Publications & Testimony

The defense attorneys for death row inmate Charles Hood in Texas have filed a civil lawsuit that would require retired Judge Verla Sue Holland and former district attorney Tom O’Connell, Jr. to testify under oath whether they were having an intimate affair while both were participating in the capital trial of Mr. Hood. The underlying claim is “that Judge Holland or Tom O’Connell deprived Charles Hood of his constitutional rights by not revealing this romantic relationship prior to his capital…

A compelling narrative of the legal and political fight to end the death penalty in France has just been released in an English translation. Abolition: One Man’s Battle Against the Death Penalty is authored by Robert Badinter, probably the single person most responsible for abolishing the death penalty in France. He begins his story in 1972 when one of his clients was guillotined in a case he felt was unjust. Upon dedicating his career to abolishing the death penalty, he agreed to represent any…

A new radio program, Execution Watch, is providing live coverage and commentary on days that Texas executes a death row inmate. Each show will air live starting at 6 pm Central Daylight Time at http://www.kpft.org or http://executionwatch.org with a wide variety of special guests and host Ray Hill. The programming is available through the Internet. On its upcoming broadcast, the show will cover issues related to the case of Jeffrey Wood, who is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 21. Wood was…

The Texas Forensic Science Commission will review the case of Cameron Todd Willingham (pictured) as its first case in its investigation of forensic misconduct allegations. Willingham was executed in 2004 in Texas for three deaths that occurred in 1991 from a fire in his home. The State Fire Marshal’s office had originally ruled that the blaze was an arson started by an accelerant. But the Innocence Project of Cardozo Law School in New York submitted a 2006 report by five nationally known fire…

The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment began hearing testimony from a wide variety of witnesses on issues related to the state’s death penalty system. After gathering information regarding matters such as possible racial, geographic and socioeconomic disparities, on costs, and on the risks of executing the innocent, the 23-member Commission will offer recommendations to the General Assembly to ensure that Maryland’s use of the death penalty is “free from bias and error” and achieves…

Jeffrey Wood is scheduled for execution on August 21 for a murder committed by another man during a botched robbery at a gas station. Wood did not fire the gun that killed the victim and was not inside the station when another man, Danny Reneau, committed the murder. At Reneau’s trial, the prosecution had argued that Reneau was the person chiefly responsible for the crime and that Wood’s role was secondary. The prosecution in Wood’s case changed their theory and argued that he was equally…

The Fordham Urban Law Journal has published a series of articles based on a symposium on lethal injection that was held at Fordham Law School in March 2008. The issue includes articles by Professor Deborah Denno of Fordham, a leading historian and expert on methods of execution, Judge Jeremy Fogel, a federal judge overseeing the challenge to lethal injection in California, Judge Fernando Gaitan, a federal judge who oversaw the challenge to Missouri’s lethal injection process, and articles by…

Georgia’s Hall County is encountering the high costs of seeking the death penalty as they prosecute their first capital case in nine years. The county expects the death penalty trial to cost at least four times as much as a regular murder trial. Capital trials are by far the most expensive criminal proceeding that takes place in local superior courts. Estimates put the cost for jurors and bailiffs alone at more than seven times the normal cost for a murder trial without seeking the death…

On April 16, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s lethal injection process in Baze v. Rees, thereby opening the door to a resumption of executions which had been on hold since September 2007. Since then, there have been 18 executions: 100% have been in the South 33% have been in Texas All but one have been by lethal injection. Of the 18 defendants executed: 8 were white 8 were black 2 were Hispanic. Of the 25 victims in the underlying murders: 13 were white 9 were black 2 were…

In a 5 – 4 vote on August 5, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a stay of execution for Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen, who was then executed in Texas that night. On August 7, Heliberto Chi, an Honduran citizen, was also executed in Texas. Medellin’s case had come before the Supreme Court on two previous occasions because the International Court of Justice had ruled that the U.S. had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not informing him and other foreign nationals of their…