New Voices
,Mar 31, 2017
As Arkansas moves toward attempting to conduct an unprecedented eight executions in eleven days, former corrections officials from across the country are…
New Voices
,Federal Death Penalty
,Aug 05, 2019
A former high-ranking federal corrections official has warned that the federal government’s plan to execute five prisoners over a five-week period in December and January risks seriously traumatizing correctional workers. Allen Ault (pictured) is …
New Voices
,Sep 21, 2016
Semon Frank Thompson (pictured), a former superintendent at the Oregon State Penitentiary, oversaw both of the executions carried out under Oregon’s death pe…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Federal Death Penalty
,Nov 13, 2019
Hundreds of former state and federal judges, prosecutors, law enforcement and corrections officials, and family members of homicide victims have signed on to a series of letters urging the federal government to halt the five federal executions sch…
Jul 18, 2003
Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford said that criminal defendants in Texas are at the mercy of prosecutors in an unfair system that emphasizes winning rather than justice. Bradford said that he believes there is sufficient probable cause to convene…
Costs
,New Voices
,Nov 21, 2007
Norm Stamper, a 35-year veteran police officer from San Diego, recently wrote in The Mercury News that from his experience, “the death penalty is inefficient and extravagantly expensive.” Instead of spending millions of dollars on the death penalt…
Innocence
,Clemency
,New Voices
,Nov 17, 2008
On November 10 in Richmond, Virginia, thirty former FBI agents held a press conference calling for the pardon of four sailors, known as the Norfolk Four, who were convicted of rape and murder. Their convictions were based mainly on their own confe…
Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Jan 13, 2006
A group of 40 law enforcement officers, current and former prosecutors, and judges at the state and federal level have urged California lawmakers to enact a temporary halt to executions in the state while a commission examines the accuracy and fai…
Sentencing Alternatives
,New Voices
,Nov 09, 2006
The former warden of the Virginia prison that houses the state’s death row inmates has called for clemency for a man about to be executed on November 9. Page True was warden of the Sussex I State Prison and knew death row inmate
New Voices
,Nov 27, 2006
Dennis O’Neill had been an assistant warden at Florida State Prison for two years and warden at Union Correctional Institution for 7 years, both death row prisons. He eventually left the correctional system and became an Episcopal priest. He was a…
Innocence
,New Voices
,Jul 12, 2016
During his 45 years in law enforcement, including 24 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, homicide investigator Tom Parker (pictured) changed his view on the death penalty. “There were times during my career when I woul…
Nov 29, 2004
William S. Sessions, who served as director of the FBI from 1987 to 1993, and Charles F. Baird, a former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge from 1990 to 1998, have called for a halt to executions in Texas because of the risk of…
Innocence
,New Voices
,May 31, 2007
In a guest column published in the Jurist, former FBI Director William S. Sessions underscored the importance of making DNA testing available for those facing execution. He also encouraged states to thoroughly review thei…
Jun 26, 2003
NEW VOICES: Former FBI Chief Sessions Calls for Innocence Commission in Texas In a recent op-ed, William Sessions called on state legislators in Texas to pass a measure to create an Innocence Commission. The Commission would examine the Texas crim…
Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Sep 27, 2006
The former Director of the FBI, William Sessions (pictured), along with Timothy Lewis, a former judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, called on members of Congress to refrain from barring death row inmates and other…
New Voices
,Jul 02, 2007
Eleven years after supervising his first execution as at the Florida State Prison at Starke, former warden Ron McAndrew is urging an end to the death penalty. McAndrew is calling on states to abandon capital punishment and replace it with life wit…
New Voices
,Nov 07, 2017
Former high-ranking law enforcement officials from Arizona and Kansas have called on their states to end the death penalty. In separate op-ed stories one week apart, former Arizona Attorney General Terry G…
New Voices
,Jan 16, 2007
Reggie Wilkinson, who witnessed 19 executions during his 33 years with the Ohio Department of Corrections, recently stated that he would like to see executions ended in the state. Wilkinson, who served for 15 years as Director of the Department of…
Costs
,Deterrence
,New Voices
,Oct 02, 2008
The former warden of San Quentin prison in California, Jeanne Woodford, regrets having taken part in executions and has called for replacing the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole. In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Woodf…
