Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Apr 05, 2017
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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Apr 04, 2017
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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Apr 03, 2017
STUDIES: 21st-Century Executions Disproportionately Involve Defendants With Mental Illness
A new study of the case records of the men and women executed in the United States between 2000 and 2015 has found that 21st-century executions disproportionately involve prisoners diagnosed with mental illness and who have experienced…
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Mar 31, 2017
Corrections Officials Warn Arkansas Leaders About Psychological Trauma From Unprecedented Execution Schedule
As Arkansas moves toward attempting to conduct an unprecedented eight executions in eleven days, former corrections officials from across the country are warning Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson of the psychological toll the compressed execution schedule could take on…
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Mar 30, 2017
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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Mar 29, 2017
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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Mar 28, 2017
Supreme Court Overturns Texas’ “Outlier” Standard for Determining Intellectual Disability in Capital Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously struck down Texas’ standard for evaluating intellectual disability in death penalty cases, calling the state’s approach an“outlier” that, “[b]y design and in operation, … create[s] an unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability…
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Mar 27, 2017
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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Mar 24, 2017
Texas Murder Victims’ Parents Seek Death Sentence Commutation for Paul Storey
Judy and Glenn Cherry (pictured), the parents of Jonas Cherry, have asked Texas state and local officials not to execute Paul Storey, the man convicted of killing their son. The state has scheduled Storey’s execution…
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Mar 23, 2017
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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