Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

May 022017

Review Commission Report: Oklahoma Death Penalty Cases Cost Triple That Of Non-Capital Cases

An inde­pen­dent study of the costs of seek­ing and impos­ing the death penal­ty in Oklahoma, pre­pared for the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, has con­clud­ed that seek­ing the death penal­ty in Oklahoma​“incurs sig­nif­i­cant­ly more time, effort, and costs on aver­age, as com­pared to when the death penal­ty is not sought in first degree mur­der cas­es.” The report — pre­pared by Seattle University crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­fes­sors Peter A. Collins and Matthew J.

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News 

May 012017

BOOKS: The Trials of Walter Ogrod” Chronicles Pennsylvania Possible Innocence Case

Walter Ogrod was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Philadelphia in 1996 for the 1988 mur­der of a 4‑year-old girl, whose body was found in a dis­card­ed tele­vi­sion box. Ogrod, who is devel­op­men­tal­ly dis­abled, has long main­tained his inno­cence, but despite sig­nif­i­cant irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the case and amidst alle­ga­tions of offi­cial mis­con­duct, local pros­e­cu­tors have fought efforts to obtain DNA test­ing of the phys­i­cal evi­dence and to inves­ti­gate the role…

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News 

Apr 262017

Bipartisan Oklahoma Report Recommends Moratorium on Executions Pending Significant Reforms’

After spend­ing more than a year study­ing Oklahoma​’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment prac­tices, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission has unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed that the state extend its cur­rent mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions​“until sig­nif­i­cant reforms are accom­plished.” The bipar­ti­san com­mis­sion issued its report on April 25, 2017, reach­ing what it char­ac­ter­ized as​“dis­turb­ing” find­ings that​“led Commission mem­bers to question…

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News 

Apr 212017

Virginia Governor Commutes Death Sentence of Ivan Teleguz

On April 20, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Ivan Teleguz (pic­tured), whom the Commonwealth had sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 25. Teleguz will now serve a sen­tence of life with­out parole. It was the first death-penal­­­ty clemen­cy ever issued by Gov. McAuliffe. The offi­cial state­ment released to the media in con­junc­tion with the com­mu­ta­tion out­lined sev­er­al of the fac­tors that influ­enced the Governor’s…

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News 

Apr 202017

Florida House Issues Apology for 1949 Lynchings and Wrongful Convictions

In 1949, Norma Padgett, a white 17-year-old, false­ly accused four young black men in Groveland, Florida of kid­nap­ping and rap­ing her. Nearly 70 years lat­er, the state of Florida is apol­o­giz­ing to the fam­i­lies of the​“Groveland Four,” two of whom were mur­dered and two of whom were wrongly…

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