Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Oct 112018

On World Day Against the Death Penalty, Malaysia Announces Abolition Plan, European Union Reaffirms Abolitionist Stance

Marking World Day Against the Death Penalty, the gov­ern­ment of Malaysia on October 10, 2018 announced its inten­tion to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the Muslim nation of 30 mil­lion peo­ple. A con­ti­nent away, the Council of Europe and the European Union issued a joint dec­la­ra­tion reaf­firm­ing Europe’s​“strong oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in all cir­cum­stances.” The European government…

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News 

Oct 102018

Texas Courts Rule for Two Death-Row Prisoners on Intellectual Disability, Junk-Science Claims

Two Texas pris­on­ers took steps away from death row as state courts ruled in their favor on issues involv­ing false or faulty sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence and argu­ment. On October 5, 2018, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion to Juan Segundo (pic­tured, left), direct­ing a Tarrant County tri­al court to recon­sid­er a claim of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty that the courts had…

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News 

Oct 092018

Governor Rejects Jurors’ Plea for Clemency for Edmund Zagorski as Tennessee Court Allows Lethal Injections to Proceed

Ignoring dec­la­ra­tions by six jurors in Edmund Zagorski​’s 1984 tri­al that they would have spared Zagorski (pic­tured) if they could have sen­tenced him to life with­out parole, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam reject­ed Zagorski’s peti­tion for clemen­cy on October 5, 2018. In con­junc­tion with the Tennessee Supreme Court’s October 8 rul­ing uphold­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s lethal-injec­­­tion pro­to­col, Haslam’s deci­sion moved the…

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News 

Oct 082018

Law Review: Junk Mental Health Science and the Texas Death Penalty

Junk sci­ence is​“enabling and per­pet­u­at­ing grave mis­car­riages of jus­tice” in Texas death-penal­­­ty cas­es. So con­cludes Professor James Acker in his arti­cle, Snake Oil With A Bite: The Lethal Veneer of Science and Texas’s Death Penalty, pub­lished in the lat­est issue of the Albany Law Review. Acker’s arti­cle high­lights the height­ened risks of injus­tice from pseu­­­do-sci­ence and junk sci­ence in cap­i­tal cas­es in Texas, one…

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News 

Oct 052018

Tennessee Supreme Court Hears Challenge to Lethal-Injection Protocol

The Tennessee Supreme Court heard oral argu­ment on October 3, 2018 of an appeal brought by 32 death-row pris­on­ers chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. In a move crit­i­cized by one of the court’s jus­tices as a​“rock­et dock­et,” the court removed the case from a low­er court and set argu­ment for one week before Tennessee’s sched­uled October 11 exe­cu­tion of Edmund Zagorski. Previously, the…

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News 

Oct 032018

Justices Appear to Favor Prisoner with Dementia in Case Seeking to Block Alabama Execution

The U.S. Supreme Court heard argu­ment in Madison v. Alabama on October 2, 2018 on whether an Alabama death-row pris­on­er who has vas­cu­lar demen­tia, brain dam­age, cog­ni­tive deficits, and mem­o­ry loss from two near-fatal strokes is com­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed. During oral argu­ment, Bryan Stevenson (pic­tured), the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Equal Justice Initiative, told the jus­tices that, as a result of…

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News 

Oct 022018

North Carolina Bar Files Ethics Complaint Against Lawyer Accused of Fleecing Intellectually Disabled Death-Row Exonerees

Florida lawyer Patrick Megaro is fac­ing an offi­cial com­plaint by the North Carolina State Bar for alleged­ly defraud­ing death-row exonerees Henry McCollum (pic­tured, right) and Leon Brown (pic­tured, left), and tak­ing a third of the com­pen­sa­tion grant­ed to the two men. Half-broth­­­ers McCollum and Brown were exon­er­at­ed in 2014 after spend­ing 30 years in prison, some on death row, for the rape and mur­der of an 11-year-old girl. Both men are intellectually…

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News 

Oct 012018

Finding Bad Faith,” Judge Grants Injunction Preventing Nevada From Using Drug in Execution

Finding that the Nevada Department of Corrections act­ed in​“bad faith” to obtain the drug mida­zo­lam through​“sub­terfuge,” a Las Vegas tri­al court has issued a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion bar­ring the state from using its sup­ply of that drug in car­ry­ing out any exe­cu­tion. The 43-page rul­ing issued by Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez (pic­tured) on September 28, 2018 effec­tive­ly freezes efforts by Nevada pros­e­cu­tors to exe­cute Scott…

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News 

Sep 282018

Judge Approves Plea Deal in Case That Challenged the Constitutionality of the Federal Death Penalty

A fed­er­al judge in Vermont has accept­ed a plea deal between Donald Fell and fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors, per­ma­nent­ly remov­ing Fell from death row and end­ing a case that had raised seri­ous ques­tions about the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the fed­er­al death penal­ty. Under the terms of the deal, approved by U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford on September 28, 2018, Fell will serve a sen­tence of life with­out parole for the interstate…

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