Publications & Testimony

A recent arti­cle by Alec Baldwin (pic­tured) in the Huffington Post offered the actor’s reflec­tions on the exe­cu­tion of Troy Davis in Georgia. Baldwin said that his posi­tion on the death penal­ty​“has lit­tle to do with oppo­si­tion to any​‘eye for an eye’ sen­ti­ments,” but instead,​“It has to do specif­i­cal­ly with the mis­ap­pli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in terms of race, in terms of the poten­cy of court-appoint­ed coun­sel and in terms of the…

In response to the exe­cu­tions of Troy Davis and Lawrence Brewer on September 21, over 150 Catholic the­olo­gians have signed a state­ment call­ing for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in United States. The the­olo­gians stat­ed: “[W]e oppose the death penal­ty, whether a per­son on death row is guilty or inno­cent, on both the­o­log­i­cal and prac­ti­cal grounds. While we espe­cial­ly deplore and lament the killing of Troy Davis, we also decry the death sentences of…

On September 26, Ohio Governor John Kasich (pic­tured) grant­ed clemen­cy to Joseph Murphy, com­mut­ing his death sen­tence to life with­out parole, cit­ing the defen­dan­t’s hor­rif­ic child­hood. Murphy was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on October 18. The Ohio Parole Board had unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed spar­ing Murphy’s life, cit­ing evi­dence from Murphy’s child­hood that indi­cat­ed he was beat­en, starved and sex­u­al­ly abused. The…

The lead edi­to­r­i­al in the New York Times on September 26 called for an end to the death penal­ty because, the edi­tors said, it can­not be made to com­ply with the U.S. Constitution. The edi­toral reviewed the 35-year his­to­ry since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976 and con­clud­ed,​“The death penal­ty is grotesque and immoral and should be repealed.” The paper point­ed to the recent case of Troy Davis, who was exe­cut­ed on September…

In response to the exe­cu­tions of Troy Davis and Lawrence Brewer on September 21, over 150 Catholic the­olo­gians have signed a state­ment call­ing for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in United States. The the­olo­gians stat­ed: “[W]e oppose the death penal­ty, whether a per­son on death row is guilty or inno­cent, on both the­o­log­i­cal and prac­ti­cal grounds. While we espe­cial­ly deplore and lament the killing of Troy Davis, we also decry the death sen­tences of the more than…

On September 22, Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson (pic­tured l. to r.) were exon­er­at­ed of mur­der and freed from prison in North Carolina after a spe­cial com­mis­sion ruled they were inno­cent. The two men spent a decade in prison after plead­ing guilty to sec­ond-degree mur­der. They have con­sis­tent­ly main­tained their inno­cence, claim­ing that they only pled guilty because they were threat­ened with the death penal­ty and feared execution.

Despite being found guilty of eight mur­ders of most­ly elder­ly peo­ple and the pros­e­cu­tion seek­ing the death penal­ty, a North Carolina jury recent­ly con­vict­ed Robert Stewart of sec­ond degree mur­der, there­by avoid­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a death sen­tence. On September 5, he was sen­tenced to prison for over 100 years. Stewart had gone on a shoot­ing spree at a Carthage nurs­ing home in 2009, appar­ent­ly under the influ­ence of alcohol and…

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…

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…

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…