Publications & Testimony

Although the Supreme Court struck down race-based strikes of poten­tial jurors more than two decades ago in Batson v. Kentucky, the deci­sion has fall­en short of its goal. For exam­ple, in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, a recent study has revealed that poten­tial black jurors are struck three times as often as white jurors in the parish. This does not include the jurors struck for being unable to fol­low death penal­ty law by the judge. A Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center review of 390 felony…

The League of Women Voters of Florida is urg­ing Governor Charlie Crist to con­tin­ue the mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions and to con­sid­er alter­na­tive sen­tences. In a let­ter from Florida League President Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti to Governor Crist, the orga­ni­za­tion not­ed that con­cerns about fair­ness, inno­cence, costs, and pub­lic safe­ty have led them to ques­tion the val­ue of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In their call for a mora­to­ri­um, the League…

Just days after a fed­er­al judge in California ruled that exe­cu­tions in that state must remain on hold as the lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures are care­ful­ly con­sid­ered, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8^th Circuit held that lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions in Missouri may resume because their pro­ce­dures do not vio­late the 8^th Amendment’s ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, who is pre­sid­ing over the ongo­ing legal chal­lenges in California, said…

Just weeks before Texas is sched­uled to exe­cute Cathy Henderson (pic­tured) for the mur­der of a child that she was babysit­ting, the med­ical exam­in­er whose tes­ti­mo­ny helped send her to death row has said he no longer stands by his orig­i­nal opin­ion that the child’s death result­ed from an inten­tion­al act on Henderson’s part. In light of new sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence show­ing that Brandon Baugh’s death could have result­ed from an acci­den­tal fall, retired Travis County chief med­ical examiner…

In a guest col­umn pub­lished in the Jurist, for­mer FBI Director William S. Sessions under­scored the impor­tance of mak­ing DNA test­ing avail­able for those fac­ing exe­cu­tion. He also encour­aged states to thor­ough­ly review their cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tems and to make reforms to ensure greater reli­a­bil­i­ty. DNA test­ing, he not­ed, has revealed that police often do not have the right sus­pect in seri­ous crimes. In about 25% of the cas­es where DNA was avail­able and a sus­pect had…

The lat­est issue of Scientific American con­tains an arti­cle about the sci­ence of anes­the­si­ol­o­gy, not­ing that ​“the med­ical spe­cial­ty of anes­the­si­ol­o­gy has evolved into a sophis­ti­cat­ed art form.” The mag­a­zine reports that the sci­en­tif­ic under­stand­ing of how anes­thet­ic drugs actu­al­ly work and how to make them bet­ter has lagged behind most oth­er areas of drug devel­op­ment, a short­com­ing that has result­ed in safe­ty con­cerns. Episodes of aware­ness dur­ing oper­a­tions while under gen­er­al anesthesia,…

The League of Women Voters of Florida is urg­ing Governor Charlie Crist to con­tin­ue the mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions and to con­sid­er alter­na­tive sen­tences. In a let­ter from Florida League President Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti to Governor Crist, the orga­ni­za­tion not­ed that con­cerns about fair­ness, inno­cence, costs, and pub­lic safe­ty have led them to ques­tion the val­ue of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In their call for a mora­to­ri­um, the League…

The costs of the death penal­ty are a key fac­tor affect­ing the qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es in at least three states. Lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in parts of the death penal­ty process has been cit­ed recent­ly in courts in Georgia, Alabama, and Utah. Budget prob­lems at the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council have pre­vent­ed pay­ments to lawyers since March 1, accord­ing to an offi­cial at the Council. Defense attor­neys say the states’ inabil­i­ty to meet the costs asso­ci­at­ed with…

The Florida Supreme Court reduced a death sen­tence to life with­out parole because of the defen­dan­t’s seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. The court not­ed that this was ​“one of the most doc­u­ment­ed cas­es of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness­es this court has reviewed.” In its deci­sion reject­ing the tri­al judge’s death sen­tence for Christopher Offord (pic­tured), the jus­tices unan­i­mous­ly held that the death penal­ty was a dis­pro­por­tion­ate pun­ish­ment due to Offord’s long-stand­ing men­tal prob­lems. Medical…

In an impor­tant rul­ing, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out the death sen­tence of Kenisha Berry, who was sen­tenced to death in 1998 for the mur­der of her infant son, Malachi. The 5 – 4 deci­sion stat­ed that Jefferson County pros­e­cu­tors mis­stat­ed the spe­cial issue pre­sent­ed to jurors regard­ing Berry’s like­li­hood of being a future dan­ger to soci­ety, one of the key ques­tions Texas jurors con­sid­er when they are delib­er­at­ing a death sen­tence. Berry’s attorneys…