Publications & Testimony

An exe­cu­tion date of September 23 was recent­ly set for Teresa Lewis, the only woman on Virginia​’s death row. Although a num­ber of oth­er peo­ple were involved in the same crime, includ­ing the actu­al shoot­ers of the two vic­tims, Lewis was the only per­son sen­tenced to death. She pled guilty at tri­al. Since being sent to death row in 2002, Lewis has tak­en respon­si­bil­i­ty and apol­o­gized for her actions. She has had an exem­plary record while in prison and does not…

In a pre­lim­i­nary report, the Texas Forensic Science Commission recent­ly found that fire inves­ti­ga­tors used flawed sci­ence in the case that led to the death sen­tence and exe­cu­tion of Cameron Todd Willingham. Willingham was exe­cut­ed in 2004, hav­ing been con­vict­ed of set­ting the fire that killed his three chil­dren. Willingham had always main­tained his inno­cence and said the fire could have been an acci­dent. The Commission acknowl­edged that new…

Terrence Dwyer, for­mer­ly with the New York Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation, recent­ly chron­i­cled the evo­lu­tion of his think­ing about the death penal­ty and whether it serves the needs of law enforce­ment. Dwyer cit­ed sev­er­al exam­ples of recent exon­er­a­tions and not­ed, ​“Clearly, by keep­ing the death penal­ty in place, we run the unac­cept­able risk of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent. Those of us in law enforce­ment do our best to take the guilty off the streets, and…

A hear­ing to set an exe­cu­tion date for Texas death row inmate Humberto Leal was post­poned after the pre­sid­ing judge received a let­ter from a high-rank­ing U.S. State Department offi­cial. Leal, a Mexican cit­i­zen who was sen­tenced to death in 1995, had already been trans­ferred to Bexar County Jail for the hear­ing to set the exe­cu­tion date. Harold Hongju Koh, a top legal advis­er to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrote the judge requesting an…

Sharon Keller, the pre­sid­ing judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, received a pub­lic warn­ing from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct on July 16 for her con­duct in bar­ring access to the courts to a death row inmate who was about to be exe­cut­ed in 2007. The Commission said her actions con­sti­tut­ed ​“will­ful or per­sis­tent con­duct that is clear­ly incon­sis­tent with the prop­er per­for­mance of her duties.” When request­ed at home to allow a late-appeal…