Publications & Testimony

In January, attor­neys gen­er­al from 13 states wrote a let­ter to Attorney General Eric Holder ask­ing for assis­tance from the U.S. Department of Justice relat­ed to the recent short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal for lethal injec­tions in the U.S. The state offi­cials, includ­ing those in Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee, asked for help in ​“iden­ti­fy­ing an appro­pri­ate source for sodi­um thiopen­tal or mak­ing sup­plies held by the Federal…

A diverse coali­tion of the nation’s lead­ing crim­i­nal jus­tice reform orga­ni­za­tions recent­ly released Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration and Congress. This analy­sis of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and the accom­pa­ny­ing set of rec­om­men­da­tions for change is one of the most com­pre­hen­sive reports ever pub­lished address­ing the prob­lems in this field. The Coalition of over 40 orga­ni­za­tions is coor­di­nat­ed by the Constitution Project and includes such groups…

On February 16, over 90 promi­nent reli­gious lead­ers from Texas called on the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry to grant clemen­cy to Timothy Adams (pic­tured). Adams is an army vet­er­an with no crim­i­nal his­to­ry pri­or to the day he killed his son while plan­ning his own sui­cide in 2002. Leaders from nine denom­i­na­tions announced their sup­port for clemen­cy, say­ing ​“We join the victim’s fam­i­ly in ask­ing that you spare Mr. Adams…

A nation­wide short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal, a key drug used in exe­cu­tions around the coun­try, has forced states to con­sid­er alter­na­tive drugs for their lethal injec­tions. Tennessee, where 86 inmates are fac­ing exe­cu­tion and sodi­um thiopen­tal is in short sup­ply, is con­sid­er­ing using pen­to­bar­bi­tal instead. Oklahoma has already exe­cut­ed three inmates using the new drug as part of a 3‑drug pro­to­col. The use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, how­ev­er, has drawn con­cerns from some…

On February 14, the Montana state Senate passed a bill that would repeal the death penal­ty and replace it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. In a 26 – 24 vote, all of the Senate’s Democrats and four Republicans sup­port­ed end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, mark­ing the sec­ond straight leg­isla­tive ses­sion for such a vote. Senator David Wanzenried, who intro­duced the bill, said that the death penal­ty is not a fair pun­ish­ment, does not bring clo­sure for vic­tims, or…

On February 9, more than two dozen fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims came to the Connecticut Capitol com­plex to urge law­mak­ers to repeal the death penal­ty because of its neg­a­tive impact on fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims. Seventy-six fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims signed a let­ter urg­ing law­mak­ers to end the death penal­ty. Gail Canzano, whose broth­er-in-law was mur­dered in 1999, said, ​“The death penal­ty ensnares peo­ple in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem where manda­to­ry appeals,…

The fam­i­ly of a man who was killed in Ohio recent­ly peti­tioned the parole board to com­mute the death sen­tence of the defen­dant in the mur­der. Peter Mah, son of Chong Hoon Mah, who was killed by Johnnie Baston (pic­tured) dur­ing a rob­bery in 1994, told the Ohio Parole Board, ​“I was opposed to Mr. Baston receiv­ing a death sen­tence at the time of his tri­al… [and] my fam­i­ly and I are opposed to Mr. Baston being exe­cut­ed.” During the tri­al, the fam­i­ly had filed…