Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Mar 222017

Lawyers Seek Supreme Court Review Of Alleged Torture As Accused USS Cole Bomber Awaits Capital Trial

Lawyers for Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, the man accused of plot­ting the bomb­ing of the USS Cole in 2000, are seek­ing U.S. Supreme Court inter­ven­tion to pre­vent his tri­al before a mil­i­tary tri­bunal in which Nashiri faces the death penal­ty if con­vict­ed. The peti­tion for a writ of cer­tio­rari asks the Court to allow Nashiri’s lawyers to chal­lenge his mil­i­tary deten­tion — and efforts to try him in a mil­i­tary tri­bunal rather than a civilian…

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Mar 212017

Harper’s Magazine Profiles Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty

A fea­ture sto­ry in the March issue of Harper’s Magazine explores the grow­ing con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment against the death penal­ty, with a focus on the group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty and its nation­al advo­ca­cy coor­di­na­tor, Marc Hyden (pic­tured). Hyden, who pre­vi­ous­ly worked on Republican cam­paigns and was a field rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the NRA, explained the gen­e­sis of his views against the death penal­ty. His…

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News 

Mar 152017

Upcoming Supreme Court Cases Could Clarify Standard Requiring Disclosure of Exculpatory Evidence

Prosecutorial mis­con­duct, includ­ing with­hold­ing evi­dence favor­able to the defense, is the most com­mon cause of wrong­ful con­vic­tions in death penal­ty cas­es, but pros­e­cu­tors fre­quent­ly fail to dis­close this evi­dence, nar­row­ly inter­pret­ing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1963 deci­sion in Brady v. Maryland call­ing for its dis­clo­sure. On March 29, the Court will hear two con­sol­i­dat­ed cas­es—Turner v. United States and Overton v. United…

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Mar 142017

STUDIES: Rarity of Executions Makes California Jurors Less Likely to Impose Death Sentences

A study pub­lished in The Yale Law Journal pro­vides new evi­dence that, as pub­lic opin­ion con­tin­ues to shift away from the death penal­ty, juries empan­eled in cap­i­tal cas­es may become even less rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the com­mu­ni­ty and even more prone to con­vict. The studycon­duct­ed by Professors Brandon Garrett (University of Virginia), Daniel Krauss (Claremont-McKenna College), and Nicholas Scurich (University of California Irvine) — found that with increased…

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News 

Mar 132017

Inventor of Midazolam Opposes Its Use in Executions

As U.S. phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have removed med­i­cines from the mar­ket to pre­vent states from obtain­ing them for exe­cu­tions, states have turned to alter­na­tives, like the seda­tive mida­zo­lam. Dr. Armin Walser, who was part of the team that invent­ed the drug in the 1970s, is dis­mayed at that devel­op­ment.​“I didn’t make it for the pur­pose” of exe­cut­ing pris­on­ers, Dr. Walser told The New York Times.​“I am not a friend of the death…

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News 

Mar 102017

Florida Legislature Passes Bill Eliminating Non-Unanimous Jury Recommendations for Death Penalty

A Florida bill that would require the jury to make a unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion for death before a judge may impose a death sen­tence will head to Governor Rick Scott for final approval, after both hous­es of the Florida leg­is­la­ture passed it by over­whelm­ing mar­gins. Senate Bill 280 passed unan­i­mous­ly (37 – 0) on March 9, and the cor­re­spond­ing House Bill 527 passed by a 112 – 3 vote…

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News 

Mar 092017

LAW REVIEWS: Predictions of Future Dangerousness Contribute to Arbitrary Sentencing Decisions

In a new arti­cle for the Lewis & Clark Law Review, author Carla Edmondson argues that the future dan­ger­ous­ness inquiry that is implic­it in cap­i­tal setenc­ing deter­mi­na­tions​“is a fun­da­men­tal­ly flawed ques­tion that leads to arbi­trary and capri­cious death sen­tences” and because of the​“per­sis­tent influ­ence of future dan­ger­ous­ness … ren­ders the death penal­ty incom­pat­i­ble with the pro­hi­bi­tions of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments on cruel and…

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