Publications & Testimony

American Medical Association and EMT Association Say Participation in Executions Violates Medical Ethics Anesthesiologists Advised to Avoid Lethal Injections American Board of Anesthesiology Forbidding Participation by Members in Executions (April 2, 2010) American Nurses Association Position Statement on Capital Punishment and Nurses’ Participation in Capital Punishment (Dec. 2016); American Nurses Association Position on Nurse Participation in Executions (Jan. 28, 2010) International Nurses…

Attorneys for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis will have the opportunity to argue before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit on December 9 in Atlanta. The Court will hear arguments on whether Davis can file a second federal challenge to his conviction based on new evidence of his innocence. The Court stayed Davis’ execution shortly before he was to receive a lethal injection so that it could review the constitutional issues in his case. Davis’ case has…

The North Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments on November 18 on whether the state’s Medical Board can sanction doctors who participate in an execution. The Board forbids physician participation in executiions as a violation of the medical code of ethics. At the same time, North Carolina’s death penalty statute requires a physician’s presence at all executions. A Wake County judge ruled last year that the Medical Board had overstepped its authority and the state law took precedence, a…

On November 10 in Richmond, Virginia, thirty former FBI agents held a press conference calling for the pardon of four sailors, known as the Norfolk Four, who were convicted of rape and murder. Their convictions were based mainly on their own confessions, which were apparently made out of fear that they might otherwise receive the death penalty. The FBI agents pointed out that DNA and forensic evidence now points to a prison inmate who has confessed as the sole perpetrator of the crimes. They…

A recent editorial in The Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska) expressed the paper’s shock at how the death penalty distorted a state criminal investigation to the extent that six innocent people were convicted of a murder they did not commit. Defendants were pressured to offer erroneous testimony through the threat of facing the death penalty. “The wrongful convictions show how the death penalty can distort the search for justice,” the editorial stated. “Investigators supplied suspects suggestions…

A Florida inmate faces execution despite new revelations that the state prompted a trial witness to lie. Inmate Wayne Tompkins was to be executed in Florida on October 28, 2008, but was granted a stay of execution to allow time for the state Supreme Court to review his case. On November 7, the court denied Tompkins’ appeal, even though the court acknowledged that a state witness, a jailhouse informant, admitted to providing false testimony at Tompkins’ original trial in 1985. Justice Harry…

Utah’s Supreme Court recently expressed concern that the lack of qualified defense attorneys for indigent death row inmates could unravel capital sentences. In a unanimous decision in the case of death row inmate Michael Archuleta, Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins (pictured) said the court might be forced to reverse capital sentences because the low pay and the complexity of such cases have shrunk the pool of Utah attorneys who will accept them. “It falls to us, as the court of last…

A recent editorial in The Virginian-Pilot points to the problem of arbitrariness in applying the death penalty. The editorial asks, “Is it right to look at who the victims were? Is it fair to consider the strength of the evidence and the time and resources required to pursue the death penalty, a costly process? Does it make a crime less important, a victim’s life less memorable, if prosecutors decide that life in a tiny prison cell is punishment enough for the killer?” The editorial continues…