Publications & Testimony

On April 12, 2024, Judge Arturo Nelson signed an Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law submitted by the prosecution and defense stating that Melissa Lucio (pictured) was not given access to favorable information in the prosecution’s possession at the time of trial. The acknowledgement of this constitutional error resulted in Judge Nelson’s recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) that Ms. Lucio’s conviction and death sentence be overturned. The ruling marks the…

On April 12, 2024, Long Island University celebrated the 2023 George Polk Awards in Journalism, honoring investigative journalists and recognizing sixteen former winners, including formerly death-sentenced prisoner Wilbert Rideau. Mr. Rideau spent forty-four years incarcerated in Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary where he created The Lifer, one of the first Black prison periodicals. Sentenced to death in 1961 at age nineteen, Mr. Rideau spent twelve years on death row before the United…

During the April 7, 2024, episode of “Last Week Tonight,” host John Oliver focused on “grim developments” in the death penalty since his last segment covering lethal injection in 2019. Since then, 91 people have been executed, including 13 federal prisoners during former President Donald Trump’s administration. “Our federal and state governments have continued to pursue questionably legal and definitely horrifying ways, that, again, I would argue they shouldn’t be doing at all,” Mr. Oliver…

On April 5, 2024, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz and Innocence Project attorney Vanessa Potkin released a joint statement regarding Melissa Lucio’s case, which has been pending additional review for almost two years. On January 11, 2023, the parties submitted an Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law stating that the defense was not given access to favorable information in the prosecution’s possession at trial, an error that they agree should entitle Ms. Lucio to a new…

On April 9, 2024, the California Office of the State Public Defender, along with several civil rights groups, filed an extraordinary writ petition at the California Supreme Court arguing that the state’s capital punishment system violates the state’s Constitution because of its racially biased implementation. In 2021, the California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code confirmed that racial bias is entrenched in the state’s death penalty system. “The California Constitution does not permit a…

On April 5, 2024, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed petitions asking the county superior court to resentence 15 death-sentenced men from his county to sentences of life in prison without the possibility for parole. These petitions were filed four years after DA Rosen announced his office would no longer seek the death penalty, a decision partly in response to nationwide calls for criminal legal reform following the murder of George Floyd. At the time, DA Rosen said that Mr.

“At a time when faith in society’s institutions is at an all-time low, the failure of the capital-punishment system could be Exhibit A,” concludes the annual Capital Crimes Report issued by by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. The Report highlights numerous problems with its “broken” capital punishment system, including the “enormously expensive” cost. The Ohio Legislative Service Commission has estimated that the cost of capital cases range from $1 to $3 million per case based on a collection…

Brian Dorsey (pictured), a Missouri death row prisoner scheduled for execution on April 9, 2024, has garnered widespread support for clemency from more than 70 corrections officials, a former Missouri Supreme Court Judge, multiple jurors, Democratic and Republican state legislators, faith leaders, and his family members — several of whom are related to the victims, Sarah and Ben Bonnie — all of whom have called on Governor Mike Parson to commute his sentence to life in prison without the…

Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Michael Smith on April 4, the state’s first execution of 2024. Convicted in 2003 for the separate 2002 murders of Janet Moore and Sharath Babu Pulluru in Oklahoma County, Mr. Smith has spent the last 21 years on death row. Following his arrest, Mr. Smith confessed to his involvement in these killings to the police, but now says that he “was high on drugs” during his interrogation and does not “even remember getting arrested.” On March 6, 2024, the Oklahoma…

Georgia’s execution of Willie Pye – the state’s first in more than four years – garnered criticism from the European Union. “Although the European Union and its 27 Member States oppose capital punishment in all circumstances, we are especially concerned about the scheduled execution of Mr. Pye given his intellectual disability and issues regarding the quality of his legal representation,” said the EU’s letter to the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole in support of Mr. Pye’s clemency petition…