Publications & Testimony

A gov­­ern­­ment-ordered audit of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation found that the agency false­ly report­ed blood evi­dence in dozens of cas­es, includ­ing three that end­ed in exe­cu­tions. The inquiry, ordered by Attorney General Roy Cooper, found that SBI agents improp­er­ly aid­ed pros­e­cu­tors for over a 16-year peri­od, call­ing into ques­tion con­vic­tions in 230 crim­i­nal cas­es. Duane Deaver, a vet­er­an SBI ana­lyst who per­formed the work in five…

Statement from Attorneys for Kevin Keith in Response to Today’s Parole Board Recommendation Against Clemency The Governor’s ulti­mate respon­si­bil­i­ty is to ensure that no human being is exe­cut­ed in Ohio absent absolute cer­tain­ty. In Kevin Keith’s case, too many ques­tions remain unan­swered, and his exe­cu­tion should not pro­ceed as planned.The Parole Board’s own recita­tion of facts and brief find­ings can­not avoid facts point­ing to the exis­tence of doubt about…

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…

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…

Another death row inmate is chal­leng­ing his con­vic­tion with new evi­dence that the charge of arson in his case was based on faulty sci­ence. Daniel Dougherty, a Pennsylvania man who faces exe­cu­tion for set­ting a fire that killed his chil­dren in their home in 1985, has always main­tained his inno­cence. In 2006, Dougherty filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court con­tain­ing the reports of two arson inves­ti­ga­tors who re-examined his…

James Fisher, who spent 27 years on Oklahoma’s death row, was recent­ly released to a re-entry pro­gram at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, after he accept­ed a plea agree­ment with pros­e­cu­tors. Fisher, who is now work­ing at EJI, had been sen­tenced to death twice, and in both instances, high­er courts over­turned his death sen­tence after find­ing that his defense attor­neys pro­vid­ed him inadequate…

Recently, a California man pled guilty to the 2006 mur­der of Highway Patrolman Earl Scott. The defen­dant, Columbus Allen Jr., whose pre-tri­al pro­ceed­ings took more than four years, will now spend the rest of his life in prison, hav­ing waived his appeals. The Stanislaus County dis­trict attor­ney orig­i­nal­ly sought the death penal­ty against Allen, but there were no guar­an­tees that ver­dict would have been reached. Additionally, when the death penal­ty is imposed in…

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,…

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.

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…