New Voices
,Executions Overview
,Nov 20, 2007
Jim Willet, former warden of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Walls Unit where Texas executions take place, recently described his experiences to the Dallas Observer as emotionally difficult for him. As warden during 1998 – 2001, three of …
Clemency
,New Voices
,Jan 03, 2006
Former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin and former San Quentin warden Daniel Vasquez are urging California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency to Clarence Ray Allen. Allen, who will turn 76 just a day before his schedule…
Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Dec 08, 2008
Michael May served as a Baltimore City police officer and as a military police officer. He formerly supported capital punishment, but changed his stance upon learning of innocent people who had been sentenced to death. Mr. May tes…
Costs
,Deterrence
,New Voices
,Mar 28, 2007
Jim Davidsaver, a 20-year veteran with the Lincoln Police Department in Nebraska, recently wrote a column outlining his support for legislation that would have repealed the state’s death penalty. Davidsaver said …
Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Mar 15, 2007
Corrections officials, prosecutors and police chiefs recently gathered in Annapolis, Maryland, to voice support for a legislative measure that would repeal the state’s death penalty. “It is a human system, and because it is fallible and because it…
Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Jan 29, 2018
Drawing on their experience in the criminal justice system, elected law enforcement officials in Washington and Texas have urged repeal of their states’ death-penalty laws. In Washington, King Count…
Costs
,New Voices
,Mar 31, 2008
On March 28, two letters were sent to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice – one from members of the law enforcement community and the other from judges, raising concerns about the state’s death penalty. …
Apr 14, 2004
A bipartisan measure to eliminate the juvenile death penalty in Florida has passed the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and is now on its way to the full Senate for consideration. The measure was introduced by Republican Senator Victor Crist, a d…
New Voices
,Oct 12, 2006
Edward Johnson is a former FBI Agent who currently oversees investigative work for the Union County (NJ) Prosecutor’s Office. He recently expressed his personal opinions about the state’s death penalty. He concluded that in New Jersey public opini…
Costs
,Sentencing Alternatives
,Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 21, 2008
In an op-ed in the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, police chief James Abbott stated that the death penalty is broken beyond repair and that the extra money spent pursuing executions could be better spent on crime prevention and the needs of victims. Abb…
Mar 04, 2004
West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci, president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, has told state lawmakers that resources devoted to the death penalty would be better spent elsewhere. He noted, “It is a practical issue. …
Costs
,Deterrence
,Innocence
,New Voices
,Jan 22, 2016
In a recent op-ed for The Denver Post, retired corrections officer and military veteran Pete Lister offered a critique of the death penalty, saying it fails as a deterrent, risks executing innocent people, and costs more than life without…
Deterrence
,New Voices
,Jan 04, 2019
As he prepared for retirement, the long-time director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said he does not support the death penalty and believes the punishment is on its way out in Georgia and across the country. In a te…
New Voices
,Nov 22, 2022
Corrections personnel who participate in executing prisoners experience emotional trauma so profound that it changes their views about capital punishment, a National Public Radio (NPR) investigation has found. For stories…
Clemency
,New Voices
,Jun 14, 2018
The Ohio Parole Board held a hearing on June 14, 2018 to consider clemency for death-row prisoner Raymond Tibbetts, whose February 13 execution was halted by Governor John Kasich
New Voices
,Nov 12, 2021
South Carolina correctional staff who participated in executions suffered life-altering trauma that was worsened by an inflexible prison administration that provided little support to address the psychological injuries they sustained. Two senior s…
Oct 01, 2004
In the wake of a scandal that has called into question the reliability of the police crime lab’s testing and handling of evidence in Harris County, Texas, Police Chief Harold Hurtt has said that executions of inmates from the county should…
New Voices
,Feb 07, 2019
Clemency, a film exploring the psychological toll of the death penalty, has been awarded the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival on February 2, 2019. The movie, writt…
