Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Two pros­e­cu­tors with dif­fer­ent philo­soph­i­cal per­spec­tives on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment have called on their respec­tive states to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Boulder County, Colorado, District Attorney Michael Dougherty (pic­tured, left), who oppos­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in prin­ci­ple, and for­mer Washoe County, Nevada, homi­cide pros­e­cu­tor Thomas E. Viloria (pic­tured, right), who has suc­cess­ful­ly obtained four death ver­dicts, have added their voic­es to sup­port efforts to…

In October 2018, the Washington Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly struck down the state’s death penal­ty, find­ing that it had been ​“imposed in an arbi­trary and racial­ly biased man­ner.” In reach­ing its deci­sion in State v. Gregory, the court relied upon a study of twen­­ty-five years of Washington State cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions that demon­strat­ed that Washington juries were 4.5 times more like­ly to impose a death sen­tence on a black…

California Governor Gavin Newsom on March 13, 2019 declared a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in the state with the nation’s largest death row. Newsom imple­ment­ed the mora­to­ri­um through an exec­u­tive order grant­i­ng reprieves to the 737 pris­on­ers cur­rent­ly on California’s death row. He also announced that he was with­draw­ing the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col — the admin­is­tra­tive plan by which exe­cu­tions are car­ried out — and was clos­ing down the state’s exe­cu­tion cham­ber. In his exec­u­tive order imposing the…

Prosecutors in sep­a­rate cap­i­tal cas­es in Indiana, Florida, and Texas have dropped pur­suit of the death penal­ty in order to end noto­ri­ous­ly lengthy delays and facil­i­tate heal­ing for the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. On March 8, 2019, St. Joseph County, Indiana pros­e­cu­tors agreed to a plea deal instead of a third death-penal­­ty tri­al for Wayne Kubsch (pic­tured) at the request of the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly. Kubsch was ini­tial­ly sen­tenced to death…

After con­tro­ver­sial exe­cu­tions raised ques­tions of gov­ern­ment com­pe­tence or mis­con­duct, leg­is­la­tures in two states have respond­ed with bills tak­ing sharply dif­fer­ent approach­es to the ques­tions of gov­ern­ment account­abil­i­ty and public…

By an over­whelm­ing 279 – 88 mar­gin, a veto-proof major­i­ty of the New Hampshire House of Representatives vot­ed on March 7, 2019 to repeal the state’s death penal­ty. Demonstrating strong bipar­ti­san sup­port that gar­nered the back­ing of 56 more leg­is­la­tors than an iden­ti­cal repeal bill received in April 2018, the vote end­ed spec­u­la­tion as to how the recon­sti­tut­ed cham­ber would respond to repeal. 93 of the 400 rep­re­sen­ta­tives in the state house who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the vote in 2018 did not…

A new study of four­teen years of Pennsylvania mur­der con­vic­tions has doc­u­ment­ed a sharp decline in coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors’ use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment across the Commonwealth. After exam­in­ing the court files of 4,184 mur­der con­vic­tions from 2004 to 2017, the Allentown Morning Call found that Pennsylvania pros­e­cu­tors sought the death penal­ty at more than triple the rate (3.3) at the start of the study peri­od than they did four­teen years lat­er — a drop of more than 70%. In…

For the first time in more than a decade, a jury in Wake County, North Carolina has sen­tenced a defen­dant to death. On March 4, 2019, a cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing jury vot­ed to impose the death penal­ty upon Seaga Edward Gillard, con­vict­ed of the dou­ble mur­der of a preg­nant pros­ti­tute and her boyfriend, who was assist­ing her in her busi­ness. It was the county’s tenth death-penal­­ty tri­al since 2008, but juries had reject­ed a death sen­tence in each of the previous nine…

Whose inter­ests does a lawyer rep­re­sent, the cap­i­tal defen­dant whose life is at stake or the abu­sive father pay­ing for his defense? Alabama death-row pris­on­er Nicholas Acklin (pic­tured) is seek­ing U.S. Supreme Court review of that issue because he alleges that the lawyer who rep­re­sent­ed him at tri­al had a finan­cial con­flict of inter­est that affect­ed the way he rep­re­sent­ed Acklin in the penal­ty phase of his cap­i­tal tri­al. Nick Acklin’s father, Theodis Acklin,…

Death-row exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown (pic­tured) was declared ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent” by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg on March 1, 2019, mak­ing Brown eli­gi­ble for state com­pen­sa­tion for the time he spent wrong­ful­ly impris­oned on Texas’ death row. ​“My oblig­a­tion as an advo­cate is not to tell peo­ple what they want to hear but to tell them the truth,” Ogg said at a press conference. ​“Alfred Brown was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed through pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct.” Brown was freed…