Publications & Testimony

Over the past two years, Ohio has exe­cut­ed more inmates than any oth­er state except Texas. Since resum­ing exe­cu­tions in 1999, Ohio has exe­cut­ed 38 peo­ple, more than any oth­er state out­side of the South in that time peri­od. As in the South, race appears to play a sig­nif­i­cant role in who receives the death penal­ty. In the Ohio cas­es result­ing in an exe­cu­tion, 75% of the vic­tims in the under­ly­ing mur­der were white. Generally, in Ohio about 65%…

In a recent address to lawyers and judges at a judi­cial con­fer­ence, retir­ing U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens explained the evo­lu­tion of his views on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the death penal­ty. Regarding his 2008 asser­tion that the death penal­ty should be abol­ished, Justice Stevens elab­o­rat­ed, ​“The risk of an incor­rect deci­sion has increased,” and that because of advances in DNA test­ing that have led to free­ing some inno­cent con­victs, ​“we’re more aware of the risk…

Sixteen death row inmates have filed a law­suit against the state of Mississippi, claim­ing that their exe­cu­tions should be halt­ed because their state-appoint­ed attor­neys were ​“untrained, inex­pe­ri­enced, and over­whelmed.” Under Mississippi law, the state must pro­vide ​“com­pe­tent and con­sci­en­tious” coun­sel for death row inmates before exe­cu­tion dates can be set. The law suit, filed in Hinds County Chancery Court, claims that the attor­neys appoint­ed through the Office of Capital…

On Friday, May 7, NPR​’s Radio Diaries will fea­ture a half-hour doc­u­men­tary enti­tled, ​“Willie McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair.” The doc­u­men­tary focus­es on the life of Willie McGee who was exe­cut­ed in Mississippi dur­ing the Jim Crow era after being con­vict­ed by an all-white jury of rap­ing a white woman. During that time in Mississippi, the state used a portable elec­tric chair, which the state trans­port­ed from county to…

“Condemned” is a com­pi­la­tion of the cor­re­spon­dence between Irish author Sean O’ Riain and an inmate on death row in the United States, known as ​“Ray” in the book. Riain became involved in writ­ing let­ters to a death row inmate through the Comunita di Sant’Egidio, an orga­ni­za­tion in Rome that part­ners death row inmates with pen­friends around the world. ​“Ray” is on death row for killing a man – -a crime he com­mit­ted at a young age, and now freely admits and deeply…