Publications & Testimony

On October 19^th, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled against Oklahoma death-row pris­on­ers who had argued that they should be allowed to have their attor­ney present through­out their exe­cu­tion so that coun­sel could inter­vene and file for emer­gency relief if a prob­lem arose during the…

When California​’s Racial Justice Act becomes applic­a­ble to the cas­es of pris­on­ers on the state’s death row begin­ning in January 2023, it will vast­ly reshape the legal land­scape of the state’s death penal­ty, legal reform advocates…

A fed­er­al prison war­den has denied an Oklahoma District Attorney’s request to trans­fer John Fitzgerald Hanson (pic­tured) to Oklahoma​’s cus­tody to be exe­cut­ed, stat­ing that the trans­fer ​“is not in the public’s best inter­est.” Hanson is incar­cer­at­ed at a fed­er­al prison in…

Two lead­ing United Nations human rights experts have con­demned cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as incom­pat­i­ble with inter­na­tion­al legal require­ments, say­ing the death penal­ty is ​“almost impos­si­ble” to admin­is­ter while respect­ing the human rights of the…

The process of death qual­i­fi­ca­tion, which excludes peo­ple who oppose the death penal­ty from serv­ing on cap­i­tal juries, is racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry, civ­il rights advo­cate Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II wrote in an October 10, 2022…

Alan Eugene Miller has asked fed­er­al courts to bar Alabama from set­ting a sec­ond exe­cu­tion date days after the Alabama Attorney General’s office filed a motion in the state’s Supreme Court to expe­dite a new exe­cu­tion war­rant. The state attempt­ed to exe­cute Miller on September 22, 2022, but called off the exe­cu­tion after fail­ing to estab­lish an intra­venous (IV)…

With three jus­tices dis­sent­ing, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case of Texas death-row pris­on­er Andre Thomas, who was sen­tenced to death by jurors who admit­ted to racial bias. In a case involv­ing an inter­ra­cial mur­der and mar­riage, jurors who opposed inter­ra­cial rela­tion­ships were allowed to serve with­out objec­tion by defense coun­sel. These beliefs were ref­er­enced by the pros­e­cu­tion dur­ing clos­ing argu­ment at the sentencing…

In a 4 – 1 vote, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemen­cy to Richard Fairchild, the third of 25 peo­ple the state sched­uled for exe­cu­tion between August 2022 and December 2024. Fairchild’s attor­neys argued that he was rep­re­sent­ed at tri­al by incom­pe­tent coun­sel who nev­er pre­sent­ed evi­dence of Fairchild’s severe child­hood abuse and of his repeat­ed trau­mat­ic brain injuries. Fairchild’s clemen­cy peti­tion also detailed the debil­i­tat­ing effects of his…

The Death Penalty Information Center has released a new report on race and the death penal­ty in Oklahoma, plac­ing the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem in his­tor­i­cal con­text. The report doc­u­ments the role that race has played in Oklahoma’s death penal­ty and details the per­va­sive impact that racial dis­crim­i­na­tion con­tin­ues to have in the admin­is­tra­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death…