Publications & Testimony

On January 20, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence for Holly Wood for the 1993 shooting of his former girlfriend in Alabama, despite the fact that the attorney working on the penalty phase of the case failed to investigate or tell the jury about Wood’s borderline mental retardation. A federal District Court had overturned his death sentence because of the inadequate performance of the inexperienced lawyer, although other lawyers working on the case had seen a report on Wood’s…

On January 19, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Wellons v. Hall, ordering the lower court to re-examine the appeal of Marcus Wellons, who received the death penalty for a 1989 rape and murder in Georgia. The Court’s per curiam opinion described “unusual events going on behind the scenes” at Wellons’ trial, including contacts outside the courtroom between the jury and the judge, and the fact that some jury members gave…

On January 14, and almost 30 years after the crime, the Florida Supreme Court criticized the state for “lawless conduct” and vacated the death sentence of Paul Beasley Johnson because “the record here is so rife with evidence of previously undisclosed prosecutorial misconduct that we have no choice but to grant relief.” Because of popular sentiment and the notoriety of the crime, Governor Charlie Crist signed a death warrant for Johnson in 2009 even though Johnson’s legal issues were still…

California recently released its revised lethal injection guidelines, following a June public hearing on the protocol. The 25-page document indicates small revisions, outlining such items as to when the curtains remain open in the execution chamber to definitions of the term “chaplain” and “lethal injection room.” Natasha Minsker, the Death Penalty Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California called the revisions superficial. Minsker added, “In the current state of the state, we are still…

On January 12, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Smith v. Spisak. After Frank Spisak was sentenced to death in Ohio and his initial appeals were denied, he filed a habeas corpus petition claiming that: 1) the jury instructions and verdict forms used at his trial unconstitutionally required the jury to be unanimous in choosing any mitigating factors; and 2) his attorney’s closing argument was so inadequate as to deprive him of effective assistance…

Louisiana has seen a steep decline in executions compared to previous decades, with only three executions in the last ten years. This is in stark contrast to the eight men who were electrocuted within the span of 11 weeks in 1987, and it follows a nationwide trend of declining executions and imposition of death sentences. The state’s most recent execution was on January 7, the first since since 2002. The execution occurred only because the defendant, Gerard Bordelon, waived appeals that may…