Publications & Testimony

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…

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…

Mike Thomas, colum­nist for the Orlando Sentinel in Florida, recent­ly exam­ined the arbi­trari­ness of the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem.​“There is no rhyme or rea­son here,” he wrote.​“A gov­er­nor’s deci­sion on whose death war­rant to sign, as well as a judge’s deci­sion on which appeal to accept, are about as arbi­trary as a pros­e­cu­tor’s deci­sion to pur­sue the death penal­ty. We spend an esti­mat­ed $51 mil­lion annu­al­ly on this non­sense, and for our…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Of the 16 death sen­tences that have been imposed since the U.S. mil­i­tary made sig­nif­i­cant changes to its death penal­ty sys­tem in 1984, 10 have been over­turned and all the defen­dants were resen­tenced to life. There have been no exe­cu­tions, and the 6 remain­ing cas­es are still under appeal. Military appel­late courts over­turned the sen­tences because of mis­takes made at many lev­els of the mil­i­tary’s judi­cial sys­tem, includ­ing inadequate defense…

Karil Klingbeil, whose sis­ter was mur­dered 30 years ago in Washington, recent­ly wrote an op-ed in the Seattle Times regard­ing the emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal impact that seek­ing the death penal­ty can have on vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends. Klingbeil, a for­mer direc­tor of social work at Harborview Medical Center, was ini­tial­ly in favor of the death penal­ty for her sister’s killer, Mitchell Rupe. Over the years, how­ev­er, she…

The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund​’s​“Death Row USA” showed a slight increase of 9 inmates in the death row pop­u­la­tion in the United States between October 1, 2010 and January 1, 2011. However, death row is still sig­nif­i­cant­ly small­er now (3,251 inmates) than in 2000 (3,682 inmates). The size of death row also declined over­all in 2010. The size of death row is affect­ed by the num­ber of death sen­tences and the num­ber of executions.