Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On October 15, 2024, the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) amended its execution protocol and facilities to enable staff to place a central intravenous line, if necessary, to deliver lethal injection drugs to a prisoner. IDOC now has a new execution preparation room in which venous access would be established prior to transferring the prisoner to the execution chamber. This change, and accompanying prison renovations this past summer, came after the February 28, 2024 failed execution of…

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 people. Mr. Giarratano played a pivotal role in saving the life of Earl Washington, an…

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…

On September 26, 2024, Governor John Carney (D) signed House Bill 70, which officially repeals the death penalty from the state’s law. Although Delaware’s Supreme Court found its death penalty statute to be unconstitutional in 2016, invalidating it for future use and effectively abolishing capital punishment, the passage of HB 70 amends Title 11 of the state’s code to remove the death penalty and replace it with life without parole as the most severe punishment for first-degree murder for…

On September 26, 2024, a Japanese court formally acquitted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada (pictured), who was wrongfully sentenced to death in 1968 for the murder of his former boss and family in Shizuoka, Japan. After 46 years on death row, and another decade of litigation, Judge Kunii Tsuneishi of the Shizuoka District Court ruled that blood-stained clothing used to convict Mr. Hakamada was fabricated long after the murders. “The court cannot accept the fact that the blood stain would remain…

Executions in Oklahoma and Alabama, scheduled just hours apart on September 26, highlight issues of proportional sentencing and experimental methods of execution. Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was executed at 10:17am CT, had received a recommendation of clemency from Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board because of conflicting evidence about whether he or a co-defendant actually killed the victim. Alan Miller, scheduled to be executed in the evening of September 26, survived a botched lethal injection…

On September 23, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the joint motion by Marcellus Williams’ legal team and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney (PA) Wesley Bell to overturn a lower court’s decision rejecting Mr. Williams’ appeal. Later the same day, the state supreme court unanimously denied the motion, stating that there was “no credible evidence of actual innocence or any showing of a constitutional error undermining confidence in the original judgment.” Also the same…

On September 19, 2024, attorneys for Khalil Allah, formerly known as Freddie Eugene Owens, filed an emergency motion for a stay of execution after receiving a signed affidavit from his codefendant in the 1997 shooting death of Irene Graves that Mr. Allah “was not present” during the crime. Just two days ahead of Mr. Allah’s scheduled execution, Steven Golden, who was also charged in Ms. Graves’ death, recanted his trial testimony and said that Mr. Allah “is not the person who shot Irene Graves”…

On September 17, 2024, attorneys for Texas death row prisoner Robert Roberson filed a clemency petition accompanied by letters from hundreds of supporters, including eminent scientists and medical professionals, a bipartisan group of Texas legislators, and former lead Detective Brian Wharton, urging the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Greg Abbott to reduce Mr. Roberson’s sentence. Mr. Roberson is currently scheduled to be executed on October 17, 2024. He was convicted and…

“From start to finish, it is so badly broken that we cannot know whether someone who has been condemned to death is actually deserving of the ultimate penalty,” wrote former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester in a September 12, 2024 op-ed for The Oklahoman. Before carrying out any new executions, Mr. Lester calls on the state to implement new reforms to its “broken” capital punishment system. Although the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission provided 45 specific recommendations and one…