Publications & Testimony

Virginia’s his­toric abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty high­light­ed a year in which sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment con­tin­ued to erode, accord­ing to the 2021 Year End Report from the Death Penalty Information Center. Executions, death sen­tences, and pub­lic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment were all at or near his­toric lows in 2021, the report said, while the exe­cu­tions and new death sen­tences that did take place exposed deep flaws in the admin­is­tra­tion of the nation’s capital punishment…

A Texas tri­al judge has dis­missed all charges against an El Paso mur­der defen­dant, say­ing that the deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty against him was a prod­uct of ​“pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al…

The Alabama Court of the Judiciary has sus­pend­ed for 90 days with­out pay an African-American tri­al judge who declared the state’s death penal­ty statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and crit­i­cized appel­late review of some death penal­ty cas­es as ​“cer­e­mo­ni­al at…

More than 34 years after hav­ing been sen­tenced to death in Nashville, Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman is com­ing off Tennessee​’s death…

The num­ber of peo­ple under sen­tence of death in the United States has fall­en below 2,500 for the first time in 29 years fol­low­ing twen­ty con­sec­u­tive years of decline, accord­ing to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics…

The United States Supreme Court heard oral argu­ment on December 8, 2021 in a case that will have seri­ous impli­ca­tions for the right to fed­er­al court review of wrong­ful con­vic­tions and death sen­tences. Arizona has asked the Supreme Court to reverse fed­er­al appel­late court rul­ings in favor of Barry Jones and David Ramirez. The Court seemed skep­ti­cal of Arizona​’s argu­ment that even though the state pro­vid­ed inef­fec­tive coun­sel to represent…

As South Carolina pre­pares pro­ce­dures for car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions via fir­ing squad, an inves­ti­ga­tion by Columbia’s dai­ly news­pa­per, The State, reports that impor­tant infor­ma­tion about the exe­cu­tion process and the sources of mate­ri­als to be used in exe­cu­tions is being hid­den from the…

Oklahoma exe­cut­ed Bigler Jobe Stouffer II (pic­tured, at his clemen­cy hear­ing) on December 9, 2021, after Governor Kevin Stitt reject­ing a par­dons board rec­om­men­da­tion to com­mute his sen­tence to life with­out parole and the fed­er­al courts denied his appli­ca­tions to stay his exe­cu­tion. Stouffer, 79, was the old­est pris­on­er put to death in Oklahoma. It was the eleventh and final execution of…

Organizations advo­cat­ing for the rights of abused chil­dren and those with men­tal ill­ness and for fair process are urg­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to, for a sec­ond time, sum­mar­i­ly reverse a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) deci­sion that upheld the death sen­tence imposed on Terence Andrus (pic­tured) despite defense counsel’s fail­ure to inves­ti­gate and present a ​“tidal wave” of avail­able mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence in the penal­ty phase of his capital…