Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

After receiv­ing unan­i­mous sup­port in the Florida House of Representatives, a bill that would have expand­ed access to post­con­vic­tion DNA test­ing failed in the Florida Senate when the leg­isla­tive body adjourned its 2020 leg­isla­tive ses­sion without taking…

The pub­lic health cri­sis from the COVID-19 coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has halt­ed exe­cu­tions in the United States and, legal experts say, is like­ly to con­tin­ue to do for the foreseeable…

In a deci­sion that exposed the deep divide between the United States and its European allies on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment issues, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unan­i­mous­ly ruled that the British gov­ern­ment unlaw­ful­ly pro­vid­ed infor­ma­tion to the United States about two sus­pect­ed Islamic State mem­bers with­out first obtain­ing assur­ances that the infor­ma­tion would not be used to impose or car­ry out the…

Georgia death-row pris­on­er Billy Daniel Raulerson, Jr. (pic­tured) is ask­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a state law that, he argues, is per­mit­ting Georgia to uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly exe­cute indi­vid­u­als with Intellectual Disability. On March 27, 2020, the Court is sched­uled to con­sid­er whether to hear the case of Raulerson v. Warden and to review the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Georgia’s evi­den­tiary require­ment that capital…

On March 23, 2020, Colorado became the 22^nd U.S. state to abol­ish the death penal­ty, as Governor Jared Polis (pic­tured) signed leg­is­la­tion repeal­ing the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute and com­mut­ed the sen­tences of the state’s three death-row pris­on­ers to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The state was the tenth to leg­isla­tive­ly or judi­cial­ly abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the past…

A Birmingham judge has denied a new tri­al to Alabama death-row pris­on­er Toforest Johnson (pic­tured, cen­ter), say­ing he had not proven his claim that his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for the killing of a sheriff’s deputy in 1995 were the prod­uct of prosecutorial…

Exhibiting symp­toms of the coro­n­avirus, a Philadelphia death-row pris­on­er who pros­e­cu­tors now acknowl­edge is​“like­ly inno­cent” and whose poten­tial release has been delayed by the Philadelphia courts has filed an emer­gency motion to obtain test­ing and independent medical…

The Ohio Supreme Court has grant­ed a new tri­al to a Cincinnati death-row pris­on­er whose lawyer’s inac­tion per­mit­ted a racial­ly biased juror to serve in his case. In a 5 – 2 opin­ion issued February 27, 2020, the court ruled that defense coun­sel for Glen Bates (pic­tured) had been inef­fec­tive for fail­ing to ques­tion a juror about her racial bias, chal­lenge her for cause, or exer­cise one of his remain­ing dis­cre­tionary strikes to pre­vent her from serving in…

Virginia​’s death row shrank to just two pris­on­ers on March 12 as recent­ly elect­ed Fairfax County, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve T. Descano agreed to a deal to resen­tence for­mer death-row pris­on­er Mark Lawlor (pic­tured) to life with­out parole. Lawlor was sen­tenced to death in 2011 for the mur­der of Genevieve Orange. No one has been sen­tenced to death in…

Responding to esca­lat­ing health con­cerns caused by the COVID-19 coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has tem­porar­i­ly halt­ed the exe­cu­tion of John Hummel. In an order issued on March 16, 2020, the TCCA stayed Hummel’s exe­cu­tion, which had been sched­uled for March 18, for 60 days, say­ing the delay was nec­es­sary​“in light of the cur­rent health cri­sis and the enor­mous resources need­ed to address…