Publications & Testimony

Items: 21 — 30

Feb 20, 2025

Article of Interest: New Equal Justice Initiative Report Shines a Spotlight on Historic Patterns of Jury Discrimination and the Role of Non-Diverse Juries in Wrongful Convictions

A new report from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), Unreliable Verdicts: Racial Bias and Wrongful Convictions, explores the his­to­ry of racial bias in jury selec­tion in the United States, includ­ing the last 40 years of racial­­ly-dis­­crim­i­­na­­to­ry pre­emp­to­ry jury strikes, and high­lights the grow­ing body of research show­ing that jury bias is reduced and the delib­er­a­tive process enhanced when juries are more diverse. Looking at the pool of doc­u­ment­ed death penalty…

Read More

Feb 18, 2025

After a 15-Year Pause, Louisiana Governor Intends to Restart Executions Using New Nitrogen Gas Protocol; Courts Set Execution Dates for Two Prisoners

On February 10, 2025, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry announced his deci­sion to end a 15-year pause on exe­cu­tions, say­ing the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections is ready to car­ry out exe­cu­tions under a new nitro­gen gas exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. In a press release fol­low­ing his announce­ment, Gov. Landry said,​“For too long, Louisiana has failed to uphold the promis­es made to vic­tims of our State’s most vio­lent crimes; but that fail­ure of leadership by…

Read More

Feb 12, 2025

Georgia House Considers Bill to Provide Pretrial Hearings to Identify Capital Defendants with Intellectual Disability

For the third con­sec­u­tive ses­sion, the Georgia House of Representatives is review­ing a bill seek­ing to pro­vide bet­ter pro­tec­tions to cap­i­tal defen­dants with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties. Currently, the state requires a defen­dant to prove​“beyond a rea­son­able doubt” that they have an intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty – the only death penal­ty state to have this unusu­al­ly high stan­dard. Introduced by a bipar­ti­san group of leg­is­la­tors on January 27, 2025, HB 123 would…

Read More

Feb 11, 2025

State Spotlight: California Death Row Shrinks Sharply in 2024, Driven by the Resentencing of At Least 45 People to Life Sentences or Less

When California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in 2019, he said that the state’s​“death penal­ty sys­tem has been, by all mea­sures, a fail­ure.” He explained that the death penal­ty​“has dis­crim­i­nat­ed against defen­dants who are men­tal­ly ill, Black and brown, or can’t afford expen­sive legal representation…[while pro­vid­ing] no pub­lic safe­ty ben­e­fit or val­ue as a deter­rent.” In 2024, California courts agreed that exe­cu­tion was not the…

Read More

Feb 06, 2025

Worldwide Monthly Roundup: Taiwan Carries Out First Execution in Five Years; Singapore Cracks Down on Abolition Group; Iranian Prisoners Continue Peaceful Abolition Protest as at Least 87 Executed in January

On January 16, 2025, Taiwan car­ried out its first exe­cu­tion since April 2020. Huang Linkai, who was sen­tenced to death in 2017 for the 2013 mur­ders of his ex-girl­friend and her moth­er, was exe­cut­ed at the Taipei Detention Center. Although Mr. Huang’s attor­ney filed a last-minute appeal, the execution…

Read More

Feb 05, 2025

Focus on Race: Alameda County Resentencings Illustrate Long History of Excluding Jurors of Color from the Jury Box

When Ernest Dykes was brought to tri­al on death penal­ty charges in Alameda County, California in the mid-1990s, it was rea­son­ably expect­ed that pros­e­cu­tors and defense attor­neys alike would work hard to shape the jury to their ben­e­fit. What Mr. Dykes (who is Black) didn’t know until recent­ly, how­ev­er, was just how far the pros­e­cu­tion would go to curate…

Read More