Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Mar 22, 2017
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 21, 2017
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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Mar 20, 2017
Virginia Increases Execution Secrecy After Difficulty Setting IV in Last Execution
After prison personnel took more than a half hour to set the IV line during Virginia’s January 18 execution of Ricky Gray, the Commonwealth’s Department of Corrections has changed its execution procedures to conduct more of the execution preparations out of…
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Mar 17, 2017
Florida Prosecutor Announces She Will No Longer Seek Death Sentences, Governor Moves to Exclude Her From Police-Killing Case
Saying that pursuing the death penalty“is not in the best interests of this community or in the best interests of justice,” Orange-Osceola County, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala (pictured) announced on March 16 that her office would not seek the death penalty while she is…
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Mar 16, 2017
Federal Appeals Court Finds Alabama Prisoner Incompetent To Be Executed
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled on March 15 that Alabama death-row prisoner Vernon Madison (pictured) — who was spared execution last May when the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked at 4 – 4 on whether to lift a stay — is not mentally competent…
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Mar 15, 2017
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 14, 2017
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 study—conducted 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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Mar 13, 2017
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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Mar 10, 2017
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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Mar 09, 2017
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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