Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Dec 20, 2019
With Newly Discovered Evidence of Prosecutorial Misconduct, Alabama Death-Row Prisoner Hopeful to Win New Trial
Alabama sentenced Toforest Johnson to death, his lawyers and national experts say, because of prosecutorial misconduct, false eyewitness testimony, and inadequate representation. In an amicus brief filed in a Birmingham trial court on December 12, 2019, the Innocence Project says,“If ever a case bore the hallmarks of a wrongful conviction, Toforest Johnson’s…
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Dec 19, 2019
As Court Postpones Start of Parkland Mass-Shooting Trial, a Victim’s Father Says Prosecutors Should Drop the Death Penalty
As the capital punishment trial of accused Parkland, Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz was postponed until at least the summer of 2020, the father of one of the victims of the attack has urged the prosecution to end the case now by dropping the…
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Dec 18, 2019
James Dailey Faces Execution in Florida Based on Testimony of Serial Jailhouse Informant Police Called “Con Man Extraordinaire”
Paul Skalnik is a sex offender and con man whose jailhouse“snitch” testimony was used by Florida and Texas prosecutors to convict more than 37 defendants, including four who were sentenced to death. His testimony that James Dailey (pictured) allegedly confessed to the brutal 1985 stabbing and drowning death of 14-year-old Shelley Boggio contributed to Dailey’s conviction and death sentence, despite the prosecution’s admission that…
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Dec 17, 2019
DPIC 2019 Year End Report: Death Penalty Erodes Further As New Hampshire Abolishes and California Imposes Moratorium
The death penalty has now disappeared from whole regions of the country and continues to erode in others, according to the Death Penalty Information Center’s 2019 Year End Report. With New Hampshire’s repeal of its capital punishment statute in May, 21 states have now abolished the death penalty, with nine having done so since 2004. In March, California Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions on the nation’s largest death row, joining governors in…
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Dec 16, 2019
Mississippi Judge Frees Curtis Flowers on Bail After Six Trials and 23 Years in Jail
A Mississippi trial judge has released Curtis Flowers on $250,000 bail, while prosecutors decide whether to attempt to try him a seventh time for a quadruple murder he has long maintained he did not commit. Flowers (pictured right, with defense co-counsel Henderson Hill) was freed on December 16, 2019, after an anonymous donor posted his bond. He had spent the last 23 years in jail, most of it…
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Dec 13, 2019
Federal Appeals Court Hears Argument in Boston Marathon Bombing Case
Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (pictured) sought to overturn his conviction and federal death sentence on Thursday, arguing in a federal appeals court that he could not get a fair trial in a city still traumatized by the attack. During the two-hour argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston on December 12, 2019, they also claimed Tsarnaev was denied an impartial jury when the trial court prohibited him…
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Dec 12, 2019
Before Leaving Office, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin Commutes the Sentences of Two Death-Row Prisoners
In his last series of acts before leaving office, outgoing Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin (pictured) has commuted the sentences of two of the state’s longest serving death-row prisoners to life with the possibility of parole. On Friday, December 6, 2019, Bevin commuted the death sentence of Gregory Wilson, whose trial proceedings had been described as a travesty of justice. Then on Monday, December 9 — the governor’s last day in…
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Dec 11, 2019
Indiana Marks 10 Years Without an Execution
When Indiana executed Matthew Wrinkles on December 11, 2009, it was the twentieth execution carried out since the state reinstated the death penalty in May of 1973. It was also the last execution the state…
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Dec 10, 2019
Texas Set to Execute Travis Runnels Based on “Expert” Testimony of Prosecution Investigator Whose False Testimony Has Put 15 on Death Row
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…
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Dec 07, 2019
Supreme Court Ruling Halts Scheduled Federal Executions
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…
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