Publications & Testimony

Lundbeck Inc., a com­pa­ny based in Denmark and the sole U.S. man­u­fac­tur­er of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, a new drug select­ed by Ohio and Oklahoma for their lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols, has request­ed that states not use the drug to exe­cute inmates. The com­pa­ny recent­ly announced that their drug was nev­er intend­ed to be used in exe­cu­tions. A spokes­woman for the com­pa­ny said, ​“This goes against every­thing we’re in busi­ness to do. We like to devel­op and make available…

Terry Collins, for­mer direc­tor of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, recent­ly urged the state to replace cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment with life in prison with­out parole. In an op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch, Collins said he per­son­al­ly observed the exe­cu­tion of 33 men from 2001 to 2010, and ques­tioned whether it was the right thing to do all 33 times: ​“Had all the reviews and appeals got this case right? Did the process make certain,…

A recent study con­duct­ed by Professors Glenn Pierce and Michael Radelet pub­lished in the Lousiana Law Review showed that the odds of a death sen­tence in parts of Louisiana were 2.6 times high­er for those charged with killing a white vic­tim than for those charged with killing a black vic­tim. The study exam­ined 191 homi­cides in East Baton Rouge Parish between 1990 and 2008 involv­ing a charge of first-degree mur­der. Even after con­sid­er­ing oth­er vari­ables such as the…

Although the death penal­ty is often described as being reserved for the ​“worst of the worst” offend­ers, in prac­tice defen­dants respon­si­ble for many mur­ders are often spared while those who com­mit­ted arguably less­er offens­es are exe­cut­ed. Oscar Veal was a con­tract killer for a large drug ring and mur­der-for-hire oper­a­tion. He was con­vict­ed of sev­en counts of mur­der and eight counts of rack­e­teer­ing con­spir­a­cy. However, in exchange for tes­ti­mo­ny about a drug orga­ni­za­tion in…

Police Chief Charles A. Gruber of St. Charles, Illinois, a 40-year vet­er­an of law enforce­ment, recent­ly stat­ed that ​“the death penal­ty does noth­ing to keep us safe,” and should be abol­ished. Chief Gruber served as pres­i­dent of both the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He worked with nation­al orga­ni­za­tions for over a decade to devise reforms to make the death…