Publications & Testimony

On June 12, the Supreme Court of Florida (6 – 1) overturned the convictions and death sentence of Carl Dausch because the state presented insufficient evidence of his guilt at trial. The Court directed that he be acquitted of all offenses, stating, “[T]he record lacks sufficient evidence of the perpetrator’s identity.” Dausch was convicted primarily on fingerprints and DNA from a cigarette butt that were found in the victim’s car. DNA evidence taken from the victim was less definitive. Dausch…

The American Bar Association has released a new publication, The State of Criminal Justice 2014, examining major issues, trends and significant changes in America’s criminal justice system. The chapter devoted to capital punishment was written by Ronald Tabak, an attorney at Skadden Arps. Tabak presents evidence of the declining use of the death penalty in death sentences and executions, particularly noting the growing geographic isolation of the death penalty. He also highlights numerous…

California announced plans to add a 40-bed psychatric hospital to its death row at San Quentin to treat deeply disturbed inmates in need of 24-hour care for mental illness. In 2013 a federal judge ordered the state to provide death-row inmates access to inpatient psychiatric treatment. Following court-ordered mental evaluations, the state identified 37 men with severe mental illnesses requiring full-time care. Attorney Michael Bien, who argued the case that prompted the action, said, “The…

UPDATE: Winfield’s execution was stayed on June 12 because of state interference with the clemency process. EARLIER: John Winfield is scheduled to be executed in Missouri on June 18 despite an affidavit submitted by one of the jurors at his trial stating she was pressured to switch her sentencing vote from life in prison to death. Kimberly Turner, who served on Winfield’s jury in 1998, recently described the jury’s initial deliberations: “Another juror and I had voted for life without the…

Following the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma in April, President Obama ordered the Justice Department to review death penalty procedures in the states. Though a timeline for the study has not been released, the department has already reached out to at least one organization, the Constitution Project, which proposed several reforms in its recent report on the death penalty, including the establishing of an office at the Justice Department to review innocence claims from death…

When Connecticut abolished the death penalty in 2012, it did so prospectively, leaving its death row population in place. Now, Connecticut newpaper The Day is calling on the state to “have the courage and consistency to outlaw government sanctioned killing in all instances.” The editorial first highlights the paper’s longstanding opposition to capital punishment, saying “It remains our position that a state-sponsored execution disproportionately targets minorities, has no deterrent value…

Click to enlarge A new poll by ABC News and the Washington Post found a majority (52%) of Americans prefer life without parole as punishment for convicted murderers, with just 42% preferring the death penalty. This is the first time that this poll has found a majority support for life without parole over the death penalty. Without an alternative sentence offered, support for the death penalty was 61%, equaling the lowest level of support in polls going back to the early 1980s, and showing a…

The Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from Romell Broom (pictured), whose execution was halted in 2009 after correctional officers spent two hours trying to insert an IV for a lethal injection. Broom was pricked 18 times during the attempted execution. The court will decide whether further attempts to execute Broom would violate double-jeopardy rules or the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. “Romell Broom has a constitutional right not to be subjected to more…

Executions have been on hold in Kentucky since 2010, when Franklin Circuit Judge Philip Shepherd began a review of the state’s lethal injection protocol. The state revised its protocol in 2012 to call for a one-drug method, with a two-drug method as a backup if specific drugs were not available. Now, that new protocol is also being scrutinized because it calls for the same drugs that caused the botched execution of Dennis McGuire in Ohio. Corrections officials say they don’t know if any lethal…

Sabrina Butler (pictured), the only woman among the 144 people exonerated from death row since 1973, recently told her story in TIME Magainze. Butler was just 17 years old when she went to check on her infant son and found he had stopped breathing. She attempted to resuscitate him and rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The next day, a detective accused Butler of murdering her son. “I was alone with no lawyer or parent with me. I told him I tried to save my baby. He…