Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
May 01, 2019
Louisiana Christian Faith Leaders Call for State to Abolish Death Penalty
Christian church leaders from Catholic and Protestant denominations across Louisiana have called upon state lawmakers to pass legislation to end the death penalty in the Bayou State. On April 25, 2019, the Louisiana Interchurch Conference and two dozen faith representatives held a press conference on the steps of the state capitol in Baton Rouge advocating for legislation to abolish the state’s capital punishment law and pledging their support for as long as it…
Read MoreNews
Apr 30, 2019
Federal Court Overturns Ohio Shaken-Baby Conviction and Death Sentence Based on Withheld Evidence
A federal district court has overturned the conviction of Genesis Hill (pictured), who was sentenced to death in Ohio in 1991 for the death of his six-month-old daughter, Domika, based upon a questionable shaken-baby diagnosis. On April 24, 2019, Chief Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio found that Ohio prosecutors had unconstitutionally withheld exculpatory evidence that called…
Read MoreNews
Apr 29, 2019
One Month Later, Strong Emotions About California’s Execution Moratorium
One month into California’s moratorium on executions, the historic action by Governor Gavin Newsom (pictured) is drawing high praise from exonerees, mixed reviews from victims’ families, and unusually personal condemnation from political…
Read MoreNews
Apr 26, 2019
Georgia Lawyers Seek to Intervene After Brain-Damaged Defendant Permitted to Represent Herself in Death-Penalty Trial
Arguing that a brain-damaged woman facing the death penalty for the starving death of her young daughter“was incapable of representing herself,” lawyers from the Georgia Office of the Capital Defender have asked that they be reappointed as her counsel if the case advances to the penalty-phase of her trial for…
Read MoreNews
Apr 25, 2019
Saudi Arabia Condemned for Mass Execution of 37 People, Including Juveniles, After Unfair Trials
In an action condemned by the United Nations and human rights groups as a flagrant violation of international law, Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 people, including juvenile offenders, in six separate locations on April 23, 2019. It was the nation’s largest mass execution since January 2016. Most of the people executed were members of the Shi’a Muslim minority community. The human rights advocates blasted Saudi officials for targeting politically…
Read MoreNews
Apr 24, 2019
John William King Executed in Infamous Lynching Case, Said Attorneys Had Violated His Right to Present Innocence Defense
Texas has executed John William King (pictured), one of three men convicted of the brutal lynching of James Byrd, Jr., after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in his case. King’s lawyers had asked the Court to grant a stay of his scheduled April 24, 2019 execution after a divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals voted 5 – 4 on April 22 to permit the execution to proceed. King, an avowed white supremacist, had…
Read MoreNews
Apr 23, 2019
Wrongful Use or Threat of Capital Prosecutions Implicated in Five Exonerations in 2018
At least five people were exonerated in 2018 after having been wrongfully convicted in cases that involved the misuse or threatened use of the death penalty, a DPIC analysis of data accompanying a new report by the National Registry of Exonerations has shown. The National Registry’s annual report on wrongful convictions, Exonerations in 2018, recorded a record 151 new exonerations across the United States in 2018, including 68 exonerations resulting from…
Read MoreNews
Apr 22, 2019
Fresno DA Drops Death Penalty for California’s Longest Serving Death-Row Prisoner
The Fresno County District Attorney’s office has announced that it is dropping the death penalty against Douglas Stankewitz (pictured), California’s longest-serving death-row prisoner. After reviewing extensive mitigating evidence that Stankewitz’s trial counsel had failed to investigate, Fresno prosecutors announced on April 19, 2019 that a sentence of life without parole would be“fair and just” in Stankewitz’s case…
Read MoreNews
Apr 19, 2019
Veil of Execution Secrecy Expands in Several Southern Death-Penalty States
Three southern states have taken action to limit the public’s access to information relating to executions by increasing secrecy surrounding lethal-injection drug suppliers. On April 12, 2019, the Texas Supreme Court reversed an earlier decision that would have disclosed the source of lethal-injection drugs used to carry out executions in Texas in 2014, asserting that disclosure“would create a substantial threat of physical harm to the…
Read MoreNews
Apr 18, 2019
Second Alabama Prisoner Files Suit to Allow Muslim Chaplain in Execution Chamber
A second Muslim death-row prisoner has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging Alabama’s policy of allowing only a Protestant Christian chaplain in the execution chamber. Charles Burton, Jr. (pictured), converted to Islam 47 years ago. In a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Burton, who was sentenced to death in 1992, argues that Alabama’s policy violates the Establishment…
Read More