News & Developments


Innocence

Oct 15, 2024

Joseph Giarratano, Former Death Row Prisoner and Prison Reform Advocate, Has Died

Joseph Giarratano (pic­tured, cen­ter) died on October 6, 2024. He had spent near­ly forty years in prison, many of them on death row, for a crime he main­tained he did not com­mit. During his time behind bars, he sought to improve prison con­di­tions and secure access to attor­neys. After being paroled in 2017, he worked at the University of Virginia’s Innocence Project, con­tin­u­ing his work to assist incarcerated…

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Innocence

Oct 11, 2024

French and German Embassies Host a Discussion on Innocence and the Death Penalty

On October 11, 2024 the Embassies of France and Germany host­ed a dis­cus­sion on the ques­tion of inno­cence and the death penal­ty at the res­i­dence of the French Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Panelists includ­ed Herman Lindsey, a death row exoneree and Executive Director of Witness to Innocence; Vanessa Potkin, Director of Special Litigation at the Innocence Project; and Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, Director of the Death Penalty Abolition Program at Catholic Mobilizing Network. The approx­i­mate­ly 75

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United States Supreme Court

Oct 10, 2024

Hispanic Heritage Month: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

In hon­or of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), DPI is post­ing a week­ly fea­ture on Hispanic or Latino/​a peo­ple who have had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on the death penal­ty in the U.S. The final entry in this series is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia…

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United States Supreme Court

Oct 09, 2024

A Meaningless Ritual”? U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Whether Ruben Gutierrez Can Challenge Texas DNA Testing Procedures to Prove His Innocence

On Friday, October 4, the Supreme Court agreed to hear argu­ments in Gutierrez v. Saenz, a case regard­ing death-sen­tenced Texas pris­on­er Ruben Gutierrez’s abil­i­ty to sue the state for DNA test­ing in sup­port of his inno­cence claim. The Court had issued a stay to Mr. Gutierrez on July 16, just twen­ty min­utes before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion. Mr. Gutierrez was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the mur­der and rob­bery of an 85-year-old woman but has long main­tained his innocence.

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United States Supreme Court

Oct 08, 2024

United States Supreme Court Will Consider Significance of Prosecutor’s Confession of Error in Glossip v. Oklahoma

On October 9, 2024, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral argu­ments in Glossip v. Oklahoma, when the Court will con­sid­er mul­ti­ple ques­tions relat­ed to Richard Glossip’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. This is Mr. Glossip’s sec­ond trip to the Supreme Court; the first occurred in 2015 in con­nec­tion with his method of exe­cu­tion chal­lenge. Mr. Glossip has always main­tained his inno­cence of the 1997 mur­der for hire” crime that sent him to death row. In the inter­ven­ing years, he has…

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