Publications & Testimony

Nebraska Supreme Court Rules Electrocution Unconstitutional The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on February 8, 2008, that elec­tro­cu­tion is cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment under the state’s con­sti­tu­tion, out­law­ing the elec­tric chair in the only state that still used it as its sole means of…

Kennedy Brewer, who spent almost 15 years on Mississippi’s death row for the 1992 mur­der and rape of his girlfriend’s 3‑year-old daugh­ter, has been exon­er­at­ed of the charges, and anoth­er man, Justin Johnson, has been arrest­ed for the same crime. A 2001 inves­ti­ga­tion by the Innocence Project found that the semen on the victim’s body did not match Brewer’s DNA, but did match Johnson’s. Johnson was a sus­pect ear­ly in the case, and his blood was col­lect­ed and pre­served in the Mississippi…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) recent­ly ordered relief for two death row inmates, acknowl­edg­ing that a U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing from last year affect­ed a series of cas­es that were tried before the state changed its death penal­ty statute. The Texas CCA reversed the death sen­tence of Jose Angel Moreno, whose exe­cu­tion was stayed just hours before it was to occur last May. He may now have a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present a range of mitigating…

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al, the Concord Monitor advo­cat­ed against expand­ing New Hampshire’s death penal­ty law to include mul­ti­ple-mur­der offens­es, as some law­mak­ers have pro­posed. Instead, they say, ​“the death penal­ty should be elim­i­nat­ed, not expand­ed.” The edi­to­r­i­al cites prob­lems in the death penal­ty process, such as wrong­ful con­vic­tions, high costs, and its arbi­trari­ness, as rea­sons for abo­li­tion. The Monitor also writes that the death penal­ty is coun­ter­pro­duc­tive, not­ing, ​“It…

The cap­i­tal mur­der pros­e­cu­tion of Michael Addison in New Hampshire will cost the state at least $978,000 in its first stage. Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte esti­mates that there are about eight lawyers work­ing on Addison’s case from her office. The state has been allo­cat­ed $420,000 for the four new staff mem­bers along with oth­er office costs, to pros­e­cute Addison. The $420,000 does not include the costs of salaried state pros­e­cu­tors who are help­ing to pre­pare the case and litigating…

In a recent speech at the American University school of law, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who presided over the tri­al of 9/​11 con­spir­a­tor Zacarias Moussaoui, said that the government’s deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty against Moussaoui appeared to be polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed. Judge Brinkema also stat­ed that because Moussaoui’s case involved the death penal­ty, it unnec­es­sar­i­ly exposed clas­si­fied infor­ma­tion and inter­fered with the gath­er­ing of other…

The Florida Supreme Court reduced the death sen­tence for Ryan Green to life with­out parole because he suf­fered from schiz­o­phre­nia and was not able to ful­ly appre­ci­ate the con­se­quences of his actions. Green was sen­tenced to death in 2006 for the mur­der of a retired Pensacola police sergeant. The jury that con­sid­ered his case vot­ed 10 – 2 for death. The pre­sid­ing judge, who makes the sen­tenc­ing deci­sion in Florida, imposed a death sen­tence despite his con­clu­sion that in the time…

The Texas Department of Public Safety recent­ly hired Vanessa Nelson despite her being under inves­ti­ga­tion at the Houston Police Department Crime Lab where she was the for­mer DNA super­vi­sor. Nelson resigned from the Houston Lab to avoid being fired for giv­ing her sub­or­di­nates the answers to a DNA skills pro­fi­cien­cy test. The Houston Lab has a his­to­ry of prob­lems with its DNA lab, includ­ing poor train­ing and inad­e­quate work, caus­ing the divi­sion to be shut down in 2002. Three men who…

Maryland Judge Joseph P. Manck sought to lessen the pain and frus­tra­tion to the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly by sen­tenc­ing a defen­dant to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole instead of the death penal­ty. In choos­ing a life sen­tence for Brandon Morris for the mur­der of cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer Jeffrey Wroten, Judge Manck not­ed that appeals in death penal­ty cas­es can stretch on for years. He cit­ed one case that has been going on for 25 years and said that vic­tims’ families often…