Publications & Testimony

Bills to alter the state’s method of exe­cu­tion and to make the exe­cu­tion process more trans­par­ent failed in Tennessee’s leg­is­la­ture this year as its ses­sion con­clud­ed. In an effort to facil­i­tate exe­cu­tions bogged down by the state’s prob­lems with lethal injec­tion, a bill was pro­posed to give pris­on­ers the option of the fir­ing squad for their exe­cu­tion. Following an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into Tennessee’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols, Governor Bill Lee (R) had sus­pend­ed exe­cu­tions on January…

The accom­pa­ny­ing graph (click to view sep­a­rate­ly) dis­plays the time in years since the last exe­cu­tion by each state as of May 1,…

Bills to hide the iden­ti­ties of lethal-injec­tion drug sup­pli­ers and exe­cu­tion team mem­bers from the pub­lic have passed both cham­bers of the South Carolina leg­is­la­ture. The bills face a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion process before one can move to the governor’s desk for sig­na­ture. Proponents of the law say it is nec­es­sary because reveal­ing such infor­ma­tion might make exe­cu­tions dif­fi­cult or impos­si­ble. South Carolina has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 12 years. Opponents say the pub­lic has the right to know…

In the lat­est episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, inter­views Ron McAndrew (pic­tured), a for­mer Florida Prison Warden who wit­nessed exe­cu­tions using elec­tro­cu­tion and lethal injec­tion in Florida and Texas. He offers reflec­tions on the neg­a­tive impact that exe­cu­tions have on the fam­i­lies of both the vic­tim and the con­demned, the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers, and on…

The board of Cleveland​.com and The Plain Dealer pub­lished an edi­to­r­i­al sup­port­ing the pas­sage of Senate Bill 101 that would abol­ish the death penal­ty in Ohio. “[T]he time is right,” states the piece, ​“for the General Assembly to come togeth­er to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Ohio. Its inequities are man­i­fest, its bar­barism is clear — and its time has…

A forth­com­ing arti­cle in the Denver Law Review dis­cuss­es two the­o­ries of homi­cide law, the felony mur­der rule and accom­plice lia­bil­i­ty, that cre­ate group lia­bil­i­ty for the actions of an indi­vid­ual. The arti­cle, writ­ten by Professors G. Ben Cohen (pic­tured), Justin D. Levinson, and Koichi Hioki states that ​“Research sug­gests that the admin­is­tra­tion of accom­plice lia­bil­i­ty [and] felony mur­der doc­trines dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly impact Black and minor­i­ty defen­dants,” caus­ing minor­i­ty defen­dants to be…

On April 21, 2023, Governor Jay Inslee signed leg­is­la­tion remov­ing the death penal­ty from the state’s laws. With that action, all three branch­es of the state’s gov­ern­ment have tak­en steps to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Washington: Gov. Inslee had declared a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in 2014, the state Supreme Court found the statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 2018, and the leg­is­la­ture has now strick­en it from the criminal…

On April 20, 2023, Texas leg­is­la­tors ini­tial­ly approved House Bill (HB) 1736 to lim­it the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in cas­es where a defen­dant com­mits a felony that was accom­pa­nied by a mur­der car­ried out by some­one oth­er than the defen­dant. Many states have a ​“felony mur­der” rule, sim­i­lar to Texas’ ​“Law of Parties,” which pro­vides that if one per­son is found guilty of mur­der, the offend­er’s accom­plices or co-con­spir­a­tors may also be found guilty of mur­der, regard­less of their intent…

On April 19, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (6 – 3) in Reed v. Goertz that a Texas death row pris­on­er could con­tin­ue his pur­suit of DNA test­ing that a low­er court had blocked. The Court held that Rodney Reed’s (pic­tured) civ­il rights claim was filed in fed­er­al court in a timely…

On April 17, 2023, lawyers for Toforest Johnson (pic­tured, cen­ter), who has spent 25 years on Alabama’s death row, filed a peti­tion for a writ of cer­tio­rari to the U.S. Supreme Court request­ing a new tri­al. The peti­tion was but­tressed by sup­port from the present District Attorney and from the orig­i­nal tri­al pros­e­cu­tor in Johnson’s…