Publications & Testimony

Ron McAndrew, a for­mer war­den who over­saw exe­cu­tions on Florida​’s death row, recent­ly tes­ti­fied at a New Hampshire hear­ing regard­ing the trau­ma prison staff endure dur­ing an exe­cu­tion. McAndrew said, ​“Many col­leagues turned to drugs and alco­hol from the pain of know­ing a man had died at their hands. And I’ve been haunt­ed by the men I was asked to exe­cute in the name of the state of Florida.” The New Hampshire hear­ing was con­duct­ed by a…

In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that his admin­is­tra­tion plans to bor­row over $64 mil­lion from the state’s gen­er­al fund for the con­struc­tion of a new death row at San Quentin. At the same time, the governor’s lawyers have recent­ly sought approval from the courts to fur­lough state work­ers and reduce their pay. Teachers, police offi­cers and fire­fight­ers are los­ing jobs because of the bud­get cri­sis. The gov­er­nor also plans…

Although the num­ber of exe­cu­tions in Ohio in the past two years is sec­ond only to those in Texas, there is con­sid­er­able sup­port in Ohio for a review of the entire sys­tem. Two for­mer prison direc­tors, Reginald Wilkinson and Terry Collins, agree that death row cas­es should be reviewed to decide whether they are the ​“worst of the worst.” Wilkinson (pic­tured), who was direc­tor from 1991 to 2006 and wit­nessed many exe­cu­tions, would take it even…

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Attorney General Richard Cordray recent­ly urged pros­e­cu­tors in sev­en crim­i­nal cas­es to allow DNA test­ing that could either prove inno­cence or con­firm the defen­dan­t’s guilt. The sev­en cas­es include one man cur­rent­ly on death row, Tyrone Noling, two inmates serv­ing long sen­tences, three men who are no longer in prison but want to clear their names, and a man who died in prison in 2006. Gov. Strickland said, ​“I…

Prominent lead­ers in Ohio are call­ing for a com­pre­hen­sive review of the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem, par­tic­u­lar­ly as an exe­cu­tion nears for a man whose guilt is being seri­ous­ly ques­tioned. Kevin Keith (pic­tured) has been on Ohio​’s death row for over 15 years and has an exe­cu­tion date of September 15. But new evi­dence has arisen about the unre­li­a­bil­i­ty of those who orig­i­nal­ly tes­ti­fied against him. Ohio’s gov­er­nor,…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram raised ques­tions about Texas’ entire death penal­ty sys­tem, giv­en the pre­lim­i­nary find­ing by the Texas Forensic Science Commission that arson experts relied on out­dat­ed and flawed sci­ence dur­ing their inves­ti­ga­tion of a death penal­ty case. Cameron Willingham was exe­cut­ed in 2004 for set­ting a fire that killed his three daugh­ters in 1991 based on this faulty research. Now it appears…

Cory Maples, an inmate on Alabama​’s death row, may pay for a sim­ple cler­i­cal error with his life. When copies of an Alabama court rul­ing in his case were sent to the New York law firm han­dling his appeals, both copies were returned unopened because the fir­m’s attor­neys rep­re­sent­ing Maples had left the firm. By the time the error was dis­cov­ered, Maples’s time to appeal had expired. So far, the firm has failed to per­suade a fed­er­al appeals court to waive the…