Publications & Testimony

On December 20, the European Commission announced tough new restric­tions on the export of drugs that could be used for exe­cu­tions in the United States. The EC added pen­to­bar­bi­tal and sodi­um thiopen­tal — two drugs on which almost all American exe­cu­tions cur­rent­ly depend — to its list of restrict­ed prod­ucts that are tight­ly con­trolled on the grounds that they may be used for cru­el and inhu­man treat­ment or pun­ish­ment. ​“The deci­sion today con­tributes to the wider EU efforts to…

On December 16, Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D’Opal reject­ed California​’s new lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols because cor­rec­tions offi­cials failed to con­sid­er a one-drug exe­cu­tion method now in prac­tice in oth­er states. Judge D’Opal also crit­i­cized the state for ignor­ing require­ments of the law regard­ing the revi­sion of offi­cial pro­ce­dures. A fed­er­al court has also imposed a stay of exe­cu­tions while it is review­ing the state’s 3‑drug lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures. In 2006,…

On December 14, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer (pic­tured) tes­ti­fied before the state’s House Criminal Justice Committee, urg­ing law­mak­ers to over­turn the death penal­ty law he helped write as a state sen­a­tor 30 years…

On December 15 an Illinois appel­late court reversed Juan Rivera​’s (pic­tured) con­vic­tion for a mur­der com­mit­ted almost 20 years ago. The case is rem­i­nis­cent of many in Illinois that led to the state’s abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in 2011. Rivera was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to life in prison for killing 11-year-old Holly Staker based on a con­fes­sion after near­ly 24 hours of near-con­stant inter­ro­ga­tion. No phys­i­cal evi­dence or wit­ness­es con­clu­sive­ly linked him…

On December 15, the Death Penalty Information Center released its lat­est report, ​“The Death Penalty in 2011: Year End Report,” on sta­tis­tics and trends in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the past year. The report not­ed that new death sen­tences dropped to 78 in 2011, mark­ing the first time since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1976 that the coun­try has pro­duced less than 100 death sen­tences in a year. It rep­re­sents a 75% decline since 1996, when there were…

North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue vetoed the bill that would have repealed the state’s Racial Justice Act that was passed in 2009. The Act allows death row inmates to appeal their death sen­tences based on sta­tis­ti­cal stud­ies show­ing racial bias. In issu­ing the veto, the gov­er­nor, who sup­ports the death penal­ty, said, ​“I am veto­ing Senate Bill 9 for the same rea­son that I signed the Racial Justice Act two years ago: it is sim­ply unac­cept­able for racial prej­u­dice to play a…

In a recent op-ed in Oregon’s Statesman Journal, for­mer Texas Governor Mark White (pic­tured) applaud­ed Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber​’s deci­sion to grant a reprieve to death row inmate Gary Haugen and to halt all exe­cu­tions in the state. Governor White wrote, ​“I think Kitzhaber’s deci­sion is respectable and coura­geous. In Oregon, as in Texas, it is clear­ly with­in the con­sti­tu­tion­al author­i­ty of the gov­er­nor to grant reprieves and com­mu­ta­tions. With…

The fourth edi­tion of Robert Bohm’s ​“Deathquest: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Capital Punishment in the United States,” is now avail­able through Anderson Publishing. The new edi­tion is updat­ed with dis­cus­sion of the lat­est research on the effec­tive­ness of the death penal­ty, the poten­tial for dis­crim­i­na­to­ry appli­ca­tion, costs, and new data on mis­car­riages of jus­tice, pub­lic opin­ion, and the influ­ences of reli­gion. This text­book includes two new chap­ters on…

On December 7, the American Bar Association released a report assess­ing Kentucky​’s sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and call­ing for a halt to exe­cu­tions in the state. The report was pre­pared by the Kentucky Assessment Team on the Death Penalty, which includ­ed law pro­fes­sors, for­mer state supreme court jus­tices, and prac­tic­ing attor­neys. The two-year study rec­om­mend­ed that the state tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend exe­cu­tions until seri­ous issues of fair­ness and accu­ra­cy are…