Publications & Testimony

Texas death row inmate Jose Briseno was issued a stay of exe­cu­tion by a Texas judge so his pen-pal from England could fly to the state to meet him before he was exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion. Briseno’s attor­ney, Richard Burr, said the stay ​“had to do with Jose’s extra­or­di­nary abil­i­ty to reach out to peo­ple all over the US and the world – as a pen-friend – to offer sup­port and…

The Texas Tech Law Review​’s lat­est edi­tion is focused on inno­cence and the death penal­ty. Among the arti­cles includ­ed, are, ​“Presumed Guilty: A Death Row Exoneree Shares His Story of Supreme Injustice and Reflections on the Death Penalty,” by Juan Roberto Melendez; ​“Toward a New Paradigm of Criminal Justice: How the Innocence Movement Merges Crime Control and Due Process,” by Keith A. Findley; ​“The Role of the Innocence Argument in Contemporary Death Penalty Debates,” by…

The prison news mag­a­zine The Angolite fea­tures an in-depth piece on the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment around the world in its recent iss­sue. Citing a 2008 Amnesty International report, the arti­cle notes that China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and the United States lead the world in exe­cu­tions. Japan, the only oth­er indus­tri­al­ized democ­ra­cy besides the U.S. that uses cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, aver­ages five exe­cu­tions a year but is known for inhu­mane death row con­di­tions. Author and inmate…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over­turned a Texas defen­dan­t’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence because of racial bias by the pros­e­cu­tion in jury selec­tion. Jonathan Reed, the defen­dant, had been con­vict­ed in 1979 of mur­der dur­ing a tri­al at which all five of the eli­gi­ble African-American poten­tial jurors were removed by the pros­e­cu­tion. The Fifth Circuit, which has upheld many death sen­tences from the state with the most exe­cu­tions in the…

The News & Record of North Carolina recent­ly fea­tured an edi­to­r­i­al encour­ag­ing the state’s leg­is­la­ture and gov­er­nor to abol­ish the death penal­ty. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed the con­tro­ver­sies that have sur­round­ed the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state, includ­ing dis­agree­ment about lethal injec­tions and the incon­sis­tent way the penal­ty has been applied. The declin­ing num­ber of death sen­tences and the exten­sive time need­ed before an exe­cu­tion can take place led the paper to conclude…

by Dr. Andrew D. MoranLondon Metropolitan UniversityAmerican Politics Group Annual ConferenceSt. Anne’s College, University of OxfordE-mail:…

Oregon Supreme Court Justice Martha Walters recent­ly sug­gest­ed that it is time to review the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the death penal­ty. Concurring in Oregon v. Michael Davis, Justice Walters wrote, ​“When pre­sent­ed with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to do so, I urge this court to con­sid­er our state’s expe­ri­ence in impos­ing the death penal­ty and to exam­ine its con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty anew.“ Justice Walters acknowl­edged that the death penal­ty has been upheld in the past, but…