Publications & Testimony

Items: 3901 — 3910

Oct 29, 2010

EDITORIAL: ​“No Justification” for Recent Execution

On October 29, a New York Times edi­to­r­i­al raised many con­cerns regard­ing the recent exe­cu­tion of Native American Jeffrey Landrigan in Arizona. The Times said ​“the sys­tem failed him at almost every lev­el, most dis­turbing­ly at the Supreme Court.” Landrigan’s exe­cu­tion gar­nered nation­al atten­tion because a nation­wide short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal forced the state to seek the drug from for­eign sup­pli­ers. Despite repeated orders…

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Oct 28, 2010

Anthony Graves Becomes 12th Death Row Inmate Exonerated in Texas

Anthony Graves (pic­tured) was released from a Texas prison on October 27 after Washington-Burleson County District Attorney Bill Parham filed a motion to dis­miss all charges that had result­ed in Graves being sent to death row 16 years ago. Graves was con­vict­ed in 1994 of assist­ing Robert Carter in mul­ti­ple mur­ders in 1992. There was no phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing Graves to the crime, and his con­vic­tion relied pri­mar­i­ly on Carter’s tes­ti­mo­ny that Graves was his…

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Oct 27, 2010

BOOKS: ​“The Confession” by John Grisham

A new nov­el by acclaimed author John Grisham, enti­tled ​“The Confession,” tells the sto­ry of Donte Drumm, an inno­cent man who was con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death in Texas. The book begins as the exe­cu­tion of Drumm is only four days away and anoth­er man con­fess­es to the crime to a min­is­ter. Although a work of fic­tion, Grisham’s work offers a cri­tique of our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and of the death penal­ty in par­tic­u­lar. USA…

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Oct 26, 2010

Texas Inmate May Be Executed Despite Proof of Intellectual Disability

Michael Hall was sen­tenced to death in 2000 in Texas for kid­nap­ping and mur­der. At the time of his tri­al, his IQ was mea­sured at 67. Generally, a per­son with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty is defined as some­one with an IQ of 70 or low­er, along with lim­i­ta­tions in adap­tive skills. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that exe­cut­ing some­one who has an intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty (men­tal retar­da­tion) con­sti­tutes cru­el and unusual…

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Oct 25, 2010

NEW RESOURCES: The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation

The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation (ACCR) is a new­ly formed non-prof­it death penal­ty resource cen­ter locat­ed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ACCR pro­vides pre-tri­al con­sul­ta­tion to cap­i­tal defense prac­ti­tion­ers and defense teams in Pennsylvania and Delaware. They are involved in con­duct­ing statewide cap­i­tal defense train­ings, as well as pub­lic edu­ca­tion and advo­ca­cy. The ACCR is led by Marc Bookman and Dana Cook, both formerly of…

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Oct 22, 2010

Sentencing Judge Second-Guesses Death Sentence In Light of New Evidence

On October 20, attor­neys for Jeffrey Landrigan filed a clemen­cy peti­tion with the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency call­ing on the Board to rec­om­mend the com­mu­ta­tion of Landrigan’s death sen­tence large­ly because of errors by his tri­al attor­neys. Landrigan’s orig­i­nal attor­neys failed to present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence at the sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, which could have includ­ed evi­dence of brain dam­age and severe abuse. Judge Cheryl Hendrix, the judge…

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Oct 21, 2010

Expert Who Predicted ​“Future Dangerousness” in Texas Death Cases Ruled Unreliable

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recent­ly held that the method­ol­o­gy used by Dr. Richard Coons to pre­dict the ​“future dan­ger­ous­ness” of cap­i­tal defen­dants was unre­li­able. Whether a con­vict­ed defen­dant would be a future dan­ger to soci­ety is a cru­cial ques­tion for juries in Texas in choos­ing between a life or death sen­tence. Dr. Coons has tes­ti­fied in over 150 death penal­ty tri­als across the state. He admit­ted in a recent hear­ing that he had devel­oped his own…

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Oct 20, 2010

ARBITRARINESS: 10% of Counties Account for All Recent Death Sentences in the U.S.

A recent arti­cle in Second Class Justice, a weblog ded­i­cat­ed to address­ing unfair­ness and dis­crim­i­na­tion in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, high­light­ed that the death penal­ty con­tin­ues to be arbi­trar­i­ly applied in the United States. Citing fig­ures from the American Judicature Society, author Robert Smith revealed that only 10% of U.S. coun­ties account­ed for all of the death sen­tences imposed between 2004 and 2009, and only 5% of the coun­ties account­ed for all death…

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Oct 19, 2010

Texas Court of Inquiry Begins Exploring Whether Executed Man Was Innocent

Lawyers for Cameron Todd Willingham​’s fam­i­ly recent­ly pre­sent­ed expert tes­ti­mo­ny at a court of inquiry in Texas to deter­mine whether Willingham was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and exe­cut­ed for start­ing a fire that killed his chil­dren. The lawyers pre­sent­ed tes­ti­mo­ny from nine experts who have reviewed evi­dence pre­sent­ed by fire mar­shals and found ​“many crit­i­cal errors,” as one report stat­ed. Gerald Hurst, who pub­lished a report regard­ing the evi­dence in the case,…

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Oct 18, 2010

States Suddenly Acquiring Lethal Injection Drug from Unknown Source

Lawyers for Jeffrey Landrigan, an Arizona death row inmate sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on October 26, have filed a motion ask­ing courts to com­pel the state to reveal its source of a drug to be used in his lethal injec­tion. Despite a nation­wide short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal, Arizona recent­ly announced that it has obtained new sup­plies of the drug. The announce­ment came the same day that California filed a notice in fed­er­al court that it had…

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