Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Mar 25, 2020
Georgia Death-Row Prisoner Asks Supreme Court to Strike Down Law That Evades Prohibition on Executing the Intellectually Disabled
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…
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Mar 24, 2020
Colorado Becomes 22nd State to Abolish Death Penalty
On March 23, 2020, Colorado became the 22nd 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…
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Mar 23, 2020
Alabama Judge Denies New Trial for Toforest Johnson
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…
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Mar 20, 2020
Showing Coronavirus Symptoms, ‘Likely Innocent’ Death-Row Prisoner Seeks Emergency Medical Care
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…
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Mar 19, 2020
Ohio Death-Row Prisoner Granted New Trial After Lawyer Allowed Racially Biased Juror to Sit on Jury
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…
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Mar 18, 2020
Virginia Death Row Shrinks to 2 as Prosecutor Drops Death Penalty Against Mark Lawlor
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…
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Mar 17, 2020
Texas Court Issues 60-Day Stay of Execution for John Hummel in Response to Coronavirus Crisis
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…
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Mar 16, 2020
Georgia Supreme Court Votes 9 – 0 for New Trial for Former Death-Row Prisoner Johnny Gates
More than forty years after he was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white Columbus, Georgia jury for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old white woman, Johnny Lee Gates (pictured) will be getting a new trial. On March 13, 2020, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously held that DNA contained on physical evidence that police and prosecutors had withheld for decades raised“significant doubt” as to…
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Mar 13, 2020
DPIC Analysis: Exoneration Data Suggests Non-Unanimous Death-Sentencing Statutes Heighten Risk of Wrongful Convictions
Capital sentencing schemes that permit judges to impose a death sentence despite the votes of one or more jurors for life create a heightened risk that an innocent person will be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, according to a new Death Penalty Information Center analysis of death-row exoneration…
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Mar 12, 2020
Winter 2020 Death Row USA: U.S. Death Row Shrinks 20% During the 2010s
The number of people on death row across the United States or facing potential capital resentencings declined by nearly 20% in the 2010s, according to a Death Penalty Information Center analysis of data from the latest quarterly death-row census by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational…
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