Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Jan 242019

U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Review Cases Alleging Racial Bias in Oklahoma Death Penalty

The United States Supreme Court has declined to review chal­lenges brought by two Oklahoma death-row pris­on­ers who alleged that their death sen­tences were the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al prod­uct of racial bias. Julius Jones and Tremane Wood had sought to over­turn their death sen­tences based on the find­ings of a 2017 study that showed sig­nif­i­cant racial dis­par­i­ties in Oklahoma’s death sen­tenc­ing prac­tices. On January 22, 2019, the…

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News 

Jan 232019

Bill to Abolish Wyoming’s Death Penalty Introduced with Bipartisan Support

A bipar­ti­san coali­tion of Wyoming leg­is­la­tors has intro­duced a bill to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty. On January 15, 2019, Cheyenne Republican State Representative Jared Olsen (pic­tured, left) and Republican State Senator Brian Boner (pic­tured, right), intro­duced HB145, which would repeal the death penal­ty and replace it with a judi­cial­ly imposed sen­tence of life with­out parole or life impris­on­ment. The bill,…

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News 

Jan 222019

Virginia Senate Passes Bill to Bar the Death Penalty for Severely Mentally Ill Offenders

By a vote of 23 – 17, the Virginia State Senate has approved a bill that, if enact­ed, would ban cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for defen­dants with severe men­tal ill­ness. With the sup­port of all nine­teen Democratic sen­a­tors and four Republicans, the bill passed the GOP-con­trolled Senate on January 17, 2019. It now moves on to the Commonwealth’s House of Delegates, which is com­prised of 51 Republicans…

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News 

Jan 182019

Citing Evidence of Innocence, Race Discrimination, Georgia Court Grants New Trial to Former Death-Row Prisoner

A Georgia judge has grant­ed a new tri­al to Johnny Lee Gates (pic­tured recent­ly, right, and at the time of tri­al, left) based on new evi­dence that excludes him as the source of DNA on imple­ments used by the killer dur­ing the 1976 rape and mur­der for which Gates was sen­tenced to death. DNA test­ing dis­closed that Gates’s DNA was not found on a neck­tie and the bathrobe belt the pros­e­cu­tion said were used by the killer to bind Kathrina Wright, the…

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News 

Jan 172019

New Voices: Former Texas Criminal Appeals Judge Suggests Pause” on Texas Death Penalty

Retiring Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge and for­mer pros­e­cu­tor Elsa Alcala now believes that the death penal­ty is unre­li­ably and dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly applied in the nation’s most aggres­sive cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment state. In a new Houston Chronicle​“Behind the Walls” pod­cast, Judge Alcala – who calls her­self​“a Republican hang­ing on by a thread” – told reporter Keri Blakinger,​“I think we know enough…

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News 

Jan 162019

Human Rights Group — Politically Motivated Use of Death Penalty Widens in Saudi Arabia

Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia amid widen­ing pur­suit of polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed death sen­tences, mass death penal­ty tri­als, and use of the death penal­ty against female activists, accord­ing to a European-based Saudi human rights orga­ni­za­tion. In its 2018 Death Penalty Report: Saudi Arabia’s False Promise, issued January 16, 2019, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) said Saudi Arabia con­duct­ed at least 149

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News 

Jan 162019

U.S. Supreme Court Reverses Kentucky Court in Intellectual Disability Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a Kentucky state court rul­ing that would have per­mit­ted the Commonwealth to exe­cute death-row pris­on­er Larry Lamont White (pic­tured) with­out an evi­den­tiary hear­ing on his claim that he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. In a one-para­­­graph order issued on January 15, 2019, the Court grant­ed White’s peti­tion for review, vacat­ed the Kentucky Supreme Court​’s denial of his death-penalty appeal,…

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News 

Jan 142019

With Backing of New Governor, Florida Clemency Board Posthumously Pardons the Groveland Four”

On January 11, 2019, the Florida Clemency Board unan­i­mous­ly grant­ed posthu­mous par­dons to the​“Groveland Four,” four young African-American men false­ly accused of rap­ing a young white woman in Lake County, Florida in 1949. During the racist hys­te­ria fol­low­ing the accu­sa­tion, white mobs burned down black res­i­dences, a mas­sive white posse lynched a black sus­pect, all-white juries con­demned two innocent men…

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News 

Jan 102019

Chaos Continues in Guantánamo Death-Penalty Trial, As Another Military Judge Quits

The already chaot­ic Guantánamo death-penal­­­ty tri­al of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, accused of orches­trat­ing the October 2000 attack on the U.S. Navy destroy­er USS Cole, hit anoth­er snag as the most recent judge assigned to pre­side over the con­tro­ver­sial pro­ceed­ings will be leav­ing the mil­i­tary and quit­ting the case. In a January 4, 2019 appel­late plead­ing recent­ly obtained by the McClatchy News Service, prosecutors advised…

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