News & Developments
Race
Jan 17, 2022
MLK Day 2022: The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Death Penalty
On Martin Luther King Day, DPIC looks at the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s views on capital punishment. In a November 1957 article in Ebony, Dr. King was asked “Do you think God approves the death penalty for crimes like rape…
Race
Jan 14, 2022
Commentary: ‘Southern Pride,’ White Mob Mentality, and the Death Penalty
The same brand of Southern pride that inspired lynchings after the U.S. Civil War fuels support for the death penalty today, writes legal analyst Joia Erin Thornton (pictured) in a commentary on the web publication, Blavity
Arbitrariness
Jan 13, 2022
New Study: Kentucky Death Penalty Racially Biased, Arbitrary, Error Prone
Kentucky’s death penalty is racially discriminatory, geographically arbitrary, and riddled with systemic flaws, a new study of the commonwealth’s use of capital punishment has found. The study,
Costs
Jan 12, 2022
DPIC Podcast: Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton on Bringing Fairness and Equity to Criminal Legal Reform and Ending the Death Penalty
In the January 2022 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Contra Costa County, California District Attorney Diana Becton (pictured), speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about the rise…
Intellectual Disability
Jan 11, 2022
Disability Rights Groups, Legal Experts, and Conservative Advocates Urge Supreme Court to Strike Down Georgia’s Uniquely Harsh Proof Requirements in Death-Penalty Intellectual Disability Cases
A coalition of disability rights groups, legal experts, and conservative advocates are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the uniquely harsh burden of proof Georgia has imposed upon defendants seeking to establish their …
Intellectual Disability
Jan 10, 2022
Alabama Federal Court Issues Injunction Against Executing Matthew Reeves by Any Method but Nitrogen Hypoxia
An Alabama federal judge has issued an order halting the scheduled January 27, 2022 execution of Matthew Reeves (pictured). On January 7, Judge R. Austin Huffaker of the U.S. District Court for the Middl…
Innocence
Jan 07, 2022
“Random and Unjust,” “Barbaric” and “Ineffective”: Editorials Call for End to Death Penalty
As 2021 came to a close, editorial writers in four death penalty states called for legislative and executive action to end capital punishment or further limit its use. Editorial boards for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Race
Jan 06, 2022
Lawyer in Landmark Interracial Marriage Case Urges Supreme Court to Eliminate ‘Frightening Echo’ of Bigotry in Texas Death Penalty Case
On January 6, 1959, Richard and Mildred Loving were convicted on felony charges of “miscegenation” under Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act, which criminalized interracial marriage. The trial court sentenced them to …
Representation
Jan 05, 2022
Former U.S. Solicitor General: Supreme Court Must ‘Uphold the Rule of Law’ that Texas Courts Ignored in Death Penalty Case
A former conservative federal judge and U.S. Solicitor General has called on the United States Supreme Court to vacate a ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) that allowed a Texas death sentence to …
Clemency
Jan 04, 2022
Hospice-Bound Death-Row Prisoner Challenges Idaho Governor’s Authority to Reject Pardons Commission Commutation Decision
A hospice-bound death-row prisoner has filed a motion in Idaho state court challenging the authority of Governor Brad Little to reject a pardons commission recommendation that his death sentence be commuted to lif…
