Publications & Testimony

Progress towards global abolition of the death penalty continues with Zimbabwe’s end-2024 decision to nearly eliminate the practice, only preserving the right to impose death when the country is under a declared public emergency. Zimbabwe’s last execution was in 2005. The biennial United Nations General Assembly Resolution on a Moratorium on the Death Penalty, passed with a record 130 votes on December 17, 2024. Nine countries that had either abstained, voted against, or not voted in 2022…

No jury has ever learned about Aaron Gunches’ life history and experiences, nothing about his childhood, mental and physical health, or trauma — the mitigation evidence that the Supreme Court has said is essential to a constitutional death sentence. Arizona courts judged Mr. Gunches competent to represent himself in two separate trials for the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s husband, and he presented no defense in either proceeding. Jurors twice sentenced him to death. On December 30, Mr. Gunches…

On December 30, 2024, a military appeals court upheld a lower court ruling rejecting Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to throw out plea deals reached for three men charged in the September 11 terrorism attacks. The court affirmed Judge Colonel Matthew N. McCall’s ruling in November 2024 that the plea agreements reached in July 2024 are valid. Col. McCall stated at the time that he would proceed with the plea hearings. The three-panel court wrote that they “agree with the military judge…

On December 27, 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) completed a multi-year lethal injection protocol review and announced that instead of the previous three-drug cocktail, lethal injection executions will use a single-drug barbituate, pentobarbital. Ohio was the first state to use pentobarbital, in the March 2011 execution of Johnnie Roy Baston. State officials now use single drug protocols in 14 states, including Tennessee, as well as in…

On December 31, 2024, during his last day in office, outgoing North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper commuted the death sentences of 15 men on the state’s death row to life in prison without parole. “These reviews are among the most difficult decision a Governor can make and the death penalty is the most severe sentence that the state can impose,” said Gov. Cooper in a statement following the announcement of the commutations. “After thorough review, reflection, and prayer, I concluded that the…

On December 17, 2024, a bipartisan group of Texas legislators in the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence issued a new subpoena for death-sentenced Robert Roberson to testify in person on December 20 about the state’s junk science law, under which he failed to receive relief. Gretchen Sween, attorney for Mr. Roberson, said that he was “eager to testify and grateful for the chance to be heard.” But just two days after the issuance of the subpoena, and a day ahead of Mr. Roberson’s scheduled…

On December 13, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the August, 2024 dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to challenge, on First Amendment grounds, a South Carolina Department of Corrections’ (SCDC) policy that prohibits the publication of interviews between prisoners and the media or members of the public. In its decision, the Fourth Circuit cited to Houchins v. KQED, a 1978 Supreme Court ruling which held that the U.S. Constitution does not mandate “a right…

If Joseph Corcoran had been sentenced to death just a few miles to the east, across the border in Ohio instead of in Fort Wayne, Indiana, it’s likely that a court would have barred his execution. Ohio law prevents a person with a serious mental illness (SMI) at the time of their crime, defined as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or delusional disorder, from being put to death. Mr. Corcoran, who has a long history of paranoid schizophrenia diagnoses by at least five…

On December 12, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Michael James Jackson, who is challenging the constitutionality of Florida’s 2023 law that allows for non-unanimous jury death sentences. Mr. Jackson is represented by the ACLU, who argued that the Florida law is unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Ramos v. Louisiana, which struck down non-unanimous criminal convictions. According to the ACLU’s brief, Florida’s law has the same negative…