Publications & Testimony

Linda Greenhouse, for­mer Supreme Court writer for the New York Times, recent­ly wrote about the rever­sal of a death sen­tence by the U. S. Supreme Court. The Court over­turned George Porter Jr.​‘s death sen­tence because of the inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion he received and the pow­er­ful mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence in Mr. Porter’s life that his attor­ney failed to inves­ti­gate and present to the jury con­sid­er­ing his clien­t’s life. The Court’s opin­ion not­ed, ​“Our nation…

Kenneth Biros, who is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Ohio on December 8, request­ed an emer­gency stay of exe­cu­tion in U.S. District Court, argu­ing that Ohio is mov­ing too fast to use its new, one-drug lethal injec­tion process. Last month, Ohio became the first state to adopt a one-drug lethal injec­tion pro­to­col when its three-drug method came under scruti­ny fol­low­ing the botched exe­cu­tion attempt on death row inmate Romell Broom.

Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, before the Commission to Study the Death Penalty in New Hampshire on costs of the death penal­ty and relat­ed issues. (December 4,…

Attorneys for Bobby Wayne Woods are seek­ing to delay his December 3 exe­cu­tion because of his tri­al lawyer’s incom­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion and the fact that Woods is men­tal­ly retard­ed. Woods’ cur­rent lawyer is ask­ing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for a 60-day reprieve so that it can assess Woods’ men­tal com­pe­ten­cy for exe­cu­tion. Attorney Maurie Levin, an adjunct law pro­fes­sor at the University of Texas, said that the pri­or lawyer failed to plead Woods’…

Linda Greenhouse, ​“Selective Empathy,” The New York Times, December 3, 2009; Porter v. McCollum, No. 08 – 10537 (U.S. Nov. 30, 2009) (per curi­am); Bobby v. Van Hook, No. 09 – 144 (U.S. Nov. 9, 2009 (per curiam)Andrew Cohen, ​“Not the end of the affair,” CBS News, May 3, 2009Bob Herbert, ​“Who Gets the Death Penalty?,” New York Times, May 13, 2002.Taylor Bright and Jeb Phillips, ​“Execution of Justice,” Birmingham…

On November 25, the Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled that changes to the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col were not prop­er­ly adopt­ed and must be sub­mit­ted for pub­lic review and approval before exe­cu­tions can take place. According to the opin­ion, “[T]his Court can­not ignore the pub­li­ca­tion and pub­lic hear­ing require­ments set forth in Kentucky statutes. Thus, the Department must pro­ceed … to adopt as an admin­is­tra­tive reg­u­la­tion all por­tions of the pro­to­col imple­ment­ing the…