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…
Read MoreInnocence
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…
Read MoreUnited 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…
Read MoreUnited 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.
Read MoreUnited 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…
Read More