Publications & Testimony

Maryland pros­e­cu­tors used the same DNA evi­dence that freed Kirk Bloodsworth (pic­tured) from Maryland’s death row to secure a life-in-prison sen­tence for Kimberly Shay Ruffner, the man who has now con­fessed to the 1984 mur­der of Dawn Hamilton. Bloodsworth spent years on death row for the rape and mur­der of Hamilton before DNA evi­dence con­clu­sive­ly showed that he could not have com­mit­ted the crime. In 1993, he became the first death row inmate in the coun­try to be freed on…

In 1993, when 17-year-old Christopher Simmons abduct­ed and mur­dered his neigh­bor, lit­tle did he know that some of the nation’s top brain researchers and psy­chi­a­trists would one day rush to his defense before the…

Great Britain may refuse to hand over evi­dence of Saddam Hussein’s crimes to Iraqi pros­e­cu­tors or per­mit gov­ern­ment staff to tes­ti­fy against the for­mer dic­ta­tor because of the nation’s oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. Despite human rights objec­tions from British offi­cials who helped estab­lish the spe­cial tri­bunal that will try Hussein and oth­er senior mem­bers of his regime, Iraqis have insist­ed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment remain a sen­tenc­ing option for some crimes.

The U.S. Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly ruled that an Alabama death row inmate could pur­sue his claim that the lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures in his case con­sti­tute cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. David Nelson, who was less than three hours away from his sched­uled exe­cu­tion last fall when the Supreme Court gave him a tem­po­rary reprieve, had filed a claim under sec­tion 1983 of the Civil Rights…

Laurence Adams, who was sen­tenced to death in Massachusetts in 1974 short­ly before the state final­ly aban­doned cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, was released on May 20 after spend­ing three decades of his life in prison. In April 2004, a judge over­turned Adams’ con­vic­tion when new evi­dence, includ­ing con­flict­ing state­ments from the state’s star wit­ness and a statement from…

An April 2004 poll of North Carolinians revealed that 63% of respon­dents sup­port a halt to exe­cu­tions while the state’s death penal­ty is stud­ied, and many respon­dents have doubts about the accu­ra­cy of the death penalty. ​“Support for the two-year sus­pen­sion of exe­cu­tions is wide­spread and cuts across all demo­graph­ic groups, regions of the state and polit­i­cal par­ty affil­i­a­tion. This is clear­ly an issue that res­onates with the peo­ple of North Carolina,” stated…

Both city vot­ers and the Bar Association of San Francisco have voiced sup­port for San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris’ deci­sion to not seek the death penal­ty in the case against David Hill, who is accused of killing city police offi­cer Isaac Espinoza. A recent poll found that 70% of respon­dents backed Harris’ deci­sion, while only 22% opposed the choice and 8% remained unde­cid­ed. The poll also found that 65% of those sur­veyed gave Harris’ over­all per­for­mance as District…

SCOTT TUROW’S REVERSIBLE ERRORS DEBUTED THIS WEEKEND A tele­vi­sion mini-series based on the fic­tion nov­el Reversible Errors, a best-sel­l­­ing book by award- win­ning author and cap­i­tal defense attor­ney Scott Turow, began on CBS on Sunday May 23, and will con­clude Tuesday May 25, 2004. In the film, a cor­po­rate lawyer is assigned to draft the final appeal of…

On the eve of the Kelsey Patterson’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion in Texas, the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles vot­ed 5 – 1 to rec­om­mend that Governor Rick Perry com­mute Patterson’s death sen­tence to life in prison. In its rare rec­om­men­da­tion for clemen­cy, the Board not­ed that if Governor Perry refus­es to grant clemen­cy, Patterson, a men­tal­ly ill man who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on Tuesday, May 18^th, should receive a 120-day reprieve. The Board’s actions mark the first…

Just days before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Osvaldo Torres, a Mexican for­eign nation­al on Oklahoma’s death row, Governor Brad Henry grant­ed a request for clemen­cy in part because of a recent International Court of Justice deci­sion order­ing the United States to review the cas­es of 51 Mexican for­eign nation­als on death row because they were denied their right to seek con­sular assis­tance fol­low­ing their arrest. Henry’s announce­ment came just hours after the Oklahoma Court of…