Publications & Testimony

A recent law review arti­cle explores the qual­i­ty of defense rep­re­sen­ta­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es in Tennessee. Authors William Redick, Jr., Bradley Maclean, and M. Shane Truett con­duct­ed an in depth study of Tennessee death penal­ty cas­es in their arti­cle, ​“Pretend Justice – Defense Representation in Tennessee Death Penalty Cases” in the University of Memphis Law Review. The arti­cle argues that Tennessee fails to pro­vide effec­tive defense rep­re­sen­ta­tion in death penal­ty cas­es, citing…

Richard Taylor, a death row inmate in Tennessee suf­fer­ing from severe men­tal ill­ness, was resen­tenced to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after a plea bar­gain with the state. Taylor was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the killing of a prison guard in 1981 after the prison had stopped giv­ing him his anti-psy­chot­ic med­ica­tion. Deputy District Attorney Derek Smith said, ​“Our office decid­ed that it would be in the best inter­est of the tax­pay­ers to spend the…

Terry Lyn Short is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on June 17 in Oklahoma. He was con­vict­ed of caus­ing a fire that killed Ken Yamamoto in 1995. A key wit­ness against Short at tri­al was a jail­house infor­mant who tes­ti­fied in return for lenien­cy on charges that he was fac­ing. Defense coun­sel at tri­al sought to present tes­ti­mo­ny of a third inmate in the same cell who was pre­pared to refute every­thing that the jail­house infor­mant had said. However, the tri­al judge refused to let…

Prof. John Blume of Cornell University Law School has com­piled the cas­es in which an inmate’s death sen­tence was reduced because of a find­ing of men­tal retar­da­tion. His research revealed 83 such rever­sals since 2002. In Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the U.S. Supreme Court held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to apply the death penal­ty to defen­dants with men­tal retar­da­tion. The Court did not, how­ev­er, estab­lish a def­i­n­i­tion for men­tal retar­da­tion or deter­mine the pro­ce­dures for prov­ing a claim…

U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks in Texas has ruled Scott Panetti men­tal­ly com­pe­tent enough to be exe­cut­ed. Panetti’s ear­li­er path to exe­cu­tion was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard his appeal in 2007 (Panetti v. Quarterman). The Court held that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had used too nar­row a stan­dard in decid­ing whether Panetti had an under­stand­ing of why he was to be exe­cut­ed. The Court also held that Texas had not giv­en Panetti an adequate…

The high­ly acclaimed film At the Death House Door pre­mieres on the Independent Film Channel on May 29, 2008. This doc­u­men­tary pro­vides a unique per­spec­tive into the peo­ple who par­tic­i­pate in exe­cu­tions in Huntsville, Texas. Viewers expe­ri­ence what it means to work on death row through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chap­lain and presided over 95 exe­cu­tions (includ­ing the world’s first lethal injec­tion). Following each exe­cu­tion, Pastor Pickett…

On June 4, Georgia has sched­uled the exe­cu­tion of Curtis Osborne. (UPDATE: Osborne was exe­cut­ed on June 4.) Osborne’s own defense lawyer at tri­al was racial­ly biased against him and failed to do the most basic inves­ti­ga­tion that might have saved his clien­t’s life. The attor­ney repeat­ed­ly referred to Osborne with a racial epi­thet, say­ing, ​“that lit­tle n_​_​_​_​r deserves the chair.” At the time of the mur­der that sent Osborne to death row, he was suf­fer­ing from men­tal prob­lems and…

Based on state­ments from the District Attorney’s office, it appears that Texas wrong­ly con­vict­ed Michael Blair and sen­tenced him to death in 1994 for the sex­u­al assault and mur­der of 7‑year-old Ashley Estell. The case led to the pas­sage of ​“Ashley’s Laws” to increase pun­ish­ments for such offens­es. Collin County District Attorney John Roach announced that new DNA tests show no phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing Blair to the crime. The only foren­sic evi­dence that point­ed to Blair for the kidnap-murder…

The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board com­mut­ed Samuel Crowe’s death sen­tence to life with­out parole just two and a half hours before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on May 22, 2008. The five-mem­ber Board’s state­ment said, ​“After care­ful and exhaus­tive con­sid­er­a­tion of the request, the board vot­ed to grant clemen­cy.” The Board had heard from sev­er­al peo­ple who knew Crowe, includ­ing pas­tors and a for­mer cor­rec­tions offi­cer, who said, ​“I felt like if they released him that morn­ing he would nev­er get in…

In a poten­tial death penal­ty case in Houston, Texas, a jury sen­tenced Juan Quintero to life with­out parole on May 20 for the mur­der of a police offi­cer. One juror, Tiffany Moore, described her expe­ri­ence as very emo­tion­al, ​“I was torn up. I was crying.…I still feel we came to the right deci­sion,” she said. ​“We could nev­er bring Rodney back. I feel very sad for the fam­i­ly, los­ing a loved one.” Moore added that the sen­tenc­ing phase was more dif­fi­cult for the jury than the guilt-innocence…