Publications & Testimony

On January 16, Ohio carried out the first lethal injection in the U.S. using a new protocol, resulting in a lengthy and disruptive execution. Ohio employed a back-up procedure to execute Dennis McGuire, using midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller. Witnesses to the execution reported that McGuire snorted, gasped, and struggled during the execution, which took longer than usual for death to occur. Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School and lethal injection expert, said…

In an op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman, former Texas Governor Mark White called for a new hearing for Edgar Tamayo, a Mexican national scheduled for execution on January 22. Foreign nationals charged with crimes in the U.S. are entitled to assistance from their consulate under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, but Tamayo was denied that right. White joins U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the Mexican Foreign Minister in calling for hearings to determine whether assistance…

The Kansas Judicial Council, an advisory body to the legislature, released preliminary findings on the cost of the death penalty in preparation for legislative hearings on a repeal measure. The council found that state Supreme Court Justices spend 20 times more hours on death penalty appeals than on non-capital appeals; the Department of Corrections spends than twice as much ($49,380 versus $24,690) to house a death-row inmate per year as to house a general-population inmate; and capital cases…

Six retired judges in North Carolina urged the the state Supreme Court to uphold the rulings of a lower court that found racial bias in the use of the death peanlty. Former chief justices James Exum and Henry Frye, along with former judges Willis Whichard, Melzer Morgan, Wade Barber and Russell Walker filed a brief in support of inmates whose death sentences were reduced to life without parole in 2012 under the state’s Racial Justice Act. The Act allowed death row inmates to present statistical…

A recent editorial in the Montgomery Advertiser criticized a proposal by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange to speed up death penalty appeals. His proposed legislation would require two parts of the appeal process to essentially run concurrently. The editorial cautioned that lack of adequate representation for death penalty defendants would make the accelerated process more problematic. The paper concluded, “Anything that smacks of haste in capital punishment cases is inherently troubling.

On January 10, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost will consider a challenge to an execution procedure in Ohio that has never been used before in the country. Dennis McGuire is scheduled for execution on January 16, and his attorneys are arguing the new drugs could cause a very painful death, saying, “McGuire will experience the agony and terror of air hunger as he struggles to breathe for five minutes after [executioners] intravenously inject him with the execution drugs.” The new lethal…

Family members of murder victims gathered outside a courthouse in Castle Rock, Colorado, in support of Robert Autobee, whose son was murdered, but who opposes the death penalty for the perpetrator. Inside the courthouse, jury selection was underway in the trial of Edward Montour, who is accused of murdering correctional officer Eric Autobee (pictured), Robert’s son. Montour originally pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death, but his conviction was overturned, and he has pleaded not guilty by…

On January 7, the Boston Bar Association, representing more than 10,000 lawyers, released a statement opposing the use of the federal death penalty. The Association already had a longstanding position against the death penalty in state cases. Paul T. Dacier (pictured), the President of the Boston Bar, said, “Without equivocation, the death penalty has no place in the fair administration of justice and makes no sense on a practical level.” The organization’s new stance was based on a review of…

In a recent article in the Atlantic, Marc Bookman compared the path through the justice system of two co-defendants sentenced to death in Florida after committing murder in 1977. Beauford White was electrocuted in 1987, despite his trial jury voting 12 – 0 for a life sentence. The trial judge overrode that recommendation and imposed death. White’s co-defendant, John Ferguson, lived for another 26 years before being executed in 2013. His jury voted 12 – 0 for death. The foreman of White’s jury later…

Ronald George is a former Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, who regularly upheld death sentences. However, in his recent book, Chief: The Quest for Justice in California, he questioned the geographical disparities in the application of the death penalty in the state. In his chapter, “Reforming the Judicial System,” he wrote, “You could have the exact same crime, let’s say a straightforward street robbery homicide, result in the seeking of the death penalty in one part of the state…