Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Aug 282019

Colorado Taxpayers Paid DAs Office $1.6 Million for Unsuccessfully Pursuing Death Penalty Against Wishes of Victim’s Family

A more than $1.6 mil­lion price tag for pros­e­cut­ing a Colorado death-penal­­­ty case that the victim’s fam­i­ly opposed and that result­ed in a life sen­tence has caused some Coloradans to ques­tion whether cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions are worth the cost. On August 14, 2019, Miguel Contreras-Perez (pic­tured) was sen­tenced to life in prison after he plead­ed guilty to the mur­der of a cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer and the attempt­ed mur­der of another officer.

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News 

Aug 272019

New Podcast: Interview with Clemency filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu

In the lat­est episode of Discussions with DPIC, writer/​director Chinonye Chukwu (pic­tured) speaks with DPIC Senior Director of Research and Special Projects Ngozi Ndulue about her award-win­n­ing new film Clemency. Chukwu dis­cuss­es her inspi­ra­tion for the sto­ry, the years-long process of research and immer­sion that helped her shape the nar­ra­tive, and her hopes for how this film…

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News 

Aug 262019

Oregon’s New Law Narrowing Use of Death Penalty: How Retroactive is Not Retroactive”?

When Oregon​’s leg­is­la­tors passed a new law lim­it­ing the scope of the state’s death penal­ty, the spon­sors of the mea­sure offered assur­ances that it would not apply retroac­tive­ly to pris­on­ers on the state’s death row. Now, a new legal opin­ion by the Oregon Department of Justice has raised ques­tions as to how retroac­tive​“not retroac­tive” actu­al­ly is and whether the new law applies to legal pro­ceed­ings involv­ing cur­rent death-row prisoners whose…

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News 

Aug 232019

Ohio House Speaker Expresses Doubts About Death Penalty, as Opioid Experts, Governor Blast Call to Use Seized Fentanyl for Executions

The tur­moil sur­round­ing Ohio​’s death penal­ty con­tin­ued to grow as pub­lic health experts crit­i­cized a legislator’s sug­ges­tion that the state use seized drugs to car­ry out exe­cu­tions and the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Larry Householder (pic­tured), expressed grow­ing doubts about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment itself. Governor Mike DeWine joined crit­ics of the fen­tanyl pro­pos­al, declar­ing that it was​“not an option” for resuming executions…

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News 

Aug 222019

No Court Has Reviewed the Evidence that Gary Bowles May Be Intellectually Disabled; Florida Plans to Execute Him Anyway.

In a case that rais­es con­cerns about pro­ce­dur­al imped­i­ments that pre­vent enforce­ment of con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, Florida is prepar­ing to exe­cute a man whose claim of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty has nev­er been reviewed by the state or fed­er­al courts. [UPDATE: Florida exe­cut­ed Gary Ray Bowles on August…

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News 

Aug 212019

Texas to Execute Larry Swearingen Based on Forensic Quackery,” Lawyers Say

With seri­ous doubts swirling as to vir­tu­al­ly every piece of foren­sic evi­dence in his case, Texas plans to exe­cute Larry Swearingen—who has always main­tained his inno­cence in the mur­der of Melissa Trotter — on August 21, 2019. His attor­neys say his con­vic­tion is ground­ed in junk sci­ence that has been repu­di­at­ed by numer­ous foren­sic experts, includ­ing false tes­ti­mo­ny regard­ing panty­hose used to stran­gle Trotter, blood found under her…

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News 

Aug 192019

U.S. House Oversight Committee Launches Investigation into Resumption of Federal Executions

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform announced on August 14, 2019 that it has launched an inves­ti­ga­tion into the Department of Justice’s plan to restart fed­er­al exe­cu­tions using the drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal. Citing con­cerns about the source of drugs the Administration intends to use in five exe­cu­tions it has sched­uled in December 2019 and January 2020, the Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties has sought documents and…

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News 

Aug 162019

Life Sentence in America’s Deadliest Death-Penalty County Illustrates Impact of Alabama’s End of Judicial Override

A life sen­tence recent­ly imposed in America’s dead­liest death-penal­­­ty coun­ty illus­trates the impact of Alabama​’s 2017 repeal of its for­mer law per­mit­ting tri­al judges to impose the death penal­ty despite jury votes for life. On August 9, 2019, Houston County Judge Larry Anderson sen­tenced Nathaniel Dennis to life in prison with­out parole for the mur­der of a con­ve­nience store clerk, after the jury in his case recommended…

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News 

Aug 152019

Stay of Execution Granted for Brain-Damaged and Intellectually Impaired Texas Man Who Was Eighteen at Time of Crime

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has stayed the exe­cu­tion of Texas death-row pris­on­er Dexter Darnell Johnson one day before he was sched­uled to die. The rul­ing, issued late in the day on August 14, 2019, per­mits Johnson to lit­i­gate his claim that he is inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. The stay marked the sec­ond time in four months that fed­er­al courts inter­vened in Johnson’s case to halt…

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