Publications & Testimony

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,…

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…

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…

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…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Baltimore Sun urged Gov. Martin O’Malley to work toward repeal­ing the death penal­ty in Maryland. The paper sug­gest­ed that changes in the com­po­si­tion of the state Senate might make the General Assembly more recep­tive to end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. There have also been con­cerns raised about lethal injec­tions on the the state and nation­al lev­el. But it was the fun­da­men­tal unfair­ness and high costs of the…

A group of over 60 for­mer state and fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors, judges, and oth­er law enforce­ment offi­cials recent­ly wrote to Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois urg­ing him to sign the bill passed by the General Assembly to repeal the death penal­ty. The law would also trans­fer state funds used for the death penal­ty to a fund for mur­der vic­tims’ ser­vices and law enforce­ment work. The group cit­ed the death penal­ty’s inef­fec­tive­ness in deterring…

A new study by William Bowers and oth­ers pub­lished in the Criminal Law Bulletin revealed that most jurors in death penal­ty cas­es lack suf­fi­cient under­stand­ing of their duties, ren­der­ing the process uncon­sti­tu­tion­al by Supreme Court stan­dards. The study showed that cap­i­tal jurors often mis­tak­en­ly believe that a death sen­tence is required by law, and fail to take pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty for the defen­dan­t’s pun­ish­ment. The study suggested…

On February 7, attor­neys for Tim Adams (pic­tured) filed a peti­tion for clemen­cy urg­ing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to rec­om­mend spar­ing Adams’ life and to ask Governor Rick Perry to com­mute his death sen­tence to life in prison with­out parole. Adams, an army vet­er­an with no crim­i­nal his­to­ry, killed his son while plan­ning his own sui­cide in 2002. He plead­ed guilty and has tak­en respon­si­bil­i­ty for his actions.

On February 1, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D‑Vermont) intro­duced leg­is­la­tion (S. 250) that would reau­tho­rize the Justice for All Act. The Act, first passed in 2004, pro­vid­ed impor­tant tools and assis­tance to help state and local gov­ern­ments use DNA evi­dence to con­vict the guilty and exon­er­ate the inno­cent. It also bol­stered crime vic­tim sup­port ser­vices. If re-autho­rized, the Justice for All Act would direct more resources…

On February 2, the nation­al law firm of Sidley Austin LLP filed a suit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in fed­er­al court on behalf of six death row inmates from Arizona, California, and Tennessee. The suit seeks to com­pel the FDA to bar the impor­ta­tion or use of unap­proved sodi­um thiopen­tal, a drug used by most states in lethal injec­tions, but no longer avail­able in the U.S. The plain­tiff’s brief states that,…