Publications & Testimony

“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…

North Carolina​’s News & Observer recent­ly report­ed on the declin­ing use of the death penal­ty in the state. North Carolina has over 150 inmates on death row but has not had an exe­cu­tion since 2006. Last month, a jury opt­ed for a sen­tence of life with­out parole for Samuel Cooper, who was con­vict­ed of five first-degree mur­ders. Jim Woodall, pres­i­dent of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, said this decline…

The American Board of Anesthesiologists (ABA), rep­re­sent­ing 40,000 mem­bers, recent­ly ruled that it will revoke the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of any mem­ber who par­tic­i­pates in an exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion. Most hos­pi­tals require board cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for their anes­the­si­ol­o­gists. According to the board sec­re­tary Mark Rockoff, the deci­sion reflects the ABA’s belief that anes­the­si­ol­o­gists are​“heal­ers, not exe­cu­tion­ers.” Some states have recruited…

Below is an essay for our thir­­ty-day series on John Paul Stevens by James Liebman, the Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Liebman was a clerk for Justice Stevens dur­ing the 1978 Term and has since argued sev­er­al cap­i­tal and habeas cor­pus cas­es before the…

After spend­ing 20 years on death row, inmates Roy Gene Smith and David Lewis had their death sen­tences thrown out by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on April 28. The state’s high­est crim­i­nal court ruled that jurors who con­vict­ed Smith were erro­neous­ly kept from hear­ing tes­ti­mo­ny about his upbring­ing in a crime-rid­­den Houston neigh­bor­hood. The court also deter­mined that Lewis should have been able to present evidence of…

A New York truck dri­ver, who spent near­ly 19 years in prison for mur­der, was released on April 28, after test­ing of DNA found in the vic­tim’s cloth­ing exclud­ed him as the killer. Frank Sterling, now 46, was con­vict­ed of the 1988 mur­der of Viola Manville after he con­fessed to the crime dur­ing an all-night inter­ro­ga­tion. He lat­er recant­ed this con­fes­sion, claim­ing he had slipped into an hyp­not­ic state dur­ing the lengthy questioning and…

On April 27, Federal District Court Judge William Moore set a date of June 30, 2010 (Update: June 23), at 10 AM in Savannah, Georgia, for the evi­den­tiary hear­ing regard­ing Troy Davis’ (pic­tured) claim of actu­al inno­cence. Davis filed an orig­i­nal habeas cor­pus peti­tion with the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 assert­ing that new evi­dence from wit­ness­es who had recant­ed their tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny estab­lished his inno­cence. He had…

The American Bar Association recent­ly pub­lished The State of Criminal Justice 2010, an annu­al report that exam­ines major issues, trends and sig­nif­i­cant changes in America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. This pub­li­ca­tion serves as a valu­able resource for aca­d­e­mics, stu­dents, and pol­i­­cy-makes in the area of crim­i­nal jus­tice, and con­tains 19 chap­ters focus­ing on spe­cif­ic areas of the crim­i­nal jus­tice field. The chap­ter devot­ed to capital…

Wilbert Rideau, a for­mer death row inmate in Louisiana who has since been released from prison, recent­ly pub­lished his mem­oir, In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance. Rideau was sen­tenced to death at the age of 19 for killing a woman in pan­ic dur­ing a botched rob­bery attempt. While on death row, he under­went a trans­for­ma­tion and, after his sen­tence was com­mut­ed to life, he…

A bill that would change California​’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure unan­i­mous­ly passed the Senate Public Safety Committee on April 20. Senate Bill 1018, authored by Sen. Tom Harman, would require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to devel­op and imple­ment a one-drug lethal injec­tion process involv­ing an appro­pri­ate anes­thet­ic. California has had a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions since February 2006 when a fed­er­al judge held that…