Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Sep 12, 2019
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hears Argument on Constitutionality of Death Penalty
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court (members pictured) heard oral argument on September 11, 2019 on whether to exercise its extraordinary“King’s Bench” powers to determine whether the death penalty, as currently applied in the Commonwealth, violates the Pennsylvania constitution. If the court agrees to reach the constitutional issue, it has the power to strike down the death penalty, uphold its constitutionality, or issue directives or standards regarding…
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Sep 11, 2019
Federal Appeals Court Says Suffocation Not ‘Needless Suffering,’ Upholds Ohio Execution Protocol
Saying that“suffocation does not qualify as‘severe pain and needless suffering,’” a federal appeals court in Ohio has ruled that the state’s three-drug execution protocol does not violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and…
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Sep 10, 2019
Texas Executes Prisoner with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome After Federal Appeals Court Denies Stay
Texas executed Mark Soliz (pictured) on September 10, 2019, after a federal appeals court denied him a stay and dismissed his claim that his lifelong mental impairments resulting from fetal alcohol syndrome should exempt him from execution. Soliz had sought a stay and to be resentenced to life without parole, arguing that his mother’s alcohol consumption during her pregnancy impaired his intellectual development in a manner that…
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Sep 09, 2019
Coalition of Jewish Organizations Seeks New Trial for Jewish Death-Row Prisoner in Texas Tried by Anti-Semitic Judge
A coalition of national and local Jewish organizations and lawyers have asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to stop the scheduled October 10, 2019 execution of a Jewish death-row prisoner to review his claim that the judge before whom he was tried was racist and anti-Semitic. Randy Halprin (pictured) was convicted and sentenced to death in a trial presided over by Dallas County Judge Vickers Cunningham, who referred to…
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Sep 06, 2019
Nevada Man Convicted by Prosecutorial Misconduct and ‘Woefully Inadequate’ Defense Counsel Released After 33 Years on Death Row
Thirty-three years after a trial a federal appeals court described as“a mixture of disturbing prosecutorial misconduct and woefully inadequate assistance of counsel,” a Las Vegas trial court freed Paul Browning (pictured) from Nevada’s death row. On August 21, 2019, Clark County District Judge Douglas Herndon — who in March had dismissed murder and related charges against Browning — ordered state…
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Sep 05, 2019
After 32 Years on Death Row, Tennessee Prisoner’s Death Sentence is Vacated for Prosecutorial Misconduct
Thirty-two years after he was sentenced to death in a trial tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, Tennessee death-row prisoner Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman (pictured) has been resentenced to life in prison. On August 30, 2019, Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins approved a plea deal reached between Abdur’Rahman and Nashville prosecutors, vacated Abdur’Rahman’s death sentence, and in its place imposed three…
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Sep 04, 2019
Texas Executes Defendant Who Had Been Represented by “Cut-and-Paste” Appeals Lawyer
Texas executed death-row prisoner Billy Jack Crutsinger on September 4, 2019, despite, his current lawyers say, having provided him with an incompetent appeals lawyer who repeatedly filed frivolous claims and cut and pasted contradictory claims and arguments from prior clients’ court pleadings. Crutsinger had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution to review whether the trial court’s appointment of a lawyer“who was not…
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Sep 03, 2019
North Carolina Supreme Court Hears Argument on Retroactive Repeal of State’s Racial Justice Act
The North Carolina Supreme Court (members pictured) heard arguments on August 26 and 27, 2019 on whether the state may retroactively apply the legislative repeal of its Racial Justice Act to death-row prisoners who had overturned their death sentences or filed claims under the act before…
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Aug 30, 2019
DPIC Analysis: 13 Texas Death Warrants Raise Troubling Questions About U.S. Execution Practices
In a year in which few states have carried out any executions, the aggressive execution practices of a single state — Texas — stand in sharp contrast. The Lone Star State has scheduled thirteen executions for the last five months of 2019, more than the rest of the country combined. And a DPIC review of the circumstances in which the warrants were issued raises troubling questions as to whether the state is executing the most morally culpable individuals for the…
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Aug 29, 2019
Samuel Bonner freed 37 years after wrongful capital prosecution in Los Angeles
Thirty-seven years after his wrongful capital prosecution and conviction for a murder he did not commit, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has set Samuel Bonner free. Citing“gross prosecutorial misconduct” that he said“shocks the conscience,” Judge Daniel J. Lowenthal(pictured) on July 11, 2019 ordered Bonner released from California…
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