Publications & Testimony

A num­ber of states are grap­pling with the ques­tion of whether the lethal injec­tion drug Pavulon, also known as pan­curo­ni­um bro­mide, par­a­lyzes a con­demned inmate’s mus­cles in a way that masks hor­rif­ic pain felt dur­ing an exe­cu­tion, a side-effect that experts say could vio­late of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The Tennessee Supreme Court heard argu­ments about this issue in a death row case in June 2005 and a sim­i­lar case is expect­ed to reach the Kentucky Supreme…

Retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s evolv­ing skep­ti­cism about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has played a sig­nif­i­cant role in a num­ber of key deci­sions regard­ing the death penal­ty through­out her 24 years on the U.S. Supreme Court. During pub­lic appear­ances in recent years, she has often men­tioned her con­cerns about inno­cence and the need to pro­tect a cap­i­tal defen­dan­t’s con­sti­tu­tion­al right to ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. In a 2001 speech she stat­ed, ​“Serious ques­tions are being raised about whether the…

By a vote of 5 – 4, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a low­er court’s grant of relief to Tennessee death row inmate Gregory Thompson. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had announced that its ini­tial denial of Thompson’s appeal was mis­tak­en. After first deny­ing Thompson’s habeas cor­pus peti­tion, the Sixth Circuit dis­cov­ered pre­vi­ous­ly uncon­sid­ered evi­dence that Thompson was suf­fer­ing from schiz­o­phre­nia at the time of the offense. The court recon­sid­ered the case in light of the…

Murdering Myths: The Story Behind the Death Penalty, a new book by Judith W. Kay, uses the per­son­al expe­ri­ences of both crime vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and those on death row to exam­ine America’s beliefs about crime and pun­ish­ment. Noting that researchers have raised ques­tions about the exe­cu­tion of inno­cent peo­ple, racial bias in sen­tenc­ing, and cap­i­tal pun­ish­men­t’s fail­ure to act as a deter­rent, Kay asks why Americans still sup­port the death penal­ty. She uses inter­views with those most…

Texas Governor Rick Perry has announced the appoint­ment of the mem­bers of the state’s new Criminal Justice Advisory Council, includ­ing three judges, two promi­nent state leg­is­la­tors, a defense attor­ney, a pros­e­cu­tor, and 13 addi­tion­al ex-offi­cio mem­bers. The com­mis­sion will study poten­tial flaws and rec­om­mend changes to the state’s jus­tice sys­tem. This is the first group in many years to have broad-rang­ing author­i­ty to look at the Texas crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem from arrest to final…

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a cap­i­tal case chal­leng­ing the stan­dard of proof need­ed for claims of inno­cence based on new evi­dence. The Justices will con­sid­er an appeal filed by Paul House, a Tennessee death row inmate who says new DNA evi­dence proves he was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. In 1993 in Herrera v. Collins, a 5‑member major­i­ty of the Court said a claim of inno­cence based on new evi­dence alone is gen­er­al­ly not enough to mer­it a new hear­ing in fed­er­al court. However, in 1995 in…

Retired Orange County, California Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin, who was once known as ​“the hang­ing judge,” recent­ly called for an end to the death penal­ty. In a col­umn he pub­lished in the Orange County Register, McCartin revealed that a num­ber of recent death penal­ty cas­es and rul­ings by the U.S. Supreme Court have led him to now oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment because it is expen­sive and can nev­er be applied in a fair and bal­anced way. He…

After an audit of Virginia’s Division of Forensic Science result­ed in crit­i­cism of the crime lab­o­ra­to­ry’s pro­ce­dures in test­ing DNA evi­dence, the state announced that it will now review the lab’s find­ings in 160 cas­es, includ­ing approx­i­mate­ly 24 death penal­ty cas­es that hung on DNA evi­dence. Robert J. Humphreys, a Virginia Court of Appeals judge, is lead­ing the review effort to exam­ine cas­es that date from 1994. This marks the first time Virginia has vol­un­teered to revis­it find­ings in the…

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette stat­ed that the death penal­ty is more expen­sive than life with­out parole and offers Indiana res­i­dents no mea­sur­able ben­e­fit for their tax dol­lars. The paper said that end­ing the death penal­ty and real­lo­cat­ing funds cur­rent­ly put toward cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment would improve pro­grams such as vic­tim’s assis­tance, grass­roots police pro­grams, and social ser­vice agen­cies that work with at-risk youth. The Journal Gazette edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: The death penalty…

Texas Governor Rick Perry (pic­tured) has com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of 28 juve­nile offend­ers to life in prison, an act that brings the state into com­pli­ance with a recent U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing that deemed the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing those who were under 18 at the time of their crime uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. While some of these inmates will remain in more restric­tive seg­re­ga­tion, many will have their first expo­sure to prison work pro­grams, school­ing, and jobs with­in a prison unit. Current Texas…