Death Penalty Information Center Launches New Website

Arbitrariness

Jul 19, 2019

Calling Governor Gavin Newsom’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions a ​“par­a­digm shift” in the death-penal­ty land­scape, a defen­dant fac­ing the death penal­ty in 

Arbitrariness

Jul 18, 2019

Citing race dis­par­i­ties, inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion by court-appoint­ed lawyers, and arbi­trary case out­comes, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to strike down the …

Intellectual Disability

Jul 17, 2019

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who described his decid­ing vote to uphold the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1976 as the one court vote he most regret­ted, has died. He was 99 years old. A 

Conditions on Death Row

Jul 16, 2019

Amidst an ongo­ing law­suit chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of South Carolina’s death-row con­di­tions, the state has moved its death-row pris­on­ers to a dif­fer­ent prison. On July 11, 2019, the South Carolina Department of Correction…

Arbitrariness

Jul 15, 2019

Rick Unklesbay served as a pros­e­cu­tor in the Pima County Attorney’s Office in …

Representation

Jul 12, 2019

In the span of two weeks, juries in four unre­lat­ed cas­es in which Florida pros­e­cu­tors had sought the death penal­ty have instead returned life sen­tences. The cas­es — which were con­sid­ered prob­a­ble death ver­dicts if judges were permit…

Sentencing Data

Jul 11, 2019

The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section will soon release its annu­al report on issues, trends, and sig­nif­i­cant changes in America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The new pub­li­ca­tion, The State of Criminal Justice 20…

Death Row Overview

Jul 10, 2019

The num­ber of peo­ple on death row or fac­ing cap­i­tal resen­tenc­ing in the United States has con­tin­ued its 19-year decline, accord­ing to a new death-row cen­sus by…

Arbitrariness

Jul 09, 2019

A Texas coun­ty court has set an exe­cu­tion date for a Jewish death-row pris­on­er despite his pend­ing fed­er­al appeal alleg­ing that the judge who presided over his tri­al and sen­tenc­ing should have been removed from the case because of…

Arbitrariness

Jul 08, 2019

The death penal­ty and lynch­ing were instru­ments of ​“white suprema­cist polit­i­cal and social pow­er” in North Carolina, diverg­ing in form but not in func­tion. So writes University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill American Studies Professor Seth Kotch In…