Publications & Testimony

On January 23, 2025, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals lift­ed an injunc­tion enjoin­ing the enforce­ment of an Arizona statute, Victim Contact Limits, which pro­hibits crim­i­nal defense teams from con­tact­ing crime vic­tims and their fam­i­ly mem­bers direct­ly. The restric­tions are found in Arizona’s Victim Rights Implementation Act (Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13- 4433(B)) and also apply to death penal­ty cas­es. The deci­sion means that pris­on­ers and their lawyers may no longer engage directly…

According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s annu­al Year in Review, Texas’ death row con­tin­ued to shrink in 2024, reflect­ing pros­e­cu­tors’ increas­ing reluc­tance to bring new cap­i­tal cas­es and juries’ grow­ing reluc­tance to sen­tence indi­vid­u­als to death. Texas juries imposed just six new death sen­tences in 2024, mark­ing the tenth con­sec­u­tive year of sin­­gle-dig­it death sen­tences. Five of those six involved defen­dants of col­or, following…

According to inves­tiga­tive report­ing from the AZ Mirror, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, & Reentry (ADCRR) is stor­ing the state’s sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal salt, the active ingre­di­ent used in a com­pound­ed form in lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions, in eight unmarked glass con­tain­ers in a prison refrig­er­a­tor, rais­ing doubts about the drugs’ authen­tic­i­ty and effi­ca­cy. ADCRR has refused to reveal how long it has been in pos­ses­sion of these…

At Brenda Andrew’s 2004 tri­al in Oklahoma for the mur­der of her hus­band, the pros­e­cu­tor called wit­ness­es to tes­ti­fy about her​“provoca­tive” cloth­ing and her pre­vi­ous sex­u­al rela­tion­ships, and ques­tioned​“whether a good moth­er would dress or behave” the way she had. Jurors heard Ms. Andrew called a​“hoochie” and a​“slut pup­py.” In his clos­ing argu­ment, the pros­e­cu­tor opened a suit­case and showed the jury Ms. Andrew’s under­wear, ask­ing,​“The grieving widow…

Three and a half years after announc­ing its inves­ti­ga­tion into the fed­er­al death penal­ty pro­to­col, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on January 15, 2025 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is rescind­ing the fed­er­al government’s sin­­gle-drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. The DOJ’s deci­sion was based on what AG Garland called​“sig­nif­i­cant uncer­tain­ty” about whether exe­cu­tions by pen­to­bar­bi­tal caused unnec­es­sary pain and suf­fer­ing. The…

A recent op-ed in the Idaho Statesman high­lights a num­ber of dif­fi­cul­ties that are a result of his­toric under­spend­ing on cap­i­tal defense as the state pre­pares for its first exe­cu­tion since 2012. Idaho’s pub­lic defense sys­tem is tran­si­tion­ing to statewide over­sight as part of an effort to address long­stand­ing inequities in coun­­ty-fund­ed legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. With the con­sol­i­da­tion of the pub­lic defend­er sys­tem came pay increas­es for most of Idaho’s…

On January 10, 2025, three Connecticut law­mak­ers intro­duced a bill that would make it ille­gal to man­u­fac­ture and sell any drugs or med­ical devices in the state meant to car­ry out the death penal­ty. In 2024, Connecticut-based com­pa­ny Absolute Standards was iden­ti­fied as the source of lethal injec­tion drugs used in 13 fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in 2020 and 2021. In a let­ter to the bill’s spon­sors, John Criscio, President of Absolute Standards, said the com­pa­ny ceased production…