DPIC 2019 Year End Report: Death Penalty Erodes Further As New Hampshire Abolishes and California Imposes Moratorium

Arbitrariness

Jan 24, 2020

In a dra­mat­ic rever­sal made pos­si­ble by changes in court per­son­nel, the Florida Supreme Court has repu­di­at­ed its pri­or deci­sions requir­ing that cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing juries unan­i­mous­ly agree to the death penal­ty before a tri­al judge …

Innocence

Jan 23, 2020

In a case pros­e­cu­tors now describe as a ​“per­fect storm” of injus­tice, Pennsylvania death-row pris­on­er Christopher Williams (pic­tured) and his co-defen…

Victims' Families

Jan 22, 2020

Saying that Nicholas Sutton ​“has gone from a life-tak­er to a life-saver,” lawyers for the Tennessee death-row pris­on­er filed an appli­ca­tion for cle…

Race

Jan 21, 2020

A DPIC analy­sis of exe­cu­tions and new death sen­tences in 2019 has found that even as death penal­ty usage declined across the United States, racial dis­par­i­ties in its appli­ca­tion per­sist­ed. Studies have 

Jan 20, 2020

NEWS — January 24: Keith ​“Bo” Tharpe has died on Georgia’s death row. He was 61 yea…

Race

Jan 20, 2020

On Martin Luther King Day, DPIC looks at the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s views on the death penal­ty. Dr. King’s phi­los­o­phy of non-vio­lence had no room for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In one of his most famous ser­mons, Lov…

Clemency

Jan 17, 2020

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has grant­ed clemen­cy to death-row pris­on­er Jimmy Meders (pic­tur…

Lethal Injection

Jan 16, 2020

A three-judge pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard near­ly two hours of argu­ment on January 15, 2020 in four con­sol­i­dat­ed cas­es that could deter­mine whether the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment will be able to resume exe­cu­tions in 2020. …

Upcoming Executions

Jan 15, 2020

As Texas pre­pared to car­ry out the first exe­cu­tion of 2020 on January 15, neigh­bor­ing Oklahoma — once the sec­ond most pro­lif­ic exe­cu­tion­er in the United States — marked five years since its last exe­cu­tion. The sta…

Innocence

Jan 14, 2020

Just Mercy, the movie adap­ta­tion of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Executive Director Bryan Stevenson’s book of the same…