Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A Florida judge has denied death-row prisoner James Dailey’s motion for a new trial on May 29, 2020, ruling that no new admissible evidence supported Dailey’s claim of innocence. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa’s decision came just one day after journalist Pamela Colloff won a National Magazine Award for her investigation of a notorious jailhouse informant who provided key testimony against Dailey. At a hearing in March, Dailey’s attorneys had hoped to present testimony from his…

A federal district court has granted a new trial to Pennsylvania death-row prisoner Samuel Randolph (pictured), holding that the trial court unconstitutionally denied Randolph the right to be represented by counsel of choice, forcing him to go to trial with an unprepared court-appointed lawyer with whom he had an “absolute[,] complete breakdown of communication.” In overturning Randolph’s convictions and death sentences for the murders of two men in a Harrisburg bar in 2001, Chief Judge…

A federal district court judge has overturned the conviction and death sentence of Texas death-row prisoner Ronald Prible, finding that celebrity “true crime” host Kelly Siegler (pictured) had engaged in extensive misconduct as a Harris County homicide prosecutor in Prible’s capital trial in 2002. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison granted relief on six separate claims that Siegler hid exculpatory evidence from the defense, provided undisclosed favors to prison informants in exchange for them…

For the third time in 2020, the Florida Supreme Court has reduced the constitutional protections afforded to death-row prisoners. In a May 21 decision in Phillips v. State, the court overturned its own case precedent and limited enforcement of a U.S. Supreme Court case that bars execution of intellectually disabled prisoners. The Miami Herald editorial board said the decision “shredded precedent” and “ignores clear and data-driven direction from the U.S. Supreme Court.” Dissenting Justice…

Just 20% of Houstonians — a record low — now support the death penalty over life-sentencing alternatives, a new Rice University survey has found. The 2020 Houston Area Survey by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, released on May 4, 2020, found that death-penalty support has declined by more than half since the turn of the 21^st century in the city of 2.3 million residents. The survey results are noteworthy because Houston comprises 50% of the population of Harris County, Texas, a county…

Johnny Lee Gates (pictured) is free, 43 years after being sentenced to death in Georgia for a murder he has steadfastly maintained he did not commit. On May 15, 2020, Gates entered a so-called “Alford plea” on charges of manslaughter and armed robbery, meaning that he did not admit guilt, but conceded that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. He was sentenced to 20 years on each charge, but was credited with time served and immediately released. “I’ve fought for 43 years for this…

The first new death sentence and first execution since public health concerns arising from the coronavirus pandemic shuttered most court proceedings across the country have highlighted several of the gravest concerns about the death penalty in the United States. On May 18, 2020, as defense lawyers questioned their client’s mental competency, a three-judge panel sentenced Joel Drain to death in Warren County, Ohio in trial proceedings lasting less than six hours. Drain, who had attempted…

In a major victory for media outlets and prisoner advocates, the Nebraska Supreme Court has ordered the state’s Department of Correctional Services (DCS) to release public records related to the procurement of drugs used in the 2018 execution of Carey Dean Moore (pictured). The court rejected the state’s argument that drug suppliers and manufacturers are members of the execution team whose identities may be shielded from disclosure but permitted DCS to redact information that could identify…

The Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) has announced that it will close the state’s death row and integrate most of its capitally sentenced prisoners into the general prison population. The move reflects the continuing decline of capital punishment in Oregon and follows a nationwide trend of removing death-row prisoners from automatic solitary confinement. In an announcement on May 15, 2020, DOC Director Colette Peters said the move would reduce costs and added, “This really is an…

For the second time in less than four months, the Florida Supreme Court has changed state law to uphold a death-row prisoner’s conviction or death sentence and diminish the legal protections available to other individuals convicted of capital offenses. In an unsigned May 14, 2020 ruling upholding the conviction and death sentence of Sean Bush, the court abrogated a century-old legal standard governing cases in which a conviction is based solely on circumstantial evidence. In dissent, Justice…