Publications & Testimony

An investigation by St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis Beacon found that the source of Missouri’s lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, is a compounding pharmacy in Oklahoma, not licensed to sell drugs in Missouri. Until very recently, compounding pharmacies have been regulated only by state pharmacy boards, not by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Thus, a pharmacy in Oklahoma may be held to different standards than one in Missouri. Ned Milenkovich, a pharmacist and attorney who…

As the new year begins, there are several notable events related to the death penalty likely to occur in the next few months. The first execution of the year is scheduled for January 7 in Florida. The execution of Askari Muhammad had originally been scheduled for December 3, 2013, but was stayed due to a challenge to the state’s new execution protocol. The Florida Supreme Court approved the new protocol, and the execution was rescheduled, though legal challenges are continuing in federal court.

Some legal and psychiatric experts have concluded that veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder should be ineligible for execution. In an article in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, mental health experts Drs. Hal Wortzel and David Arciniegas wrote, “The tragedy of the wounded combat veteran who faces execution by the nation he has served seems to be an avoidable one, and we, as a society, should take action to ensure that it does not happen.” A 2008 study by…

In a recent op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal, the president of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association discussed the high costs of the federal death penalty. In particular, Barbara Mandel detailed the expenses involved in the recent federal trial of John McCluskey. He was sentenced to life without parole, an outcome that Mandel wrote, “occurred years and at least a million dollars later than it should have.” According to the op-ed, McCluskey had been willing to plead guilty in…

Mexican foreign minister José Antonio Meade Kuribreña recently sent letters to Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles requesting that the execution of Edgar Arias Tamayo, a Mexican citizen, be postponed or commuted. Tamayo is currently on death row in Texas and is scheduled for execution for on January 22, 2014. In 2004, the International Court of Justice ordered the U.S. to review the convictions of Tamayo and 50 other Mexican citizens who had been sentenced to…

National and local media have focused significant attention on DPIC’s recent 2013 Year End Report. Coverage has included pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, CNN, on the wires of the Associated Press and Reuters, and in hundreds of other articles and editorials. Papers highlighted the main theme of the report, which showed a continuing decline in the use of the death penalty around the country. The New York Times quoted…

Jeffrey Toobin, writing in The New Yorker, used the current scramble among states to procure the drugs for lethal injections as a paradigm of the much longer effort to make the death penalty palatable to the American public. “The story of the death penalty in this country,” he wrote, “illustrates a characteristically American faith in a technological solution to any problem.” However, Toobin concluded, technology can not cover up the broader problems of capital punishment: “The oxymoronic quest…

(“The Death Penalty in 2013: Year End Report,” DPIC, December 19, 2013). See DPIC’s Press Release. View a video summarizing the report. See other DPIC Reports.

A new report from Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights collects the stories of families who have had a loved one murdered who was in law enforcement. The families discuss the pressure they faced to demand the death penalty as punishment, their efforts to prevent more violence, and their evolving views on the death penalty. Kathy Dillon, whose father was murdered in 1974 while on duty as a New York State Trooper, said, “[I]n the case of my father’s murder, the death penalty was in place in…

As an anesthesiologist, Dr. Joel Zivot applied some of the same drugs in operating rooms as are used in executions in the U.S. He admired their life-saving qualities for patients, but bridled at their use in taking lives. Writing recently in USA Today, he cautioned against this “poisonous” use of medicines, saying, “States may choose to execute their citizens, but when they employ lethal injection, they are not practicing medicine. They are usurping the tools and arts of the medical trade and…