Publications & Testimony

A July 2024 report from the Texas Defender Service (TDS), An Unfulfilled Promise: Assessing the Efficacy of 11.073, the first-ever com­pre­hen­sive review of Texas’ junk sci­ence writ, revealed that the ​“law sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly fails to pro­vide relief to inno­cent peo­ple con­vict­ed based on false foren­sic evi­dence.” In 2013, the Texas Legislature passed a first-of-its-kind law, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.073, cre­at­ing a pro­ce­dur­al path­way for con­vict­ed indi­vid­u­als to seek new…

In hon­or of Disability Pride Month (July), the Death Penalty Information Center post­ed a week­ly fea­ture high­light­ing issues relat­ed to the death penal­ty and dis­abil­i­ty and pro­files of indi­vid­u­als who have played key roles in chang­ing the laws to pro­tect pris­on­ers with dis­abil­i­ties. This final post focus­es on the role of mitigation…

UPDATE: On August 2^nd, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revoked the July 31, 2024 plea agree­ment reached between mil­i­tary com­mis­sions pros­e­cu­tors and defense coun­sel for three of the 9/​11 defen­dants being held at Guantanamo. In a two-para­graph memo, Secretary Austin revoked the author­i­ty of Susan Escallier, the head of the Military Commissions Convening Authority, to enter into the plea agree­ments and reserved that author­i­ty for him­self. This unex­pect­ed devel­op­ment negates…

On July 26, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s request to block an evi­den­tiary hear­ing sched­uled for August 21^st, 2024, where the St. Louis County Circuit Court is set to hear evi­dence of Marcellus Williams’ (pic­tured) inno­cence. The cir­cuit court set the August 21^st hear­ing in response to a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’ con­vic­tion and death sen­tence filed by Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell in January 2024. In his motion, DA Bell wrote that the…

Brian Wharton, who was the lead detec­tive in Palestine, Texas at the time of Robert Roberson’s con­vic­tion for the death of his two-year-old daugh­ter Nikki, now believes Mr. Roberson is inno­cent and sup­ports abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. Mr. Wharton said in a video for The New York Times that there is ​“unas­sail­able doubt” that Mr. Roberson is…

With Utah prepar­ing for its first exe­cu­tion in 14 years, one of the state’s lead­ing news­pa­pers has issued a call not only to spare Taberon Honie, the pris­on­er set for exe­cu­tion on August 8, 2024, but to end the prac­tice of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment alto­geth­er. In a July 25 edi­to­r­i­al, the Salt Lake Tribune high­lights Mr. Honie’s abu­sive upbring­ing and his sin­cere remorse for the crime, say­ing his case for clemen­cy ​“is strong.” The day after the edi­to­r­i­al was pub­lished, the Utah Board of Pardons and…

In a new analy­sis, the Death Penalty Information Center has found that exec­u­tive offi­cials most often cite dis­pro­por­tion­ate sen­tenc­ing, pos­si­ble inno­cence, and mit­i­ga­tion fac­tors such as intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty or men­tal ill­ness as rea­sons to grant clemen­cy in cap­i­tal cas­es. Ineffective defense lawyer­ing and offi­cial mis­con­duct are also com­mon fac­tors in clemen­cy grants. While present in few­er cas­es, sup­port for clemen­cy from the victim’s fam­i­ly or a deci­sion­mak­er in the orig­i­nal tri­al, such…

As Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price seeks to rem­e­dy her office’s his­to­ry of dis­crim­i­na­to­ry jury selec­tion, an study pub­lished in the 2024 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies by Catherine M. Grosso, Jeffrey Fagan, and Michael Laurence finds empir­i­cal evi­dence that the race of the defen­dant and the race of the vic­tim affect the like­li­hood of a death sen­tence being imposed in…

This July, in hon­or of Disability Pride Month, the Death Penalty Information Center is post­ing a week­ly fea­ture high­light­ing issues relat­ed to the death penal­ty and dis­abil­i­ty and pro­files of indi­vid­u­als who have played key roles in chang­ing the laws to pro­tect pris­on­ers with…

On July 18, 2024, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the state Supreme Court to block a sched­uled evi­den­tiary hear­ing for Marcellus Williams and deny him the oppor­tu­ni­ty to estab­lish his inno­cence before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on September 24, 2024. The Circuit Court of St. Louis County sched­uled the August 21^st hear­ing to assess the ​“clear and con­vinc­ing” evi­dence of Mr. Williams’ actu­al inno­cence that prompt­ed St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to file a motion to vacate…