Publications & Testimony

On July 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously affirmed a lower court ruling that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed to fulfill its duties under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) when it permitted without inspection the importation of foreign drugs for use in lethal injections. The Court concluded, “The FDCA imposes mandatory duties upon the agency charged with its enforcement. The FDA acted in derogation of those duties by permitting the…

Andrew Lackey is scheduled for execution in Alabama on July 25, despite suffering from mental illness his entire life. Lackey asked for an execution date, even though neither his state nor federal appeals have been completed. Despite extensive evidence of serious mental problems, the trial judge refused to order an expert competency evaluation, failed to inquire about medications he is taking and how they affect his mental state, and did not ask state officials about their diagnosis of Lackey’s…

On July 18, a Georgia Superior Court judge ruled that the state’s new law shielding the source of lethal injection drugs interfered with Warren Hill’s right to challenge his method of execution and is therefore probably unconstitutional. According to the law, information pertaining to drugs used in executions is classified as “confidential state secrets” and cannot be disclosed. Judge Gail S. Tusan said the law ” “To be executed without being aware of basic information regarding the protocols…

A Federal Bureau of Investigation review of more than 21,000 cases has revealed 27 death penalty cases in which the FBI’s forensic experts may have exaggerated the scientific conclusions that could be drawn from their testimony, mistakenly linking defendants to crimes they may not have committed. It is possible that some of these cases involve inmates who have already been executed. Under particular scrutiny is testimony regarding hair evidence. Although FBI laboratory reports have long stated…

The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released its annual review of the death penalty in the U.S., focusing on 2011. The report noted the continued decline in the use of the death penalty in recent years. In 2011, 80 new inmates were received under sentence of death, the lowest number since 1973, and a 27% decrease from the year before. Executions also declined to 43, compared with 46 in 2010. The average time between sentencing and execution in 2011 was 16.5 years, 20 months longer than…

A committee empaneled by the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court made three preliminary recommendations at its June meeting for reforming the state’s death penalty. The panel, which consists of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and academic experts, voted to recommend a reduction in the scope of crimes eligible for the death penalty, the creation of a statewide panel to decide on seeking a death sentence, and the enactment of a Racial Justice Act. The restriction of capital crimes…

UPDATE: Warren Hill was granted a stay of execution by a Georgia court just hours before his scheduled execution on July 15. A hearing is scheduled for July 18 to consider challenges to a new state law that shields the identity of the lethal injection drug’s manufacturer and the prescribing physician from the public. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 15, 2013). As a petition on behalf of Georgia death row inmate Warren Hill awaits consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court, the role of habeas…

On June 10, California announced it would no longer try to defend its current lethal injection protocol. In May, a court ruling invalidated the state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol because state officials failed to follow administrative rules in adopting the protocol. Governor Jerry Brown and other officials will instead proceed with developing a single-drug lethal injection protocol similar to those adopted recently in states like Ohio, Arizona, and Washington. California has the…

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel recently said the state’s death penalty system was “completely broken” and recommended it be abolished if the state’s execution method isn’t changed. McDaniel said, “It’s time for the policy makers of Arkansas to say, ‘Do we continue with a broken system and throwing money and resources at essentially pointless litigation, or do we modify the system?’ And there’s only really two modifications that I see available — it’s either abolish the death penalty…

In the first half of 2013, six states carried out 18 executions. In the same period last year, there were 23 executions in 8 states. The annual number of executions has declined significantly from its peak in 1999, when 98 people were put to death. There were 43 executions in 2011 and 2012. Sixteen of this year’s executions (89%) have been in the South, with nearly half in Texas (8). Eight of the defendants executed so far this year were black, and ten were white. Seventy-three percent (73%) of…