Publications & Testimony

On November 6, 2012, California​’s Proposition 34, an ini­tia­tive to replace the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out parole, was nar­row­ly defeat­ed by a vote of 53% to 47%. Although the result means the death penal­ty will con­tin­ue in the state, the per­cent of vot­ers sup­port­ing repeal rep­re­sents a dra­mat­ic shift away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The ref­er­en­dum, which indi­cat­ed just more than half of vot­ers are in favor of keep­ing the death penal­ty, fol­lows a broader trend…

UPDATE: Execution stayed by fed­er­al court on Nov. 8 to allow time for appeal. Pennsylvania is plan­ning to use drugs in an upcom­ing exe­cu­tion that are not reg­u­lat­ed by the fed­er­al Food and Drug Administration but rather are made to order by a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy. A com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy has been impli­cat­ed in the dead­ly menin­gi­tis out­break in the U.S. caused by con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed drugs. In Missouri, the Pharmacy Board test­ed claimed drug dosages from com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies from 2006…

Garry Allen is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Oklahoma on November 6, the third date set for him this year. Allen’s exe­cu­tion has been stayed repeat­ed­ly due to ques­tions about his men­tal com­pe­tence. He has been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia as well as demen­tia caused by seizures, drug abuse, and a gun­shot wound to his head sus­tained dur­ing his arrest. In 2008, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed that his death sen­tence be com­mut­ed by a 4 – 1 vote.

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Miami Herald applaud­ed a court deci­sion find­ing that the costs of rep­re­s­en­ing defen­dants in Florida death penal­ty cas­es should be kept sep­a­rate from the judges’ annu­al bud­get. A state judge held it would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to have judges mak­ing deci­sions about attor­neys’ fees when the mon­ey for such expens­es comes from the judges’ own resources. The edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed, ​“We depend on the court sys­tem to dis­pense jus­tice — peri­od. Not justice on…

On October 29, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a death penal­ty case from Texas to deter­mine whether inmates there can raise claims of inad­e­quate tri­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion in fed­er­al court if they were effec­tive­ly pre­vent­ed from rais­ing such a claim in their state appeal by the fur­ther fail­ure of their appel­late lawyers. Lower courts con­sid­er­ing this issue have held that an ear­li­er Supreme Court rul­ing, Martinez v. Ryan (2012), which pro­vid­ed such a…

On October 23, the United Nations’ spe­cial rap­por­teur on tor­ture, Juan Mendez, told a UN General Assembly human rights com­mit­tee that coun­tries around the world are increas­ing­ly view­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as a form of tor­ture because of the severe men­tal and phys­i­cal pain it inflicts on those sentenced to…

The lat­est edi­tion of the edu­ca­tion­al text, The Death Penalty in a Nutshell by Victor Streib, is now avail­able. Prof. Streib presents the sub­stan­tive and pro­ce­dur­al law of cap­i­tal cas­es, along with its rel­e­vant his­to­ry, jurispru­dence and con­sti­tu­tion­al appli­ca­tions. Streib also address­es inter­na­tion­al issues, the com­plex role of defense coun­sel, the risk of sys­temic bias, and the poten­tial exe­cu­tion of inno­cent defen­dants. This new edi­tion pro­vides an analysis of…

Conservative com­men­ta­tor Bill O’Reilly (pic­tured) of Fox News recent­ly endorsed California’s Proposition 34, the bal­lot ini­tia­tive that would replace the death penal­ty with life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. O’Reilly joined many con­ser­v­a­tive sup­port­ers of the mea­sure, includ­ing Ron Briggs, who led the cam­paign to rein­state California’s death penal­ty in 1978. In an op-ed about O’Reilly’s endorse­ment, Briggs dis­cussed the con­ser­v­a­tive argu­ment for repeal, calling the…

A new Los Angeles Times poll of reg­is­tered vot­ers in California showed a dra­mat­ic increase in sup­port of Proposition 34, a bal­lot mea­sure that would replace the death penal­ty with life with­out parole, sav­ing the state tens of mil­lions of dol­lars annu­al­ly. The sur­vey, con­duct­ed October 15 – 21, showed more respon­dents sup­port­ing repeal of the death penal­ty (45%) than those want­i­ng to keep it (42%) when they were giv­en infor­ma­tion about the measure’s…

The fam­i­ly of Cameron Todd Willingham announced they will peti­tion the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant him a posthu­mous par­don based on new evi­dence that has emerged since his exe­cu­tion in 2004. Willingham was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of his three chil­dren in a house­fire in 1991. At his tri­al, inves­ti­ga­tors tes­ti­fied that Willingham had inten­tion­al­ly set the fire, but lat­er devel­op­ments in the sci­ence of fire inves­ti­ga­tion have led…