Publications & Testimony

Willie Pondexter is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on March 3 despite a civ­il suit filed by his attor­neys alleg­ing inter­fer­ence by the state in the attor­neys’ inves­ti­ga­tion into Pondexter’s mod­el behav­ior and reha­bil­i­ta­tion dur­ing 14 years on death row. In Texas, the key fac­tor in deter­min­ing whether a defen­dant is sen­tenced to life or death is whether he rep­re­sents a future dan­ger to soci­ety. Pondexter’s attor­neys from the…

In a recent mil­i­tary death penal­ty case, the pros­e­cu­tors reject­ed a plea agree­ment that would have result­ed in a sen­tence of life in prison instead of the death penal­ty. The defen­dant, Sergeant Alberto Martinez, was then found not guilty on December 4, 2008, of mur­der­ing two fel­low sol­diers and walked free. Two years before the tri­al, Sgt. Martinez signed an offer to plead guilty to the mur­der charges and to describe​“the essen­tial facts and cir­cum­stances of the…

A Tennessee leg­isla­tive study com­mit­tee has end­ed its 16-month analy­sis of the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment process and has made rec­om­men­da­tions for achiev­ing a more fair and accu­rate sys­tem: . Require defense attor­neys in cap­i­tal cas­es to be high­ly qual­i­fied; . Mandate that defense attor­neys have uni­form access to evi­dence against their clients; . Require police offi­cers to record all inter­ro­ga­tions relat­ed to a homicide…

The Los Angeles Times recent­ly edi­to­ri­al­ized about the futil­i­ty of keep­ing the death penal­ty in California.​“Let’s end this bru­tal, anachro­nis­tic prac­tice,” of the death penal­ty, the paper wrote.​“Inefficiency and cost­li­ness are obvi­ous­ly only a small part of what’s wrong with the death penal­ty.” The edi­to­r­i­al con­tin­ued, “[C]apital pun­ish­ment strikes dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly at dis­ad­van­taged groups, and capriciously…

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…