Publications & Testimony

A new book, No Winners Here Tonight: Race, Politics, and Geography in One of the Country’s Busiest Death Penalty States, by Ohio jour­nal­ist Andrew Welsh-Huggins, explores the his­to­ry of Ohio’s death penal­ty and rais­es ques­tions of fair­ness by exam­in­ing the state’s expe­ri­ence with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Citing his­tor­i­cal exam­ples, the author argues that the death penal­ty has been car­ried out in an arbi­trary fash­ion from its ear­li­est days and has fallen…

On March 2, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argu­ments in District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne con­cern­ing a defen­dan­t’s right to post-con­vic­­tion DNA test­ing. In this non-cap­i­­tal rape case, Alaska has repeat­ed­ly refused William Osborne’s request for DNA test­ing of evi­dence from the crime scene despite the fact that it would be at no cost to the State, and the fact the evi­dence could demon­strate Osborne’s inno­cence of the 1993 rape and attempt­ed murder for…

The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct filed sev­en charges of mis­con­duct against Chief Justice Sharon Keller (pic­tured) of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) stem­ming from her actions in a death penal­ty appeal in 2007. Judge Keller is charged with not fol­low­ing court pro­ce­dure and improp­er­ly clos­ing the court to the appeal of Michael Richard short­ly before he was to be exe­cut­ed. Among oth­er charges, the Commission…

Casper Taylor, Jr., a long-time Maryland House of Delegates mem­ber and for­mer sup­port­er of the death penal­ty, has writ­ten an op-ed call­ing for the end of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Maryland.​“In 28 years in the Maryland House of Delegates, nine as speak­er, I cast thou­sands of votes,” wrote Taylor.​“I have few regrets. But there is one vote I wish I could take back — my 1978 vote to rein­state the death penal­ty in Maryland.” Taylor…

Recent devel­op­ments in Montana and New Mexico may affect the out­come of leg­isla­tive efforts to abol­ish the death penal­ty. In Montana, the Senate vot­ed 27 – 23 to end the death penal­ty in favor of life in prison with­out parole. It is the sec­ond ses­sion in a row that such a pro­pos­al has cleared the Senate. New Mexico​’s House passed a bill replac­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment with life in prison with­out parole and the bill is pend­ing in a Senate…

Edward Bell, a Jamaican immi­grant con­vict­ed of killing a police offi­cer, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Virginia on February 19 despite a con­clu­sion by a fed­er­al District Court that his lawyers failed to present any mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence at his tri­al. Judge James Jones of the Eastern District of Virginia held that the rep­re­sen­ta­tion Bell received vio­lat­ed con­sti­tu­tion­al stan­dards. However, a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing to explore the…

Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio has grant­ed clemen­cy to death row inmate Jeffrey Hill (pic­tured), who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on March 3.​“After the review of exten­sive mate­r­i­al asso­ci­at­ed with this case, I con­cur with the unan­i­mous ratio­nale and rec­om­men­da­tion of the Ohio Parole Board,“ Strickland said in a state­ment. The Board had vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly for Hill’s com­mu­ta­tion in part because of the victim’s…

The New Mexico House of Representatives vot­ed February 11 to repeal the death penal­ty. After a more than two-hour debate, the House vot­ed 40 to 28 in favor of replac­ing the death penal­ty with life in prison with­out parole. This is the third time in recent years New Mexico’s House of Representatives has vot­ed to ban cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. House Bill 285 will now move…

Wayne Tompkins is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Florida at 6 pm on February 11 despite evi­dence that he could be inno­cent. Tompkins was sen­tenced to death for a mur­der in which even the victim’s death is in ques­tion. The body used as evi­dence in the case was iden­ti­fied by par­tial den­tal records match­ing one tooth, and sev­er­al indi­vid­u­als have signed affi­davits say­ing they saw the vic­tim alive after the alleged mur­der. Gov. Crist could…

Several states have recent­ly intro­duced leg­is­la­tion to abol­ish or lim­it the death penal­ty. Bills to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment have been intro­duced in at least eight states: Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, New Hampshire, Maryland, Washington, and Kansas. For some of these states, the high costs of the death penal­ty has been an impor­tant fac­tor in the leg­isla­tive debates. For exam­ple, Colorado’s bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty spec­i­fies that the…