Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Apr 052017

Alabama Legislature Votes to End Judicial Override

The Alabama leg­is­la­ture has approved and sent to the Governor a bill that would bring to an end the prac­tice of per­mit­ting tri­al judges to impose death sen­tences over a cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion that the defen­dant be sen­tenced to life. Alabama is the only state in the U.S. that cur­rent­ly per­mits judi­cial over­ride. The leg­is­la­ture act­ed in response to mount­ing court chal­lenges to Alabama’s death…

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News 

Apr 042017

In Expanding Dispute Over Death Penalty, Florida Governor Orders Replacement of Local Prosecutor in 21 Murder Cases

Florida Governor Rick Scott issued a series of exec­u­tive orders on April 3 remov­ing local­ly elect­ed 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Aramis Ayala (pic­tured) from 21 first-degree mur­der cas­es and replac­ing her with 5th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Brad King. The removal comes two weeks after Ayala announced a pol­i­cy that her office would not pur­sue the death penal­ty in mur­der pros­e­cu­tions. The cas­es include a number of…

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News 

Mar 302017

NEW VOICES: Bipartisan Former Governors Support Death Penalty Exemption for Those With Severe Mental Illness

In a joint op-ed for The Washington Post, for­mer gov­er­nors Bob Taft (pic­tured, l.) and Joseph E. Kernan (pic­tured, r.) have expressed bipar­ti­san sup­port for pro­posed leg­is­la­tion that would pro­hib­it the use of the death penal­ty against peo­ple who have severe men­tal ill­ness. Taft, a for­mer Republican gov­er­nor of Ohio, and Kernan, a for­mer Democratic gov­er­nor of Indiana, call the exe­cu­tion of men­tal­ly ill defen­dants​“an inhu­mane prac­tice that fails to…

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News 

Mar 292017

Maricopa County, Arizona DA Seeks Death Penalty So Often, The County Has Run Out of Capital Defense Lawyers

Maricopa County, Arizona County Attorney Bill Montgomery has sought the death penal­ty so fre­quent­ly that the coun­ty has run up mil­lions of dol­lars in defense costs and run out of defense lawyers qual­i­fied to han­dle new cap­i­­­tal­­­ly-charged cas­es. The Arizona Republic reports that, with 65 active death-penal­­­ty cas­es and more new cap­i­tal cas­es charged than the 35 that have been resolved since July 1, 2014, the coun­ty ran out of the…

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News 

Mar 272017

New Podcast: Women and the Death Penalty, With Expert Guest Mary Atwell

We live in a gen­dered soci­ety,” says Dr. Mary Atwell (pic­tured), one of the nation’s fore­most experts on women and cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and the men and women who go to death row are dif­fer­ent. In the lat­est pod­cast episode of​“Discussions with DPIC,” com­mem­o­rat­ing Women’s History Month, Dr. Atwell says why…

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News 

Mar 232017

Florida Black Caucus, Victim’s Parents Urge Governor to Rescind Order Removing Prosecutor For Not Seeking Death Penalty

The Florida Legislative Black Caucus has joined more than 100 lawyers and legal experts and the par­ents of mur­der vic­tim Sade Dixon in urg­ing Governor Rick Scott to rescind his order remov­ing Orange-Osceola County State Attorney Aramis Ayala (pic­tured) from a high-pro­­­file dou­ble mur­der case in which she decid­ed to not seek the death penal­ty. The oth­er vic­tim in the case, Lt. Debra Clayton, was an Orlando police offi­cer. Governor Scott did not…

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