Publications & Testimony

The United States Supreme Court heard argu­ment November 9, 2021 to review Texas death-row pris­on­er John Henry Ramirez​’s claim that the state’s refusal to allow his pas­tor to ​“lay hands” on him or pray audi­bly dur­ing his exe­cu­tion vio­lates the fed­er­al Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and his First Amendment right to the free exer­cise of reli­gion. The Court appeared trou­bled by Ramirez’s reli­gious free­dom claims,…

Nevada pros­e­cu­tors have asked a fed­er­al judge to expe­dite a deci­sion on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s exe­cu­tion process, say­ing accel­er­at­ed review is nec­es­sary if the state is to exe­cute Zane Floyd before its sup­ply of a ques­tion­ably obtained lethal-injec­tion drug expires on February 28,…

New pub­lic opin­ion polls show that, con­sis­tent with nation­al trends, sup­port for the death penal­ty is declin­ing in the con­ser­v­a­tive strong­holds of Utah and…

The Florida Attorney General’s office has tak­en steps to block DNA test­ing agreed to by local pros­e­cu­tors and approved by the tri­al court for two Florida death-row pris­on­ers who have pro­fessed their inno­cence for more than four…

In a rul­ing that pro­voked a sharp dis­sent from the Court’s lib­er­al minor­i­ty, the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review the case of a death-row pris­on­er whom pros­e­cu­tors and defense lawyers agree is not eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty as a result of recent revi­sions of the def­i­n­i­tion of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty by the medical…

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has for a sec­ond time rec­om­mend­ed that Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt grant clemen­cy to death-row pris­on­er Julius Jones (pic­tured dur­ing the clemency…

A Texas dis­trict court judge has rec­om­mend­ed that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) deny death-row pris­on­er Rodney Reed​’s inno­cence claim and allow his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence to stand for the 1996 mur­der of Stacey Stites. In a November 1, 2021 deci­sion after ten days of tes­ti­mo­ny in July and clos­ing state­ments in October, Bastrop County District Court Judge J.D. Langley issued Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Recommendations…

Two for­mer Alabama gov­er­nors, one a Democrat and one a Republican, have expressed seri­ous doubts about the death penal­ty in the state and across the…

Oklahoma​’s lega­cy of botched exe­cu­tions has con­tin­ued to grow, as media wit­ness­es to the October 28, 2021 exe­cu­tion of John Grant (pic­tured) report­ed that Grant suf­fered repeat­ed con­vul­sions and vom­it­ed over a near­ly 15-minute peri­od after he was admin­is­tered the con­tro­ver­sial exe­cu­tion drug…

Within hours of a par­ti­san vote in the United States Supreme Court lift­ing an appeals court stay, Oklahoma exe­cut­ed John Grant on October 28, 2021, end­ing a six-year hia­tus brought on by a series of exe­cu­tion mishaps in 2014 and 2015. Eyewitnesses report­ed that Grant con­vulsed more than two dozen times and vom­it­ed as Oklahoma put him to death with a con­tro­ver­sial three-drug exe­cu­tion cock­tail whose con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty is the sub­ject of a…