Publications & Testimony

A new study sug­gests that Idaho​’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute fails to nar­row the use of the death penal­ty to the ​“worst of the worst” crimes, rais­ing ques­tions about its con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty. In Narrowing Death Eligibility in Idaho: An Empirical and Constitutional Analysis, pub­lished in the February 2022 issue of the Idaho Law Review, Aliza Plener Cover (pic­tured) argues based on data from near­ly 20 years of mur­der con­vic­tions that the Idaho…

The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied addi­tion­al DNA test­ing to death-row pris­on­er Willie Manning (pic­tured). Manning, who was sen­tenced to death in Oktibbeha County in 1994 and in 1996 for two sep­a­rate crimes, has main­tained his inno­cence of both crimes. He was exon­er­at­ed of the 1996 con­vic­tion in 2015 after police and pros­e­cu­tors unlaw­ful­ly with­held excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence from the…

Executions have surged in Iran in the first half of 2022, dou­bling the total car­ried out dur­ing the same time span in 2021, human rights advocates…

Marcus Robinson (pic­tured), the first per­son to be grant­ed relief under North Carolina​’s trail­blaz­ing Racial Justice Act, has died. Robinson, who was sen­tenced to death in 1994 for a crime he com­mit­ted short­ly after turn­ing 18, died June 9, 2022. He was 49 years…

A new law review arti­cle high­lights the lack of pro­tec­tions for crim­i­nal defen­dants’ rights to make mean­ing­ful deci­sions despite court-rec­og­nized rights to auton­o­my. In ​“The Myth of Autonomy Rights,” a 2021 arti­cle pub­lished in the Cardozo Law Review, Professor Kathryn E. Miller (pic­tured) argues that there are inad­e­quate safe­guards for the auton­o­my rights of the aver­age crim­i­nal defen­dant, espe­cial­ly in cap­i­tal punishment…

A new report by the human rights orga­ni­za­tion Amnesty International urges President Joe Biden to act upon his cam­paign pledge to work to abol­ish the death penal­ty by exer­cis­ing his con­sti­tu­tion­al author­i­ty to com­mute the sen­tences of all fed­er­al death row…

A teen offend­er whose spir­i­tu­al trans­for­ma­tion on Texas’ death row has caused a key pros­e­cu­tion men­tal health expert to recant his tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny, has filed a peti­tion for clemen­cy seek­ing a com­mu­ta­tion of his death sen­tence ahead of his sched­uled July 13, 2022 execution…

The Florida Supreme Court has reject­ed an attempt by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to pre­vent DNA test­ing and fin­ger­print analy­sis of evi­dence lawyers for Henry Sireci (pic­tured) say could prove him inno­cent of a mur­der that sent him to death row 46 years…

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has set exe­cu­tion dates for 25 of the state’s 43 death-row pris­on­ers, sched­ul­ing near­ly an exe­cu­tion a month from August 2022 through December 2024. If car­ried out, the exe­cu­tion sched­ule, unprece­dent­ed in the state’s his­to­ry, would put to death 58% of the state’s death row, includ­ing mul­ti­ple pris­on­ers with severe men­tal ill­ness, brain dam­age, and claims of…

Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becom­ing the first Black woman to serve as a jus­tice in the 232-year his­to­ry of the…