Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
May 03, 2024
Articles of Interest: Former Pennsylvania Death Row Prisoner Jimmy Dennis Awarded Compensation After Years-Long Legal Battle
Paul Messing, attorney…
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May 02, 2024
Articles of Interest: Missouri and Oklahoma Corrections Officials Describe Psychological Toll of Performing Executions
Justin“JJ” Humphrey (pictured), former prison officer and current chair of the criminal justice and corrections committee in the Oklahoma…
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Apr 30, 2024
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Professor Elisabeth Semel on the Implications of Batson v. Kentucky and California’s Capital Punishment System
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Elisabeth Semel, Clinical Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley (pictured). Professor Semel joined Berkeley Law in 2001 as the first director of the school’s death penalty clinic and remains the clinic’s co-director, where students have represented individuals facing capital punishment and written amicus briefs in death penalty cases before the United…
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Apr 29, 2024
Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the “West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993
Damien…
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Apr 26, 2024
Federal Judge Orders Alameda County District Attorney to Review 35 Capital Cases Following Disclosure of Prosecutorial Misconduct in Jury Selection
Alameda…
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Apr 25, 2024
Articles of Interest: Juror Who Sentenced Toforest Johnson to Death Now Believes He Is Innocent
Monique…
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Apr 23, 2024
Articles of Interest: Reprieve Issues New Report on Botched Executions and Racial Disparities
A new report issued April 17, 2024 by the UK-based international human rights organization Reprieve found racial disparities in the occurrence of botched executions in the United States. As reported in The Guardian, Reprieve analyzed all lethal injection executions between 1976 and 2023. It chronicled 73 confirmed botched procedures and found that 8% of executions of Black people were botched (37 times out of 465 executions), compared with 4% for white people (28…
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Apr 22, 2024
Louisiana Senate Committee Approves Legislation Supported by Jewish Community to Remove Nitrogen Hypoxia as Possible Method of Execution
Arizona…
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Apr 16, 2024
Trial Judge Signs Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Recommending Melissa Lucio’s Conviction and Death Sentence Be Overturned
On April 12, 2024, Judge Arturo Nelson signed an Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law submitted by the prosecution and defense stating that Melissa Lucio (pictured) was not given access to favorable information in the prosecution’s possession at the time of trial. The acknowledgement of this constitutional error resulted in Judge Nelson’s recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) that Ms. Lucio’s conviction and death sentence be…
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Apr 15, 2024
Wilbert Rideau, former Louisiana Death-Sentenced Prisoner, is Honored for Extraordinary Journalism During 44 Years at Angola Prison
From center left to right: Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the 1619 project; Wilbert Rideau, former Louisiana death row prisoner; CNN reporter and anchor Christiane Amanpour; Carl Bernstein, author and political commentator. Photo credit to…
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