Publications & Testimony

Texas death row inmate Jose Garcia Briseño, whose case was used by the Texas courts to estab­lish a very restric­tive def­i­n­i­tion of men­tal retar­da­tion, has been resen­tenced to life with­out parole. His sen­tence was the result of a plea bar­gain end­ing years of lit­i­ga­tion. Briseño has been on death row for over 20 years, and received a stay of exe­cu­tion in 2009 just 5 days before he was to be exe­cut­ed. Briseño’s lawyers have argued he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, and therefore…

As a Superior Court judge in Delaware, Norman Barron was referred to as ​“the hang­ing judge” because of his will­ing­ness to impose death sen­tences. In a recent op-ed for Delaware Online, the now-retired judge expressed how his views on the death penal­ty have changed: ​“I believe the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty is quirky and capri­cious… it is impos­si­ble to jus­ti­fy why some mur­der­ers receive the death penal­ty while oth­ers, whose…

The Arkansas Department of Corrections recent­ly announced it will use a new drug, phe­no­bar­bi­tal, for lethal injec­tions. Phenobarbital is used to treat seizures but has nev­er been used for exe­cu­tions in the U.S. Some experts are con­cerned that using drugs that are untest­ed for this pur­pose could result in inhu­mane treat­ment. David Lubarsky, who chairs the anes­the­si­ol­o­gy depart­ment at the University of Miami’s med­ical school, said, ​“People should not…

On April 22, a divid­ed U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied Warren Hill​’s appeal to halt his exe­cu­tion based on new evi­dence of his intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. The Court ruled that Hill’s claim of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty (men­tal retar­da­tion) was pre­sent­ed in an ear­li­er peti­tion and can­not be pre­sent­ed again, despite the new evi­dence. The judges also held that, even if Hill’s claim is a new one, it only chal­lenges his eli­gi­bil­i­ty for the death penal­ty, not his…

On April 23, the Connecticut Supreme Court will con­sid­er whether the 11 inmates who remained on the state’s row after the leg­is­la­ture vot­ed to repeal the death penal­ty in 2012 can still be exe­cut­ed. Mark Rademacher, an attor­ney for one of the inmates, argued that the legislature’s repeal of the death penal­ty demon­strat­ed the pun­ish­ment is no longer nec­es­sary and, hence, exe­cut­ing his client would be cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. Rademacher also assert­ed that the law’s…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star high­light­ed some of the con­ser­v­a­tive argu­ments oppos­ing the death penal­ty. Edward Crane (pic­tured), founder of the CATO Institute, a lib­er­tar­i­an think tank, said, ​“My own view on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is that it is moral­ly jus­ti­fied but that the gov­ern­ment is often so inept and cor­rupt that inno­cent peo­ple might die as a result. Thus, I per­son­al­ly oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” The edi­to­r­i­al also quoted…

A recent arti­cle in the Liberty Champion, a pub­li­ca­tion of Liberty University, dis­cussed the con­cerns some con­ser­v­a­tive Christians have about the death penal­ty. The arti­cle by stu­dent Whitney Rutherford focused on the finan­cial costs of the death penal­ty and its emo­tion­al toll on mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies: ​“Rather than pro­vid­ing vic­tims, their fam­i­lies, and the fam­i­ly of the accused an expe­di­ent result, these groups are dragged through the emo­tion­al upheaval of…

Two bills under con­sid­er­a­tion in Texas aim to address issues in the state’s death penal­ty. House Bill 2458 would allow defen­dants to appeal their death sen­tences if they can prove that race was a sig­nif­i­cant fac­tor in the deci­sion to seek or impose the death penal­ty. Statistical evi­dence of bias can be used to sup­port such a claim. Similar bills, referred to as the Racial Justice Act, have been con­sid­ered in oth­er states. Testimony in favor of the bill…

On April 11, a jury in Puerto Rico reject­ed a death sen­tence for a defen­dant con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing an under­cov­er police­man. Instead, Lashaun Casey will be sen­tenced life in prison with­out parole. The defen­dant was eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because the case was tried under fed­er­al law rather than the law of Puerto Rico, which abol­ished the death penal­ty under the con­sti­tu­tion it enact­ed in 1952. The Commonwealth has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 1927. Anti-death…

George F. Will, con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tor of the Washington Post, recent­ly drew a les­son about the death penal­ty from the doc­u­men­tary The Central Park Five, which airs on PBS on Tuesday, April 16. Will wrote, “[T]his recount­ing of a mul­ti­fac­eted but, for­tu­nate­ly, not fatal fail­ure of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem but­tress­es the con­ser­v­a­tive case against the death penal­ty: Its final­i­ty leaves no room for rec­ti­fy­ing mistakes.”…