Voices: Stephen Rohde
May 18, 2017
Last year, the editors of the Southwestern Law Review asked Stephen Rohde, a constitutional lawyer and DPF board chair, if he was interested in writing
Last year, the editors of the Southwestern Law Review asked Stephen Rohde, a constitutional lawyer and DPF board chair, if he was interested in writing
While the state of Arkansas continues with its plans to execute Kenneth Williams by lethal injection tonight, his lawyers are trying to obtain a stay
This month marks the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots. It also marks the 25th anniversary of the resumption of executions in California after
Guardian reporter Jacob Rosenberg was one of the witnesses to the execution of Marcel Williams, who was the second man put to death by the
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe earlier today commuted the death sentence of Ivan Teleguz, who was scheduled to be executed this Tuesday. There was no physical
Two Arkansas death row inmates, Bruce Ward and Don Davis, will not be executed tonight. The Arkansas Supreme Court this afternoon granted stays of executions
Beginning the day after Easter, and continuing over the next 11 days, the state plans to kill seven men, four of whom are black, three white.
The reaction has ranged from shock and horror to concern for the men and women who will be carrying out this mass execution.
Orlando State Attorney Aramis Ayala is fighting back against Gov. Rick Scott, who took 23 murder cases away from her department because of her stance on the death penalty.
After an 18-month hiatus following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hurst v. Florida decision, Florida is gearing up to begin executions again. Yesterday, the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion in Hitchcock v. Florida that could affect several other death penalty cases that have been on hold pending the resolution of this one. In a brief decision, the court rejected the plaintiff’s seven arguments that his death sentence was unconstitutional because it
Ohio executed its first inmate in three-and-a-half years late last month, using a new three-drug protocol, including midazolam, rocuronium bromide, and potassium chloride. Forty-five-year-old Ronald Phillips was put to death for the rape and murder of Sheila Marie Evans in 1993. Akron Beacon Journal reporter Jim Mackinnon, who witnessed the execution, reported that Phillips apologized to his victims’ family members, who were present, saying “I’m sorry to each and every
“There is no justification for executing the insane, and no reasoned support for it, as only a glance at the brief of amici—filed by able and fervent citizens spanning the spectrum of political views—will confirm.” So wrote the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in its ruling last month that sent the case of Scott Panetti, a mentally ill man who was sentenced to death in 1995 in Texas,
In Texas, TaiChin Preyor was executed late last month, after his appeal was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. Preyor, who was convicted of the murder of 24-year-old Jami Tackett in 2004 during a drug deal, had appealed his conviction on the grounds that his lawyer had never tried a murder case in Texas before, and relied on Wikipedia for research. This was the fifth execution in Texas this year.
“To spend 20 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and emerge with his humanity and dignity intact … to spend 20 years, day in and day out, fighting for his freedom, it was just so extraordinary. It was totally compelling.”
A petition drive that was started by five men exonerated from Ohio’s death row culminated today with the delivery of 100 thousand signatures to the office of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, asking him to block the execution of Ron Phillips this Wednesday, July 26. Ohioans to Stop Executions delivered the petitions, which were signed by a former prison warden, faith leaders, murder victims’ family members, corrections officials, and citizens. Two
A diverse group of death penalty opponents held a news conference at the state capitol in Ohio on Wednesday to ask Gov. John Kasich to call off the scheduled execution of Ronald Phillips next Wednesday. The Columbus Dispatch reports that a group that included faith leaders, a retired appeals court judge who chaired the state’s task force on the death penalty, corrections officials, and death row exonerees delivered a petition
Scharlette Holdman, who died last week, was renowned in the criminal justice world as one of the foremost death penalty mitigation specialists in the country. “What she saw is that killers are not just born. They have had unbelievably abused and neglectful lives, and that history is relevant,” death penalty lawyer George Kendall told the Marshall Project. Much like Marie Deans, another well-known mitigation specialist (we interviewed her biographer, Todd
“The execution of a man suffering from severe mental illness is an act of particular barbarism — especially if his condition may have been misdiagnosed in trial,” the Washington Post wrote about the William Morva case late last month. But that editorial, as well as one that ran in the LA Post Examiner declaring that, “There are many good, even honorable reasons, for Governor McAuliffe to spare Mr. Morva’s life,” had