Publications & Testimony

On October 23, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a last-minute fed­er­al appeals court stay-of-exe­cu­­tion for John Ferguson. Ferguson had been sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed ear­li­er that day, but his lawyers filed a series of motions argu­ing he was men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. In September, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Ferguson’s death war­rant for October 16, but allowed time for a men­tal com­pe­ten­cy exam­i­na­tion. A series of stays and reversals…

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On October 17, the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, a state agency that enforces civ­il rights, unan­i­mous­ly passed a res­o­lu­tion in favor of end­ing the death penal­ty. The Commission urged the Kentucky General Assembly to repeal the death penal­ty and Governor Steven Beshear to sign any such leg­is­la­tion that is brought before him. The res­o­lu­tion under­scored the unfair­ness of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment: “[S]tatistics con­firm that the impo­si­tion of the death…

A new book by Professor Robert Bohm of the University of Central Florida looks at death-penal­­ty deci­sions by the U.S. Supreme Court pri­or to the mod­ern era of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment that began in 1968. In The Past As Prologue, Bohm exam­ines 39 Court deci­sions, cov­er­ing issues such as clemen­cy, jury selec­tion, coerced con­fes­sions, and effec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion. These ear­ly deci­sions have shaped mod­ern rul­ings on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and the book…

George Gascon served for 30 years as a police offi­cer, includ­ing as a police chief in Arizona and California. He is cur­rent­ly the District Attorney of San Francisco. Although he for­mer­ly sup­port­ed the death penal­ty, he now believes it should be replaced with life with­out parole. In a recent op-ed in the Sacramento Bee, Gascon wrote:​“I have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to observe and par­tic­i­pate in the devel­op­ment and implementation of…

On October 12, Tennessee Judge James Beasley Jr. (pic­tured) over­turned the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of Michael Rimmer because crit­i­cal evi­dence, not pre­sent­ed at his tri­al, throws doubt on Rimmer’s guilt. The court ruled that Rimmer’s​“over­bur­dened” tri­al lawyers repeat­ed­ly failed to uncov­er evi­dence that two oth­er men were seen at the vic­tim’s last loca­tion around the time of her dis­ap­pear­ance, and both had blood on their hands.

On October 12, Judge David Glant (state Circuit Court) reject­ed a request from attor­neys for Florida death row inmate John Ferguson (pic­tured) to halt his exe­cu­tion, despite acknowl­edg­ing that Ferguson has severe men­tal ill­ness. The judge wrote that Ferguson’s​“doc­u­ment­ed his­to­ry of para­noid schiz­o­phre­nia” was​“cred­i­ble and com­pelling,” and that​“it is inconceivable”…

Survivor on Death Row, a new e‑book co-authored by death row inmate Romell Broom and Clare Nonhebel, tells the sto­ry of Ohio​’s botched attempt to exe­cute Broom by lethal injec­tion in 2009. In September of that year, Broom was read­ied for exe­cu­tion and placed on the gur­ney, but the pro­ce­dure was ter­mi­nat­ed after cor­rec­tions offi­cials spent over two hours attempt­ing to find a suit­able vein for the lethal injec­tion. Broom was removed…

UPDATE: The U.S. Court of Appeals over­turned the stay of exe­cu­tion and Green was exe­cut­ed on Oct. 10. Earlier: Jonathan Green was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Texas on October 10, but a fed­er­al judge issued a stay because the state did not afford him due process in exam­in­ing his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy. U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Atlas said,​“It is clear from the record that, at a min­i­mum, the…

A news­pa­per’s inves­ti­ga­tion into the costs of the death penal­ty in Florida revealed the state is spend­ing as much as $1 mil­lion per inmate just for incar­cer­a­tion and appel­late costs. Trial costs would add sub­stan­tial­ly to the state’s total. Florida has over 400 inmates on death row. For exam­ple, keep­ing J.B. Parker under the spe­cial secu­ri­ty of death row for 29 years has cost tax­pay­ers $688,000; his appeals cost $296,000, for a total of $984,000. The…