Publications & Testimony

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Robert Lee Miller, Jr. was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and held on death row for three years after DNA evi­dence proved he was inno­cent. Bob Macy and Joyce Gilchrist both played a role in his wrong­ful cap­i­tal conviction.[1] Miller was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1998 for the mur­ders and rapes of two elder­ly women.[2] Gilchrist report­ed that semen col­lect­ed from the scene point­ed to some­one with type‑A blood, and hairs found at the scene were said to have ​“negroid characteristics.”[3] Miller…

Malcolm Rent Johnson, a Black man, was tried, con­vict­ed, and sen­tenced to death by an all-white jury for the rape and mur­der of an elder­ly white woman in Oklahoma City in 1982.[1] Johnson was tried by Bob Macy, and his con­vic­tion was based in part on tes­ti­mo­ny from Joyce Gilchrist. Johnson was exe­cut­ed in January 2000, only a year before Gilchrist’s wide­spread mis­con­duct came to light. [2] Doubts about Johnson’s guilt still linger…

Tremane Wood was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma County in 2004.[1] He was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of Ronnie Wipf dur­ing the com­mis­sion of a rob­bery, a mur­der that his broth­er, Zjaiton​“Jake” Wood, admit­ted com­mit­ting.[2] However, Jake was rep­re­sent­ed by a lit­i­ga­tion team that worked dili­gent­ly to secure a life sen­tence.[3] Meanwhile, Tremane was appoint­ed John Albert, an over­worked attor­ney who was strug­gling with alco­hol and substance use…

On October 14, 2022, the Death Penalty Information Center released Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty, a report plac­ing Oklahoma’s death penal­ty sys­tem in his­tor­i­cal con­text. Below are some of the impor­tant facts peo­ple should know as the state con­tin­ues its 25-person execution…

A non-unan­i­­mous Florida jury has returned a ver­dict of life with­out parole for Nikolas Cruz, the teen offend­er con­vict­ed of killing 17 peo­ple in the February 14, 2018 shoot­ing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (pic­tured) in Parkland, Florida. The October 13, 2022 ver­dict, in which three jurors vot­ed to spare Cruz’s life, con­clud­ed a six-month sen­tenc­ing tri­al. Florida law, like that of near­ly every death-penalty…