Publications & Testimony

Richard Stokley (pic­tured) is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Arizona on December 5 for rape and mur­der. Stokley’s accom­plice, Randy Brazeal, was released from prison in 2011, despite DNA test­ing show­ing he was like­ly guilty of the same crime as Stokley. In 1991, Brazeal turned him­self in to author­i­ties and claimed that Stokley had held him hostage while com­mit­ting the crime. However, sub­se­quent DNA test­ing revealed that Brazeal like­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the crime…

A for­mer death row inmate with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties has lan­guished in the Texas prison sys­tem for over 30 years despite hav­ing no valid crim­i­nal con­vic­tion. Jerry Hartfield, an illit­er­ate man with an IQ of 51, had his cap­i­tal con­vic­tion over­turned in 1980 because the jury at his tri­al had been improp­er­ly select­ed. A Texas appeals court ordered a new tri­al for Hartfield, but that tri­al has nev­er hap­pened. In 1983, then-Governor Mark White attempt­ed to…

On November 29, the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, was illu­mi­nat­ed in hon­or of Connecticut’s repeal of the death penal­ty in April of this year. The event fea­tured for­mer death row inmate Shujaa Graham of California and George Kain of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty. Five states in the past five years have abol­ished the death penal­ty: Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey, and New York. The pro­gram also com­mem­o­rat­ed the 10^th World Day of Cities Against…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Oregonian, one of the state’s major news­pa­pers, endorsed a bill in the upcom­ing leg­isla­tive ses­sion that could result in the repeal of the death penal­ty. The bill, to be intro­duced by Rep. Mitch Greenlick, would begin the process of amend­ing the state’s con­sti­tu­tion through a ref­er­en­dum as ear­ly as November 2014. The edi­tors wrote, ​“5 states — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and New Mexico — have aban­doned the death penal­ty in…

Texas Representative Harold Dutton recent­ly filed a bill that would pre­vent pros­e­cu­tors in death penal­ty cas­es from using tes­ti­mo­ny from infor­mants or from alleged accom­plices of the defen­dant if the tes­ti­mo­ny was obtained in exchange for lenien­cy, immu­ni­ty or oth­er spe­cial pro­vi­sions. If passed, the bill would make Texas among the first states to ban such tes­ti­mo­ny. Alexandra Natapoff, a pro­fes­sor at Loyola of Los Angeles Law School, said, ​“The use of crim­i­nal infor­mants is…

When Maryland​’s leg­is­la­ture again con­venes in January, it is like­ly to con­sid­er a bill to repeal the death penal­ty. Governor Martin O’Malley (pic­tured) has spon­sored such leg­is­la­tion in the past and may do so again. O’Malley has called the death penal­ty ​“inher­ent­ly unjust” and said resources spent on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment could be bet­ter used else­where. Maryland has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion or had a new death sen­tence since 2005. Executions are cur­rent­ly on hold because the…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the New York Times called for the end of the death penal­ty in New Hampshire. The edi­to­r­i­al high­light­ed the case of Michael Addison, who is the only pris­on­er on the state’s death row. Addison was sen­tenced to death in 2008 for fatal­ly shoot­ing a police offi­cer. The state Supreme Court recent­ly held hear­ings for Addison, who is seek­ing a new tri­al or sen­tenc­ing hear­ing because the orig­i­nal pro­ceed­ings were unfair.

On November 19, 110 coun­tries vot­ed for a res­o­lu­tion at the United Nations General Assembly call­ing for a world­wide mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions as a step towards the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. The vote marked record sup­port for the res­o­lu­tion com­pared to pre­vi­ous years. Among the coun­tries sup­port­ing the res­o­lu­tion were the European Union nations, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Israel. The United States, Japan, China, Iran, India, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe were…

A new book, Race, Rape, and Injustice: Documenting and Challenging Death Penalty Cases in the Civil Rights Era, recounts the fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry of twen­ty-eight law stu­dents who trav­eled through­out the South in the 1960s to gath­er data about the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in rape cas­es. They found the death penal­ty was used almost exclu­sive­ly against black defen­dants accused of rap­ing white women. The book was large­ly writ­ten by Barrett Foerster, one of the stu­dents, and then completed…