Publications & Testimony

On June 1, former Tennessee death row inmate Erskine Johnson (pictured; now known as Ndume Olatushani) was freed after serving nearly 27 years in prison, 19 of which were spent on death row. Johnson, who maintained his innocence throughout the process, was sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of a grocer in Memphis. In 2004, he was resentenced to life in prison after the state Supreme Court found that prosecutors did not disclose important information to the defense. In December 2011, Johnson…

A recent editorial in the New York Times called for greater attention to be paid by courts to inmates on death row with severe mental illness: “The death penalty system fails to take adequate account of severe mental illness, whether at trial, at sentencing or in postconviction proceedings,” the paper wrote. The editorial praised Governor John Kasich of Ohio for granting a two-week reprieve to Abdul Awkal on June 5 just prior to his scheduled execution. However, the Times said the the Ohio…

On May 29, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Eduardo Santiago, one of eleven men who remained on the state’s death row despite the recent abolition of the death penalty for future crimes. Justice Lubbie Harper, Jr., (pictured) agreed with the majority’s reasoning and conclusions about Santiago, but also came to the conclusion that the state’s death penalty as applied to those still on death row is unconstitutional. Justice Harper wrote, “It is clear to me both that…

A recent issue of The Angolite, a magazine published by prison inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, highlights the story of Joe Arridy, who was executed in 1939 in Colorado. Arridy was sentenced to death in 1937 for the murder and sexual assault of a teenage girl. After his execution, facts pointing to Arridy’s innocence gradually emerged. New evidence showed that he had been coerced into giving a false confession, that he was not in town at the time of the crime, and that…

A recent article in the Justice Quarterly by Professor James Acker (pictured) and Rose Bellandi of the University at Albany, New York, examined whether there is an irreconcilable conflict between recent reforms to prevent the execution of the innocent and the traditional goals of capital punishment. The authors studied recent changes to Maryland’s death penalty statute that were designed to reduce the risk of wrongful executions while trying to maintain the death penalty for the most heinous…

In a June 1 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Columbia University law professor James Liebman (pictured) pointed to his recent investigation of a likely innocent man executed in Texas to illustrate the danger of a “cheaper and quicker” death penalty. Such proposals for reform are “a terrible and dangerous idea,” Liebman said. Based on his research into the prosecution of Carlos DeLuna, who was executed in 1989, DeLuna’s case “flew through the courts.” He was arrested and executed within six…

Gallup recently released its Values and Beliefs survey regarding American moral views on a variety of social issues. The results revealed a significant decline in the percentage of the public that finds the death penalty “morally acceptable.” This year, only 58% of respondents said the death penalty is morally acceptable, down from 65% last year. (Click on graph to enlarge.) This marks the lowest approval rating for capital punishment since this survey was first administered 12 years ago. Among…

UPDATE2: Awkal was given a two-week stay by Gov. Kasich to allow time for a mental competency determination. Abdul Awkal (pictured) is scheduled to be executed in Ohio on June 6, despite evidence of his severe mental illness. Awkal lived through 8 years of a civil war in Lebanon, his home country, before escaping to Michigan. He was sentenced to death for murdering his estranged wife and brother-in-law in 1992. There were indications he was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. At one…