After 40 years in solitary confinement, Herman Wallace is dying and might be...
In his fantastic and thoughtful new piece in The Atlantic, “Did the Wrong Man Spend 40 Years in Solitary Confinement?” Andrew Cohen argues that Herman Wallace, a man who spent four decades in solitary...
View ArticleSCOTUS to address rigid IQ cutoff in Florida's capital cases
Since the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited the execution of persons with intellectual disability (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002), it has been up to the states to enforce this constitutional protection. But...
View ArticleThe troubling case of Freddie Hall heads to the Supreme Court
On Monday, March 3, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Hall v. Florida, a case challenging Florida’s unscientific standard for determining intellectual disability in capital cases.In a...
View ArticleVictim's Daughter, Fmr Juror, & MO NAACP Urge MO Gov. to Grant Clemency to...
A group of unlikely allies is urging Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to grant clemency to John Winfield, a man scheduled to be executed on June 18th a little after midnight. The group, whose declarations...
View ArticleAME Church Leaders Join Growing List of Missourians Supporting Clemency for...
On Monday, clergy and leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal church added their voices to a growing group of prominent individuals urging Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to grant clemency to John...
View ArticleOklahoma’s Execution Procedures Found Appallingly Lacking in Newspaper...
When Oklahoma horrifically botched the execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29, many were left to wonder just how an execution could go so terribly wrong. A new Tulsa World investigation suggests that...
View ArticleOK, MO Governors win “Golden Padlock” award for “unwavering commitment” to...
This weekend, the prestigious national journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) awarded its annual “Golden Padlock” award to Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and Missouri Governor...
View ArticleExecuted But Innocent: New Book Details Harrowing Case of Carlos DeLuna
As support for capital punishment in America continues to erode, a new book might be the next nail in the death penalty’s coffin. The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of A Wrongful Execution details the harrowing...
View ArticleAZ Death Row Prisoner: First Amendment Rights Require Lethal Injection...
An Arizona death row prisoner is arguing that the government’s secrecy is in violation of the First Amendment rights of all citizens to have complete information about the execution process.Joseph...
View ArticleTexas Wants to Execute This Insane Man: Will SCOTUS Step In?
Ron Honberg of the National Association of Mental Illness begins his recent op-ed for the National Law Journal describing a situation so strange that one assumes it is fiction:A person diagnosed with...
View ArticleSentenced to death and later found innocent, one man seeks to bring his story...
Convicted of murder and sentenced to death, yet innocent. This hell is unimaginable to most people, but it was all too real for Kirk Bloodsworth.Bloodsworth spent eight years in prison, including two...
View ArticleTell TX: Executing Mentally Ill Scott Panetti Would Cross the Line of Common...
This is the enduring image of Scott Panetti, a severely mentally ill man on death row in Texas: a paranoid schizophrenic wearing a TV-Western cowboy costume; on trial for his life; insisting on...
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New Infographic: The Declining Death Penalty
A new infographic shows that the trend away from capital punishment usage in states continued in 2014, demonstrating a growing national consensus against use of the death penalty:
View ArticleScience-schmience, Georgia just wants to execute this intellectually disabled...
Here’s a riddle: Unless the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles or the U.S. Supreme Court steps in, Warren Hill will be executed on January 27th in Georgia. Yet if Hill lived in any other state, he...
View ArticleAn Opportunity For Justice: Gov. Kitzhaber should commute the sentences of...
Oregon's four-term Governor John Kitzhaber has the power to do an urgently needed act of justice today: commute the death sentences of Oregon's 34 men and one woman before he leaves office. According...
View ArticleFormer Attorneys General: Oklahoma's Lethal Injection Process Flawed
In early 2014, Oklahoma state officials needed a new execution drug cocktail. Here’s how they went about finding one:[T]he lawyers searched the internet for ideas. They called some of their colleagues...
View ArticlePharmacologist: Oklahoma Can’t Square Its Lethal Injection Protocol with Science
Last week, Oklahoma state officials drew the criticism of two former attorneys general for their hasty selection of midazolam for the state's lethal injection protocol. Now Oklahoma’s choice of...
View ArticleWhy states could be botching executions we’ll never know about
Imagine your entire body feels like it’s on fire, but you’re unable to move, scream, or indicate you’re in discomfort in any way. The idea may sound farfetched, but it’s the gruesome reality of some...
View ArticleSCOTUS Should Find Okla. Execution Drug Protocol Unconstitutional, Say...
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Glossip v. Gross, a case challenging whether the drug midazolam is suitable for use in lethal injection executions. Glossip, which examines...
View ArticleLaw Profs: SCOTUS Should Focus on Risky Execution Drug, Not Activists
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a lethal injection case from Oklahoma, Glossip v. Gross, which focused on a challenge to a specific drug, midazolam. The case centers on whether midazolam, a...
View ArticleNew Report: Oklahoma Misleads the Supreme Court
What drove Oklahoma to use the controversial drug midazolam in lethal injection executions?That was a key point of debate two weeks ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Glossip v....
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