Publications & Testimony

On June 14, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Albert Holland, who lost his right to file a fed­er­al appeal of his death sen­tence when his lawyer missed the 1‑year dead­line estab­lished under the Anti-ter­ror­ism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that Holland’s attor­ney’s con­duct in miss­ing the dead­line was not egre­gious enough to war­rant setting aside…

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The upcom­ing exe­cu­tion of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who has opt­ed to be killed by a fir­ing squad in Utah on June 18, has attract­ed the atten­tion of many peo­ple of faith in the state. Hours before Gardner’s exe­cu­tion, promi­nent reli­gious lead­ers will gath­er for a vig­il to protest the exe­cu­tion. Religious lead­ers from groups often asso­ci­at­ed with being sup­port­ive of the death penal­ty have recent­ly voiced con­cerns about the prac­tice. The…

On June 8, California​’s Office of Administrative Law reject­ed the new lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures pro­posed by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, iden­ti­fy­ing sev­er­al pas­sages that con­flict­ed with state law, that were unclear, or failed to prop­er­ly state rea­sons for the new pro­ce­dures. There has been a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions in the state since 2006 after a fed­er­al judge ordered the state to revise its…

The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) recent­ly pub­lished a report on the use of the death penal­ty for drug crimes around the world. The report dis­tin­guish­es between coun­tries that have leg­is­la­tion allow­ing a death sen­tence for drug offens­es and those that actu­al­ly apply it in prac­tice. According to the report, 32 juris­dic­tions retain the death penal­ty for drug offens­es (out of the 58 coun­tries that have the death penal­ty for any offense),…

On June 4, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland grant­ed clemen­cy to Richard Nields, reduc­ing his death sen­tence to life with­out parole. Nields was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed lat­er in June for the 1997 mur­der of his girl­friend in sub­ur­ban Cincinnati. In May, the Ohio Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed Nields for clemen­cy because of prob­lems with med­ical tes­ti­mo­ny at Nields’s tri­al. Dr. Paul Shrode, who was still in train­ing at the time of…

On Monday, June 7, the Pennsylvania State Government Management and Cost Study Commission will hear from experts on pro­pos­als to cut the costs of var­i­ous gov­ern­ment pro­grams. The Commission, estab­lished in 2009, is com­prised of pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor cost-mind­ed lead­ers in Pennsylvania and has been charged with study­ing the man­age­ment of gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions and mak­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for cost-cut­t­ing mea­sures. Among the experts who will…

Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, before the Pennsylvania Senate Government Management and Cost Study Commission on the costs of the death penal­ty and its lack of return. (Harrisburg, June…

David Powell (pic­tured left), who was sen­tenced to death in 1978 for the shoot­ing of Austin police offi­cer Ralph Ablanedo (pic­tured below), faces exe­cu­tion in Texas on June 15. During his 30 years on death row, Powell has shown sin­cere remorse and regret for his actions. In 2009, Powell wrote to Officer Ablanedo’s fam­i­ly:​“I am infi­nite­ly sor­ry that I killed Ralph Ablanedo. I shot Officer Ablanedo and I take…

The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber details the his­to­ry and devel­op­ment of the gas cham­ber as a method of exe­cu­tion in the United States. Author Scott Christianson explores con­nec­tions between the gas cham­ber and the eugen­ics move­ment, as well as new evi­dence about Hitler’s adop­tion of gas cham­ber tech­nol­o­gy devel­oped in the United States. Charles Lanier, Director of the Capital Punishment Research…