Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stayed the execution of Robert Campbell just hours before he was scheduled to be executed in Texas on May 13, granting him permission to file a new petition on his claim of mental retardation. If Campbell is intellectually disabled, he is barred from execution by the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia. The unanimous three-judge panel noted that Texas authorities had withheld IQ test results from Campbell and misled his attorneys…

Mark Edwards, chair of the Nash County (North Carolina) Republican Party, recently spoke about replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole: “As a conservative seeking to find the best way to protect the residents of this great state from crime, I believe the death penalty has had its day in North Carolina. It is time to begin the debate on replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole.” He also said, “We are advocating that we replace the death penalty…

Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma recently said he believes the April 29 execution of Clayton Lockett, “was certainly not done appropriately.” Coburn, who is also a physician, added, “It’s an unfortunate thing but, again, anytime you’re doing anything with the body, things can go wrong.” He also spoke more broadly about his views on the death penalty, saying, “I don’t like it. I wish we put everybody that had such a history as this gentleman behind bars working and doing things that…

As the last act of its legislative session, the Florida Senate passed a bill allowing the state to compensate James Richardson, who had been wrongfully sentenced to death and incarcerated for 21 years. In 1967, Richardson, who is black, was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury for the murder of his seven children. Many years later, a former babysitter confessed to the crime, prompting an investigation that revealed that witnesses had been beaten to convince them to falsely…

A recent New York Times editorial described the “horrific scene” of Clayton Lockett’s botched execution and called on Oklahoma to “[follow] other governors and legislatures in banning executions, recognizing that the American administration of death does not function.” The editors noted the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s temporary halt to the execution and pointed to political pressure as a possible explanation for why the Court then allowed it to go forward: “[S]everal lawmakers threatened to…

On May 7, the Constitution Project released a new report, Irreversible Error, calling for reforms in many aspects of the death penalty system. The Project’s Death Penalty Committee, which consists of renowned experts on capital punishment, made suggestions for reducing the risk of executing the innocent and improving the fairness of capital cases from arrest and interrogation, through prosecution and appeals, to the execution procedure itself. “Without substantial revisions — not only to lethal…

A recent survey by the Kinder Institute of Houston, Texas, found that more than two-thirds (69%) of area residents preferred alternative sentences over the death penalty, and that number is growing as the population becomes more diverse. The survey asked whether persons convicted of first-degree murder should receive a death sentence, life in prison without parole, or life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Only 28% of respondents chose the death penalty. Life without parole was the…

President Obama has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to review the application of the death penalty in the U.S. following the failed execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on April 29. The President noted concerns about innocence and racial bias: “In the application of the death penalty in this country, we have seen significant problems — racial bias, uneven application of the death penalty, you know, situations in which there were individuals on death row who later on were discovered to…

On April 30 Ohio Governor John Kasich commuted the death sentence of Arthur Tyler to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The decision followed a recommendation for clemency from Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty. Following a hearing on the case, the Ohio Parole Board recommended commutation of Tyler’s sentence to life with parole: six of the eleven members recommended immediate parole eligibility for Tyler, and the remaining five favored a sentence of 33 years to life, which…

Randy Workman (pictured) is a former warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, where he oversaw 32 executions. In a recent interview, he was critical of many aspects of capital punishment. He said the death penalty failed the victims’ families and wasted money: “We spend millions of dollars on these cases and going through the process and the end result is the family, do they feel vindicated? I’d say 90% of the time the people I’ve seen don’t.” He shared the advice he gave to a murder victim’s…