Publications & Testimony

Family mem­bers of James Anderson (pic­tured), who was killed on June 26 in Jackson, Mississippi, are ask­ing the District Attorney not to seek the death penal­ty for Anderson’s killer. Deryl Dedmon, a white teenag­er, was charged with Anderson’s mur­der after he and oth­er white teens took turns beat­ing him. Dedmon then drove over Anderson with a truck. Barbara Anderson Young, the vic­tim’s sis­ter, wrote a let­ter to the D.A. on behalf of their moth­er and two…

Desert Storm vet­er­an Cleve Foster (pic­tured), who faced exe­cu­tion in Texas for the third time this year for a mur­der near­ly a decade ago, was grant­ed anoth­er stay by the U.S. Supreme Court on September 20. The Supreme Court stopped Foster’s exe­cu­tion twice before in 2011. In January, six hours before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion, the Justices grant­ed a reprieve to allow them more time to con­sid­er his appeal. In April, the Court again halt­ed his…

After a hear­ing on September 19, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemen­cy to Troy Davis who is fac­ing exe­cu­tion on September 21, despite pre­sen­ta­tion of tes­ti­mo­ny cast­ing doubt on his guilt. Brian Kammer, one of Davis’s attor­neys, said, ​“I am utter­ly shocked and dis­ap­point­ed at the fail­ure of our jus­tice sys­tem at all lev­els to cor­rect a mis­car­riage of jus­tice.” Davis’s claims of inno­cence have received inter­na­tion­al atten­tion, and calls for…

In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Daily News, Don Heller (pic­tured), a Republican, for­mer pros­e­cu­tor, and the author of the 1978 bal­lot ini­tia­tive that rein­stat­ed California​’s death penal­ty, voiced his sup­port for replac­ing the death penal­ty with life with­out parole. ​“It makes no sense to prop up such a failed sys­tem,” he wrote. He urged California vot­ers to sup­port a new bal­lot ini­tia­tive that would abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty, cit­ing the…

William S. Sessions, the for­mer direc­tor of the FBI and a for­mer fed­er­al judge and pros­e­cu­tor, recent­ly wrote an op-ed call­ing for the com­mu­ta­tion of Troy Davis​’s death sen­tence to life in prison with­out parole. Writing in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Sessions said that ​“seri­ous ques­tions about Davis’ guilt, high­light­ed by wit­ness recan­ta­tions, alle­ga­tions of police coer­cion and a lack of rel­e­vant physical…

The Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Maureen O’Connor, has ini­ti­at­ed a review of the state’s death penal­ty to deter­mine if changes should be made and ask­ing, ​“Is the sys­tem we have the best we can do?” To con­duct the study, Justice O’Connor called for a 20-per­son com­mit­tee of judges, pros­e­cut­ing attor­neys, crim­i­nal defense lawyers, law­mak­ers and aca­d­e­m­ic experts con­vened by the state’s Supreme Court and the Ohio State Bar Association. She stat­ed the review ​“will make…

Retired Alabama Judge Loyd Little (pic­tured) recent­ly changed his mind about a death sen­tence he imposed on Derrick Mason in 1995 for a mur­der dur­ing a con­ve­nience store rob­bery. Mason is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on September 22. Judge Little wrote a let­ter to be sub­mit­ted to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley request­ing that Mason’s sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life in prison with­out parole. The judge explained the change in his think­ing: ​“Years of expe­ri­ence and…

Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis will have a third clemen­cy hear­ing before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on September 19, two days before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion. The hear­ing will allow Davis to present wit­ness­es the Board did not hear from in pri­or hear­ings as well as ​“renewed claims of inno­cence” regard­ing his con­vic­tion for killing Savannah police offi­cer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989. Doubts about Davis’ guilt were raised when some prosecution…

Linda Geffin (pic­tured) was one of the Texas pros­e­cu­tors who won a con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for Duane Buck in 1997. She is now the divi­sion chief of the Special Prosecutions Unit in the Office of the Harris County Attorney, and she is urg­ing Gov. Rick Perry and oth­er state offi­cials to stop Buck’s September 15 exe­cu­tion because improp­er race evi­dence was put before the jury con­sid­er­ing his sen­tence. In a let­ter to state offi­cials, Geffin…