that judges and juries need­ed to con­sid­er the indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences among defen­dants, out of respect for human dig­in­i­ty. (Woodson v. North Carolina, and oth­er opin­ions). DPP’s report found that the num­ber of executions…

On August 4, Ohio death row inmate Billy Slagle was found hanged in his prison cell, three days before he was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed. Slagle did not know that pros­e­cu­tors had recent­ly revealed that their office had been pre­pared to offer a plea deal to avoid a death sen­tence at the time of his tri­al 26 years ago. That deal was not con­veyed to Slagle by his attor­neys. This new infor­ma­tion was part of a request for a stay of exe­cu­tion sent to…

On August 1, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced its remain­ing sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, used for lethal injec­tions, expires in September, and it is unsure where to obtain more. The drug’s man­u­fac­tur­er, Lundbeck, Inc., has barred dis­tri­b­u­tion to states intend­ing to use the drug…

Criminal cas­es in the U.S. Military are con­duct­ed in spe­cial courts and under laws that dif­fer from the rest of the coun­try’s jus­tice sys­tem. Executions in this sys­tem are extreme­ly rare. There have been no exe­cu­tions since 1961.​“The mil­i­tary is a com­mu­ni­ty of sol­i­dar­i­ty, a broth­er­hood and sis­ter­hood, all to its own,” said Teresa Norris, a for­mer mil­i­tary defense lawyer who still rep­re­sents a sol­dier on death row.​“There is a real reluctance…

Cert. grant­ed and decid­ed June 24, 2013…

The fed­er­al death penal­ty is con­tro­ver­sial because it can be applied even in the 18 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that have elect­ed not to have cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in their own law. Out of respect for the peo­ple of Rhode Island–a non-death penal­ty state – the gov­er­nor, Lincoln Chafee (pic­tured), resist­ed turn­ing over a defen­dant in 2011 to face the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The defen­dant, Jason Pleau, agreed to plead…

Judge Boyce Martin took the occa­sion of his final death-penal­­ty deci­sion from the bench of the U.S. Court of Appeals to sharply crit­i­cize cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in this coun­try. While uphold­ing the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of the defen­dant, Harold Nichols, Judge Martin said,​“I con­tin­ue to con­demn the use of the death penal­ty as an arbi­trary, biased, and bro­ken crim­i­nal jus­tice tool.” He not­ed that the many years since Nichols’s con­vic­tion in 1990…

UPDATE: Ferguson was exe­cut­ed on Aug. 5. Florida has set an August 5 exe­cu­tion date for John Ferguson, a death row inmate who has suf­fered from severe men­tal ill­ness for more than four decades. As far back as 1965, Ferguson was found to expe­ri­ence visu­al hal­lu­ci­na­tions. He was sent to men­tal insti­tu­tions and was diag­nosed as para­noid schiz­o­phrenic, delu­sion­al, and aggres­sive. In 1975, a men­tal health doc­tor described Ferguson as…