Publications & Testimony

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…

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…

Family mem­bers of the vic­tim whom Ronnie Lee Gardner killed in Utah are now ask­ing that his life be spared. Gardner’s attor­neys have request­ed a clemen­cy hear­ing and the fam­i­ly mem­bers of the vic­tim, Michael Burdell, would be called to tes­ti­fy in favor of spar­ing Gardner’s life. Gardner has cho­sen to be exe­cut­ed by fir­ing squad.​“Knowing Michael, as I did, he would not want Ronnie Lee to be exe­cut­ed,” said Donna Nu,…

“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…