Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Texas is prepar­ing to exe­cute Travis Runnels (pic­tured) on December 11, 2019 based on the ​“expert” tes­ti­mo­ny of a pros­e­cu­tion inves­ti­ga­tor whose false depic­tion of prison con­di­tions has helped to put fif­teen defen­dants on the state’s death row. If Runnels is exe­cut­ed, he will be the third per­son put to death in Texas this year after for­mer Texas Special Prosecution Unit crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tor, A.P. Merillat pro­vid­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny at their…

The United States Supreme Court has denied an appli­ca­tion by the U.S. Department of Justice to lift a fed­er­al court injunc­tion block­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment from car­ry­ing out four exe­cu­tions sched­uled for December 2019 and January 2020. The Court’s unan­i­mous rul­ing, issued Friday evening December 6, ensures that there will be no fed­er­al executions in…

A fed­er­al appeals court has reversed the con­vic­tion of Arizona death-row pris­on­er Barry Jones (pic­tured) based on med­ical evi­dence sug­gest­ing that he may not have com­mit­ted the mur­der for which he was sentenced to…

The state of Tennessee exe­cut­ed Lee Hall (pic­tured) on December 5, 2019, with­out pro­vid­ing him judi­cial review of a legal claim that led the state’s courts to over­turn the con­vic­tion of a for­mer death-row pris­on­er just weeks…

Lawyers for fed­er­al death-row pris­on­er Wesley Purkey, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on December 13, 2019, say he is incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed because he has Alzheimer’s dis­ease, schiz­o­phre­nia, and trau­mat­ic brain injuries that ​“ren­der him unable to ratio­nal­ly under­stand the rea­son the United States seeks to execute…

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the United States Supreme Court to lift a fed­er­al dis­trict court injunc­tion that is cur­rent­ly block­ing the gov­ern­ment from car­ry­ing out four sched­uled exe­cu­tions. The fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors’ December 2, 2019 fil­ing came with­in hours of a rul­ing by a unan­i­mous fed­er­al appeals pan­el in Washington that had refused to vacate the injunc­tion. The first of the fed­er­al exe­cu­tions is sched­uled for 8:00 a.m. (Eastern time) on Monday, December…

Saying that ​“Virginia’s death penal­ty fails vic­tims’ fam­i­lies,” 13 fam­i­ly mem­bers of Virginia homi­cide vic­tims — includ­ing the daugh­ter of a sheriff’s deputy whose assailant was exe­cut­ed — have called on Virginia leg­is­la­tors to abolish capital…

In a depar­ture from its pri­or edi­to­r­i­al stand, the Orlando Sentinel pub­lished an edi­to­r­i­al on November 22, 2019 call­ing for Florida to abol­ish the death penal­ty. Describing the state’s cap­i­­tal-pun­ish­­ment sys­tem as a ​“hope­less quag­mire of inequities,” the Sentinel said “[t]oo many ques­tions can­not be ade­quate­ly answered for us to con­tin­ue sup­port­ing the death penal­ty, and for Florida to continue administering…

Popular cul­ture has the poten­tial to change social atti­tudes, and actors in two eager­ly antic­i­pat­ed movies focus­ing on the death penal­ty are hop­ing that their films will do just that. In recent inter­views about their roles in the dra­mas Just Mercy and Clemency, actors Jamie Foxx, Alfre Woodard, and Aldis Hodge dis­cuss how those films inspired them to open up about their past and affected…

For the first time since Gallup began ask­ing the ques­tion in 1985, a major­i­ty of Americans now say life impris­on­ment is a bet­ter approach for pun­ish­ing mur­der than is the death penal­ty. According to the 2019 Gallup death-penal­­ty poll (click here to enlarge graph­ic), 60% per­cent of Americans asked to choose whether the death penal­ty or life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole ​“is the bet­ter penal­ty for mur­der” chose the life-sen­­tenc­ing option. 36% favored the death…