Publications & Testimony

A recent issue of the award-winning prison news magazine, The Angolite, featured a story by inmate Lane Nelson about Gerald Bordelon, the first person to be executed in Louisiana since 2002. Bordelon expedited his own execution by choosing to waive his appeals, including his direct appeal, which was previously thought to be a mandatory part of the state’s death penalty process. Bordelon volunteered for execution after he was found guilty of raping and murdering his 12-year-old stepdaughter. The…

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, Burdell’s former girlfriend at a court hearing recently. “Further, he would not…

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 points to a climate against trying capital cases. “If you can’t get the death penalty…

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 doctors, including anesthesiologists, to play a role in…

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 his damaged eyesight and that he began using drugs and alcohol with his…

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 parroted details given to him about the crime. The DNA test…