Publications & Testimony

A recent study by David McCord, Professor of Law at Drake University Law School, titled What’s Messing with Texas Death Sentences?, found five sig­nif­i­cant caus­es for the recent decline in death sen­tences in Texas. McCord sought to explain a 65% drop in Texas death sen­tences from their peak five-year peri­od of 1992 – 1996 (when there was an annu­al aver­age of 40 death sen­tences) to the recent five-year peri­od of 2005 – 2009…

Bob Van Steenburg (pic­tured), served for 27 years in the mil­i­tary and retired as a United States Army Colonel in 1991. He cur­rent­ly serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. On Veterans Day, he reflect­ed on how his oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty grew from his com­mit­ments as a sol­dier. He wrote,​“A sol­dier stands for more than just him or her­self. A sol­dier stands for the nation and…

The Texas Forensic Science Commission recent­ly closed its inquiry into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham (pic­tured), who was exe­cut­ed in Texas in 2004. The Commission was told by the Texas Attorney General that it did not have juris­dic­tion to rule on the Willingham case. Hence, in its final report on October 28 on the mat­ter, it declined to issue any find­ing regard­ing alle­ga­tions of neg­li­gence or mis­con­duct by the City of Corsicana or the…

A new arti­cle to be pub­lished in the American Criminal Law Review explores the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of felony mur­der, i.e., those who par­tic­i­pat­ed in a seri­ous crime in which a death occurred, but were not direct­ly respon­si­ble for the death. The arti­cle is by Joseph Trigilio and Tracy Casadio, both Deputy Federal Public Defenders in California and is titled ​“Executing Those Who Do Not Kill.” The authors…

In a new doc­u­men­tary, titled Into the Abyss: A Tale of Life, A Tale of Death, renowned doc­u­men­tar­i­an Werner Herzog (pic­tured) exam­ines the case of a triple homi­cide in Conroe, Texas, explor­ing why peo­ple kill and why states car­ry out exe­cu­tions. The film fea­tures inti­mate con­ver­sa­tions with many of those involved in the case, includ­ing 28-year-old death row inmate Michael Perry, who was exe­cut­ed shortly after…

On November 7, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant review to Texas inmate Duane Buck. Buck sought a new sen­tenc­ing tri­al because of tes­ti­mo­ny sug­gest­ing he posed a greater dan­ger to soci­ety because he is black. During his tri­al, psy­chol­o­gist Dr. Walter Quijano told the court that Buck’s race increased the like­li­hood of his future dan­ger­ous­ness. Three of the Justices on the Court (Alito, Scalia and Breyer), which had…

John Garvey (pic­tured), pres­i­dent of the Catholic University of America, recent­ly dis­cussed the evo­lu­tion of Catholic teach­ing on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Garvey said that while ear­ly Catholic Church lead­ers sup­port­ed the use of the death penal­ty, the pre­vail­ing con­tem­po­rary teach­ing on the sub­ject clear­ly calls for​“con­dem­na­tion of exe­cu­tions.” Reflecting on the recent exe­cu­tions of Lawrence Brewer in Texas and…

For some Supreme Court Justices and inter­na­tion­al courts, the exten­sive time that many inmates spend on U.S. death rows has raised con­cerns about cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. In a recent dis­sent regard­ing the exe­cu­tion of Manuel Valle in Florida, Justice Stephen Breyer argued that Valle should not be exe­cut­ed because the 33 years he already spent on death row amount­ed to a vio­la­tion of the Eighth Amendment. In an ear­li­er dis­sent in 1999, Justice Breyer…

William Sessions (pic­tured), the for­mer Director of the FBI, and Mark White, for­mer Governor of Texas, called on Texas to delay the November 9 exe­cu­tion of Hank Skinner and allow access to untest­ed DNA evi­dence. Skinner, who has always main­tained his inno­cence, has repeat­ed­ly peti­tioned for test­ing of sev­er­al items from the crime scene that con­tain DNA. The items — a windbreaker jacket…

The U.S. Attorney for Western New York has filed more poten­tial fed­er­al death penal­ty cas­es than most of his col­leagues across the coun­try. Since tak­ing office in March 2010, William J. Hochul, Jr. has peti­tioned the Justice Department to seek the death penal­ty against 24 peo­ple, more than his coun­ter­parts in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Miami or cities in Texas. Only two oth­er fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors, both from more pop­u­lous districts than…