Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Nov 272018

Kentucky Joins States With No Executions for at Least Ten Years

On November 21, 2018, Kentucky marked 10 years since its last exe­cu­tion, becom­ing the eleventh cur­rent death-penal­­­ty state that has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in more than a decade. Another 20 states have leg­isla­tive­ly or judi­cial­ly abol­ished their death-penal­­­ty laws, bring­ing the num­ber of states that do not active­ly use the death penal­ty to 31. On the day before Kentucky reached its 10-year mile­stone, a law­suit filed in fed­er­al court highlighted…

Read More

News 

Nov 212018

Tennessee Supreme Court Sets Six Execution Dates for 2019 and 2020

The Tennessee Supreme Court has set exe­cu­tion dates for six men on the state’s death row, sched­ul­ing their exe­cu­tions for between May 16, 2019 and April 9, 2020. This mass exe­cu­tion sched­ule, issued on November 16, 2018, comes in the wake of the con­tro­ver­sial exe­cu­tions of Billy Ray Irick and Edmund Zagorski ear­li­er this year and as the state pre­pares to exe­cute David Earl Miller on December 6. If all seven…

Read More

News 

Nov 192018

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Seven Florida Cases, Highlighting Deep Rift Among the Justices

On November 13, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review sev­en death-penal­­­ty cas­es in which Florida courts had upheld death sen­tences imposed with uncon­sti­tu­tion­al sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures. The Court’s deci­sion not to hear the sev­en Florida cas­es prompt­ed opin­ions from three jus­tices that high­light the deep sub­stan­tive and pro­ce­dur­al divide in the Court’s approach to…

Read More

News 

Nov 162018

DPIC Analysis: The Decline of the Death Penalty in Philadelphia

During his elec­tion cam­paign, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner described the eco­nom­ic waste­ful­ness of city pros­e­cu­tors’ pur­suit of the death penal­ty as​“light­ing mon­ey on fire.” A DPIC analy­sis of the out­comes of the more than 200 death sen­tences imposed in the city since 1978 (click here to enlarge image) and the last sev­en years of cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion out­comes pro­vides strong sup­port for Krasner’s…

Read More

News 

Nov 152018

On Fifteenth Anniversary of Witness to Innocence, Prominent Exonerees Seek Abolition of the Death Penalty

As Witness to Innocence (WTI), an orga­ni­za­tion of U.S. death-row exonerees and their fam­i­lies, pre­pared to mark its 15th anniver­sary on November 15, 2018, two of the country’s most promi­nent exonerees — WTIs act­ing direc­tor, Kirk Bloodsworth (pic­tured, left), and its board chair, Kwame Ajamu (pic­tured, right) — called for an end to the death penal­ty in the United States. In an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the two exonerees told…

Read More

News 

Nov 142018

Often Forgotten” in the Wake of Exonerations, Wrongful Convictions Harm Murder Victims’ Families, Too

In a fea­ture arti­cle in Politico, Lara Bazelon, an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and author of the new book, Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction, describes an exon­er­a­tion as​“an earth­quake [that] leaves upheaval and ruin in its wake.” Exonerees, she writes,​“suf­fer hor­ri­bly — both phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly — in prison” and are revic­tim­ized fol­low­ing their release,​“leav[ing] prison…

Read More

News 

Nov 132018

U.N. Human Rights Officials Say Planned Texas Execution Violates International Treaties

United Nations human rights offi­cials have urged the gov­ern­ment of the United States to halt the immi­nent exe­cu­tion of a Mexican nation­al who was tried and sen­tenced to death in Texas in vio­la­tion of U.S. treaty oblig­a­tions. Texas is sched­uled to exe­cute Roberto Moreno Ramos (pic­tured) on November 14, in an action an inter­na­tion­al human rights court has said would vio­late the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Agnes…

Read More

News 

Nov 122018

A Veterans Day Review: Recent Cases Highlight Concerns About Veterans and the Death Penalty

As Americans become increas­ing­ly aware of the role of com­bat trau­ma in the devel­op­ment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and oth­er men­tal health dis­or­ders, the shift in pub­lic per­cep­tions towards vet­er­ans suf­fer­ing from these dis­or­ders has played out in the courts in recent death penal­ty cas­es. In 2018, at least four mil­i­tary vet­er­ans fac­ing death sen­tences have instead been sen­tenced to life in prison, and anoth­er two vet­er­ans won relief in their…

Read More

News 

Nov 092018

Florida Supreme Court Reverses Death Sentence That Flouted Legislative Amendments

The Florida Supreme Court has over­turned the death sen­tence imposed on Eriese Tisdale (pic­tured) in 2016 in vio­la­tion of a Florida law that had been enact­ed in an attempt to fix con­sti­tu­tion­al flaws in the state’s death-penal­­­ty statute. The state court ruled on November 8, 2018, that St. Lucie County Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn’s deci­sion to sen­tence Tisdale to death after three mem­bers of the jury had vot­ed to spare his life violated both…

Read More