Publications & Testimony

In Kentucky, a Franklin Circuit Court judge will hear evi­dence for pos­si­bly five days in April on whether the state’s method of exe­cut­ing pris­on­ers is humane. Medical experts will tes­ti­fy about the drugs, dosage and train­ing of the peo­ple who admin­is­ter the 3‑drug lethal-injec­­tion cock­tail. Lawyers for con­demned inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. and Ralph Baze sued the state in August, say­ing Kentucky’s method of exe­cu­tion vio­lates a pris­on­er’s Eighth Amendment right not…

Seven peo­ple on Georgia’s death row are with­out legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion as they face their final rounds of appeal. Georgia does not guar­an­tee pub­licly fund­ed lawyers for death row inmates beyond the first round of appeal. According to many legal experts, includ­ing retired Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Clark, the fail­ure to pro­vide legal coun­sel increas­es the like­li­hood of a wrongful execution. ​“It’s a very impor­tant check in the sys­tem that’s missing.

In a recent Hartford Courant opin­ion piece, psy­chi­a­trist Robert C. Goodwin spoke about the men­tal ill­ness afflict­ing Michael Ross, who is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Connecticut on January 26. Dr. Goodwin was a psy­chi­atric con­sul­tant to the state of Connecticut from 1983 – 2001 and took part in Michael Ross’ eval­u­a­tion and treat­ment over the years, appear­ing as an expert wit­ness in Ross’ sec­ond tri­al. Dr. Goodwin believes the exe­cu­tion should be stopped: Although…

A recent report issued by the Kansas Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee exam­ines the state’s appli­ca­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the hefty price tag of seek­ing the death penal­ty. The Committee found that since Kansas rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1994 there were 44 poten­tial cap­i­tal cas­es involv­ing minor­i­ty vic­tims. However, none of these cas­es result­ed in a death sen­tence. Of the eight defen­dants in Kansas who did receive death sen­tences, all of…

Just days before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Donald Beardslee in California, the Los Angeles Times has called for his clemen­cy while ques­tion­ing the even-hand­ed­­ness of the whole sys­tem. The edi­to­r­i­al con­cludes that the death penal­ty is a​“lie” to the peo­ple of California: Donald Beardslee was 38 years old in 1981 when he shot one woman and stran­gled and slashed anoth­er in San Mateo County, retal­i­a­tion for a soured drug deal. He is now 61. So many years have passed since…

Following a manslaugh­ter con­vic­tion for a crime com­mit­ted when he was 19 years old in Louisiana in 1961, Wilbert Rideau, the acclaimed prison jour­nal­ist, was set free by the tri­al judge on Saturday, January 15. His con­vic­tion car­ries a max­i­mum sen­tence of 21 years and Rideau has already served 44 years in prison, pri­mar­i­ly in Angola. Rideau, who is black, was orig­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death by an all-white, all-male jury for killing a white woman. His death…

Following a manslaugh­ter con­vic­tion for a crime com­mit­ted when he was 19 years old in Louisiana in 1961, Wilbert Rideau, the acclaimed prison jour­nal­ist, was set free by the tri­al judge on Saturday. January 15. His con­vic­tion car­ries a max­i­mum sen­tence of 21 years and Rideau has already served 44 years in prison, pri­mar­i­ly in Angola. Rideau, who is black, was orig­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death by an all-white, all-male jury for killing a white woman. His death…

Opinion; San Francisco Chronicle, January…

Note: The Court of Appeals denied the chal­lenge to California’s lethal injec­tion process. Just one week before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of California death row inmate Donald Beardslee, judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit are con­sid­er­ing a suit filed by the ACLU of California, Death Penalty Focus, and Beardslee’s defense attor­neys con­cern­ing the state’s use of a par­a­lyz­ing chem­i­cal called Pavulon in lethal injec­tions. Beardslee’s attorneys said…

Among the new resources avail­able on DPIC’s Web site are sum­maries of death penal­ty cas­es the U.S. Supreme Court has recent­ly agreed to hear, includ­ing the case involv­ing Mexican cit­i­zens on U.S. death rows. The upcom­ing cas­es sum­ma­rized include Medellin v. Dretke, Bell v. Thompson, and Mitchell v. Stumpf. In addi­tion to these sum­maries, DPIC has post­ed an overview of the new Innocence Protection Act, as well as an updat­ed ver­sion of it’s 4‑page Death Penalty Fact…