Publications & Testimony

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…

This Fall the Culture Project is host­ing a lim­it­ed engage­ment of its award-win­ning pro­duc­tion, The Exonerated. The play is a ground­break­ing drama­ti­za­tion of the real-life sto­ries of six death row inmates who were freed after being cleared of their cap­i­tal charge. The pro­duc­tion, which pre­miered a decade ago and trav­eled the coun­try, is culled from inter­views, let­ters, tran­scripts, case files, and court records. Former U.S. Attorney General…

A recent arti­cle by Professors Brian D. Shannon (pic­tured) of Texas Tech and Victor R. Scarano of the University of Houston exam­ines the eth­i­cal impli­ca­tions of forcibly med­icat­ing men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent death-row inmates in order to pre­pare them for exe­cu­tion. According to the authors, this issue, par­tic­u­lary in Texas, pits ​“the eth­i­cal duties of the med­ical and legal pro­fes­sions in oppo­si­tion and casts a shad­ow over the legit­i­mate and appro­pri­ate inten­tions and professional…

A new report by Rob Warden (pic­tured), Executive Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, explores the con­di­tions that led to the end of Illinois​’s death penal­ty in 2011. Warden says abo­li­tion came about because of a series of for­tu­itous cir­cum­stances, but also because of the work of count­less attor­neys, aca­d­e­mics, jour­nal­ists and activists who took advan­tage of these devel­op­ments. The cav­al­cade of exon­er­a­tions from death row, includ­ing the high-profile…

Several cas­es in California illus­trate the inher­ent risk with the death penal­ty that an inno­cent per­son could be exe­cut­ed. Lee Farmer was freed from death row in 1999 after win­ning a new tri­al based on new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence that an accom­plice admit­ted to the crime for which he faced exe­cu­tion. Farmer was acquit­ted of mur­der at his retri­al. Troy Lee Jones (pic­tured) was sen­tenced to death even though there were no eye­wit­ness­es to the…