Publications & Testimony

During the sentencing phase of capital cases, sympathetic evidence about the life of the defendant is typically presented to jurors, who then must decide whether such mitigating factors merit sparing his or her life. Mitigation specialists play a crucial role in collecting such evidence. They document “the traumas, policy failures, family dynamics and individual choices that shape the lives of people who kill.” According to an article from The Marshall Project, there are fewer than 1,000…

On March 13, 2023, a jury in the federal death penalty prosecution of Sayfullo Saipov in New York City concluded its deliberations without coming to a unanimous decision regarding sentencing. As a result, Saipov will be sentenced to life in prison without parole. On January 26, the jury had unanimously found the defendant guilty of murdering eight people in 2017 by deliberately ramming a truck onto a crowded Manhattan bike path. Neither Saipov nor his attorneys contested his involvement in the…

Prompted by the high-profile cases of Melissa Lucio, Andre Thomas, and John Ramirez, bills have been introduced in the Texas legislature to help prevent miscarriages of justice. Representative Joe Moody (pictured right) has authored two bills, one that would authorize Texas prosecutors to cancel scheduled executions, and another to facilitate the use of scientific evidence to lessen a person’s sentence. Lucio and Thomas both had execution dates, but were granted temporary reprieves. Lucio…

In an article in the Cornell Law Review, Professors Jeffrey Fagan, Garth Davies, and Raymond Paternoster show how arbitrariness and race operate at each stage of a capital case, from charging death-eligible cases to plea negotiations to the selection of eligible cases for execution and ultimately to the execution itself. The authors applied rigorous analytic methods to a dataset of 2,328 first-degree murder cases in Georgia from 1995 – 2004 and found that two factors have significant influence…

A Grayson County, Texas court has withdrawn the April 5, 2023 execution date for Andre Thomas (pictured), a seriously mentally ill prisoner whose legal team requested more time to demonstrate that Thomas is incompetent to be executed. While incarcerated, Thomas gouged out his own eyes and claimed divine direction for his crimes. More than 100 religious leaders, along with other experts, had asked Gov. Greg Abbott to halt Thomas’ execution. “The Court was right to follow the Constitution by…

In Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain, (March 2023), author Russ Ford recounts the abuses he witnessed as the head chaplain of Virginia’s death row and the strong relationships he formed with more than a dozen condemned prisoners. Through stories, he describes the core of human dignity he experienced among death row prisoners, as well as the treacherous conditions these individuals faced during their final days. Ford vividly describes the inhumane treatment experienced…

In a case that demonstrates the risks inherent in the death penalty, Maurice Hastings was found “factually innocent” in Los Angeles of the crime that could have sent him to death row and eventual execution. On March 1, 2023, Judge William Ryan dismissed all charges and freed Hastings, who was serving a sentence of life without parole. The District Attorney’s Office had sought the death penalty for Hastings, which enables the prosecution to obtain a jury that is willing to impose a death…

On February 24, 2023, Governor Katie Hobbs [pictured] of Arizona announced the appointment of retired Judge David Duncan, a former federal magistrate, to lead Arizona’s Death Penalty Independent Review Committee, with all executions to be put on hold in the interim. “Arizona has a history of mismanaged executions that have resulted in serious concerns about ADCRR’s (Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, & Reentry) execution protocols and lack of transparency,” Governor Hobbs said…

In a recent op-ed published in the Miami Herald, former Florida warden Ron McAndrew wrote about his experience with electrocutions and lethal injections in Florida and Texas. He witnessed botched executions and observed the psychological effects that carrying out the death penalty has on the correctional officers involved. He noted, “Each time an execution was scheduled, I worked with my staff to manage the process in minute-by-minute detail. Despite this meticulous preparation, one execution…

In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice regarding limitations on the death penalty for those with diminished responsibility, Richard Bonnie summarizes the reasons why an exclusion for severe mental illness in capital cases is needed and examines key drafting issues that can be expected to arise in state legislatures. Bonnie was a member on the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Mental Disability and the Death Penalty, which was established in 2003 after…