Publications & Testimony

On October 2, Judge Gregory Weeks heard tes­ti­mo­ny regard­ing racial bias in jury selec­tion, as three North Carolina death row inmates chal­lenged their sen­tences under the state’s Racial Justice Act. Prof. Barbara O’Brien of Michigan State University pro­vid­ed sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence of racial bias in the fre­quent rejec­tion of African-American poten­tial jurors from death penal­ty tri­als in the state. According to O’Brien’s study, qual­i­fied black jurors were twice as…

On October 9, the U.S. Supreme Court will con­sid­er cas­es from Arizona and Ohio ques­tion­ing whether death penal­ty appeals can con­tin­ue if the defen­dant is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. Under the Court’s pri­or rul­ings in Ford v. Wainwright (1986) and in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), cap­i­tal defen­dants can­not be exe­cut­ed if they are incom­pe­tent or intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled (men­tal­ly retard­ed). In the upcom­ing cas­es, Ryan v. Gonzalez and Tibbals…

The main sup­pli­er to the U.S. of a drug pro­posed for lethal injec­tions has announced it will not allow the drug to be sold for exe­cu­tions. Fresenius Kabi USA, a German-based com­pa­ny with offices in Illinois, issued a state­ment for­bid­ding the sale of propo­fol to cor­rec­tion­al insti­tu­tions for death penal­ty use. Earlier in 2012, Missouri announced it intend­ed to switch to propo­fol as the sole drug in its lethal injec­tion protocol,…

On September 28, Damon Thibodeaux was freed from death row in Louisiana after an exten­sive inves­ti­ga­tion, includ­ing DNA test­ing and the coop­er­a­tion of Jefferson Parrish District Attorney Paul Connick. Thibodeaux was sen­tenced to death for the 1996 rape and mur­der of his cousin. He at first con­fessed to the attack after a nine-hour inter­ro­ga­tion by detec­tives. He recant­ed a few hours lat­er and claimed his con­fes­sion was coerced. In releas­ing Thibodeaux,…

On September 28, Philadelphia Judge M. Teresa Sarmina grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion and a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing to Terrance Williams because the pros­e­cu­tors sup­pressed impor­tant mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence. The evi­dence, which could have been pre­sent­ed at tri­al, indi­cat­ed the pros­e­cu­tors knew that Amos Norwood, Williams’s vic­tim, had been a pedophile who sex­u­al­ly abused Williams. The judge’s deci­sion came a day after the Board of Pardons agreed to recon­sid­er Williams’s clemen­cy plea.

On September 27, a fed­er­al jury in Puerto Rico reject­ed the death penal­ty for Edison Burgos Montes, who was con­vict­ed in August of the mur­der of his girl­friend in 2005. The jury delib­er­at­ed for two days before sen­tenc­ing Montes to life in prison for this drug-relat­ed crime. Puerto Rico’s con­sti­tu­tion for­bids cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but U.S. pros­e­cu­tors can seek the death penal­ty under fed­er­al law. This is the fourth cap­i­tal case tried by U.S. author­i­ties since the fed­er­al death…

On September 26, Florida Governor Rick Scott (pic­tured) agreed to tem­porar­i­ly stay the pend­ing exe­cu­tion of John Errol Ferguson in order to allow time for a pan­el of psy­chi­a­trists to deter­mine whether Ferguson is men­tal­ly com­pe­tent. The day before, evan­gel­i­cal lead­ers, includ­ing Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Senior Pastor of the 15,000-member Northland Church in Central Florida, sent a let­ter to the gov­er­nor urg­ing that Ferguson be allowed to live. They wrote, ​“The…

On September 24, a jury in Alabama found that Amy Bishop was indeed guilty of cap­i­tal mur­der, a crime for which she had already pled guilty on September 11. Because of this find­ing and plea, she will be spared the death penal­ty for killing three mem­bers and wound­ing three oth­ers of the University of Alabama’s biol­o­gy fac­ul­ty in 2010 after some of them vot­ed against grant­i­ng her tenure. Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard agreed to…