Publications & Testimony

UPDATE: After less than one hour of deliberation, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Troy Anthony Davis a 90-day stay of execution. The stay means Davis’ execution will be on hold while the board weighs the evidence presented as part of his request for clemency. (Associated Press, July 16, 2007). Today (July 16), on the eve of Georgia’s scheduled execution of Troy Anthony Davis (pictured), the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles will consider whether Davis should be granted…

On July 11, South Dakota carried out its first execution in 60 years, marking only the 15^th time the state has carried out a death sentence since 1877. The state executed 25-year-old Elijah Page after he dropped all appeals and volunteered to die by lethal injection. Page was only 18 at the time of his crime and had a long history of being abused. During his trial, the presiding judge noted, “Most parents treated their pets better than your parents treated you.” Page’s decision to drop his…

A new book by Charles D. Flores details his personal experience as an inmate on Texas’ death row. The book, Warrior Within: Inside Report on Texas Death Row, provides a first-hand account of Flores’ death penalty trial and his experiences awaiting execution. It explores his quest to learn more about the law as he fights to prove his innocence and win his freedom. In the book, Flores writes, “I started to comprehend what it meant to be on death row. I was beginning to understand it was a race…

Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed recently issued a report finding that Ruben Cantu (pictured) was guilty of the crime for which Texas executed him in 1993. However, critics have noted that Reed was formerly a judge who handled Cantu’s appeal and set his execution date, raising a conflict of interest in conducing an investigation of his guilt. Moreover, many who are familiar with the case doubt Reed’s conclusions and say the report’s findings do not add up. Critics of Reed’s report say…

A new report from the Charlotte School of Law on mental illness and the death penalty reveals that obstacles entrenched within the criminal justice system impede efforts to identify those with severe mental illness and treat them fairly. The report, “Mental Illness and the Death Penalty in North Carolina: A Diagnostic Approach,” is based on a 2006 symposium hosted by the law school. It examines scientific studies of mental illness and provides an overview of laws established to protect those…

Since 2000, 50 people have had their death sentences reversed in Pennsylvania as courts found serious legal errors in the inmates’ original trials. The number of reversals nearly equaled the number of people added to the state’s death row during the past 7 years and have come from a variety of courts. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued about 20% of the reversals, 50% of the death sentences were overturned by state trial judges during the next stage of review, and another 30% of the reversals…

Despite serious doubts that he murdered off-duty police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989, Troy Davis is facing execution in Georgia on July 17. Davis was convicted mainly on the basis of eyewitness testimony. Since then, seven of the nine key witnesses against him have recanted or changed their statements. Three of those witnesses have filed sworn statements alleging that Sylvester “Red” Coles, another key prosecution witness, had confessed to killing MacPhail. Davis’ defense attorneys claim…

According to a new report released by the Tennessee Justice Project, indigent defense attorneys in the state receive far fewer dollars and “in-kind” resources than prosecutors. This discrepancy creates an uneven playing field that undermines the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system. The report, Resources of the Prosecution and Indigent Defense Functions in Tennessee, is based on findings from a study conducted by The Spangenberg Group, one of the nation’s leading experts on state…

Eleven years after supervising his first execution as at the Florida State Prison at Starke, former warden Ron McAndrew is urging an end to the death penalty. McAndrew is calling on states to abandon capital punishment and replace it with life without parole, a punishment he notes is worse than the death penalty and protects states from executing an innocent person. He observes, “(T)he most severe punishment you could ever give anyone would be to lock them in a little cage made out of concrete…