Publications & Testimony

The Washington Post recent­ly pub­lished an edi­to­r­i­al call­ing for Congress to rewrite the part of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 that gov­erns legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for indi­gent death-penal­­ty defen­dants. The law allows a fast-track for fed­er­al appeals of state cap­i­tal con­vic­tions pro­vid­ed states guar­an­tee and pay for a sys­tem of legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion that cov­ers all cap­i­tal defen­dants . Originally, the program…

Joseph P. Nadeau, who served on New Hampshire​’s Supreme Court for six years and as a judge for 37 years, recent­ly tes­ti­fied before the state’s death penal­ty com­mis­sion about his oppo­si­tion to the prac­tice. In an op-ed, Judge Nadeau sum­ma­rized the moral and prac­ti­cal rea­sons why he believes cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment should be repealed.​“Our think­ing evolves, as peo­ple, tech­nol­o­gy, and soci­eties progress,” he said.​“And what is acceptable…

Amnesty International recent­ly released its annu­al report on inter­na­tion­al abus­es and progress in the field of human rights:​“The State of the World’s Human Rights.” The report cov­ers January to December 2009 and address­es human rights issues in every coun­try around the world. The report also high­lights coun­tries’ involve­ment in inter­na­tion­al and region­al human rights treaties. Among the nations in the Americas, the United States had…

On June 18, a fed­er­al appeals court in Atlanta held that the bur­den Georgia places on death-penal­­ty defen­dants to prove they are intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, and thus exempt from the death penal­ty, is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said that requir­ing defen­dants to prove intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty (men­tal retar­da­tion)​“beyond a rea­son­able doubt” vio­lates the Eighth Amendment’s ban against cruel and…

Voices of the Death Penalty Debate: A Citizen’s Guide to Capital Punishment is a new book that explores argu­ments for and against the death penal­ty through tes­ti­mo­ny giv­en at the his­toric 2004 and 2005 hear­ings in New York on whether the state’s death penal­ty should be rein­stat­ed. The state’s law was struck down by the N.Y. Court of Appeals in 2004. Authored by Russell Murphy, a Suffolk University Law School pro­fes­sor, the book walks readers through…

On June 14, the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed cer­tio­rari in Cullen v. Pinholster. In 1984, Scott Pinholster was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for killing two men dur­ing a bur­glary in Los Angeles, California. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over­turned Pinholster’s death sen­tence because of inef­fec­tive­ness of coun­sel since his lawyer did not give the jury evi­dence of Pinholster’s men­tal illness during…

Texas Judge Paul C. Murphy recent­ly ordered pros­e­cu­tors to hand over key evi­dence from a 1989 mur­der case to the Innocence Project and the Texas Observer for DNA test­ing. In 2007, the Innocence Project and the Observer filed suit to obtain a one-inch strand of hair that alleged­ly impli­cat­ed Claude Howard Jones (pic­tured) in the killing of a liquor store own­er in San Jacinto County. Other than vague eyewitness…

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…