Publications & Testimony

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…

A fed­er­al judge in Delaware extend­ed a stay on all exe­cu­tions in the state on May 15, 2008, pend­ing an evi­den­tiary hear­ing sched­uled for June. One exe­cu­tion in Delaware was stayed by the same judge, District Court Judge Sue L. Robinson (pic­tured), in May 2006, pend­ing a deter­mi­na­tion of the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s use of lethal injec­tion. In 2007, the impact of the even­tu­al rul­ing in that case was extend­ed to all of the state’s death row inmates. The stay of exe­cu­tion was prompted by…

Earl Berry is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on May 21 in Mississippi, despite evi­dence that he has men­tal retar­da­tion. Judicial review of this evi­dence has been denied because his for­mer lawyers failed to file the evi­dence in a time­ly fash­ion. This would be the sec­ond exe­cu­tion since the U.S. Supreme Court approved Kentucky’s method of lethal injec­tion on April 16. Last month, a psy­chol­o­gist con­clud­ed that Berry had an IQ of 75 or below and ​“sig­nif­i­cant­ly sub-average intellectual…

Maryland Governor O’Malley signed leg­is­la­tion cre­at­ing a com­mis­sion to study the death penal­ty on May 13. The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment is man­dat­ed to reflect on all sides of the issue and its mem­bers will include rep­re­sen­ta­tives from law enforce­ment, a pros­e­cu­tor, a pub­lic defend­er, and fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims. The com­mis­sion begins its work in July and should sub­mit its find­ings by December 15, 2008. The fol­low­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives will serve on the…