Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

In the midst of National Pride Month com­mem­o­rat­ing the 50^th anniver­sary of the Stonewall Riots and the birth of the mod­ern LGBTQ rights move­ment, South Dakota has issued a death war­rant seek­ing to exe­cute a gay man whose death sen­tence was taint­ed by anti-gay bias. Charles Rhines (pic­tured) was sen­tenced to death by a jury that, accord­ing to juror affi­davits, was influ­enced by big­ot­ed stereo­types in reach­ing its deci­sion. On June 25,…

The Texas State Comptroller has denied com­pen­sa­tion to death-row exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown (pic­tured), despite a for­mal court dec­la­ra­tion that he is​“actu­al­ly inno­cent” of the mur­ders of a store clerk and a Houston police offi­cer that sent him to death row in 2005. Claiming uncer­tain­ty as to whether a Harris County judge had juris­dic­tion to declare Brown inno­cent of the mur­ders, comp­trol­ler Glenn…

In July 1976, false foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny and an eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion manip­u­lat­ed by police mis­con­duct sent Charles Ray Finch to North Carolina​’s death row. Forty-three years lat­er, he has become the 166^th per­son in the United States since 1973 to be exon­er­at­ed after hav­ing been wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. On June 14, 2019, after a fed­er­al appeals court said Finch had proven his​“actu­al inno­cence” and…

The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the unseal­ing of court doc­u­ments relat­ed to Alabama​’s May 30, 2019 exe­cu­tion of Christopher Price. On June 24, the Court grant­ed a motion filed by National Public Radio (NPR) and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), to unseal all Supreme Court plead­ings in the case of Price v. Dunn, in which — based on redact­ed fil­ings — the Court per­mit­ted Price’s…

When Georgia exe­cut­ed Marion Wilson, Jr., on June 20, 2019, it marked the 1500^th exe­cu­tion in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all death-penal­­­ty statutes in Furman v. Georgia in 1972, then four years lat­er per­mit­ted exe­cu­tions to go for­ward under new statutes osten­si­bly enact­ed to address the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al arbi­trari­ness that had plagued the old laws. His exe­cu­tion, analysts say,…

Finding that a Mississippi pros­e­cu­tor had inten­tion­al­ly struck black jurors in an attempt to empan­el as white a jury as pos­si­ble, the United States Supreme Court has over­turned the con­vic­tion of death-row pris­on­er Curtis Giovanni Flowers. The Court’s 7 – 2 deci­sion on June 21, 2019, found that Mississippi’s Fifth Circuit Court District Attorney Doug Evans had under­tak­en extra­or­di­nary efforts to pre­vent African Americans…

A Kentucky cap­i­tal defen­dant has moved to dis­miss all charges against him or to bar the death penal­ty in his case as a result of evi­dence that pros­e­cu­tors repeat­ed­ly eaves­dropped on priv­i­leged attor­ney-client tele­phone calls over the span of a year. Lawyers for James Mallory (pic­tured) have filed a motion to dis­miss the case for gross pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, alleg­ing that pros­e­cu­tors lis­tened to record­ings of 120 prison phone…

A new study of the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Los Angeles has con­clud­ed that, through­out the admin­is­tra­tion of District Attorney Jackie Lacey (pic­tured) the death penal­ty has​“discriminate[d] on the basis of race and against the poor.” The study, released June 18, 2019 by the ACLU, report­ed that under Lacey’s admin­is­tra­tion the Los Angeles death penal­ty has been imposed exclu­sive­ly against defen­dants of color,…

Arguing that Marion Wilson (pic­tured, cen­ter) did not kill any­one and did not intend that a killing occur, lawyers for the Georgia death-row pris­on­er have filed a clemen­cy peti­tion urg­ing the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to com­mute Wilson’s sen­tence to life with­out parole. The Board, which declas­si­fied Wilson’s peti­tion allow­ing it to be released to the pub­lic, is sched­uled to hold a clemen­cy hearing on…

Citing​“egre­gious” mis­con­duct by state prison offi­cials in try­ing to evade a court order to pro­duce pub­lic records con­cern­ing its efforts to obtain lethal-injec­­­tion drugs, an Indiana judge has direct­ed the state’s Department of Correction to pay more than a half mil­lion dol­lars in plain­tiffs’ attor­ney fees. On June 12, 2019, Marion County Circuit Judge Sheryl Lynch (pic­tured) award­ed $538,000 in attor­ney fees to plaintiffs…