Publications & Testimony

Days after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair was unconstitutional, a Lincoln Journal Star editorial urged the state to reconsider the death penalty: “Instead of rushing to pass a new means of capital punishment, the Legislature should take this opportunity to finally get rid of the death penalty.” Nebraska was the only state to retain the electric chair as its sole means of execution. The paper noted that it was the right time to take a broader look at the death penalty.

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 execution. In the landmark ruling, the court said the state legislature may vote to have a death penalty, just not one that offends rights under the state constitution. The evidence shows that electrocution…

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 State…

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 evidence that the…

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 does nothing to…

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 pre-trial…

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 information that could have been useful…

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 leading up to the…