Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Mar 08, 2017
As Supreme Court Denies Stay of Execution, Justice Breyer Urges Consideration of Death Row Conditions
On March 7, the United States Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Texas death-row prisoner Rolando Ruiz, declining to consider his claim that the more than 20 years he had been incarcerated on death row, mostly in solitary confinement, violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Ruiz’s lawyers had urged the Court to consider this issue, writing,“At this point,…
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Mar 08, 2017
Reports Find Record Number of Exonerations in 2016, Blacks More Likely to be Wrongfully Convicted
Companion reports released on March 7 by the National Registry of Exonerations found record numbers of exonerations and wrongful convictions involving official misconduct in 2016, and striking evidence of racial bias both in the wrongful convictions themselves and in the time it took the judicial process to exonerate the wrongfully incarcerated. The Registry’s report, Exonerations in 2016, found a record 166 exonerations in 2016, with 54…
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Mar 06, 2017
Jury in Wake County, North Carolina Returns 8th Consecutive Life Verdict in a Capital Trial
A Wake County, North Carolina jury voted to spare Nathan Holden’s life on March 3, marking the eighth consecutive capital sentencing trial in the county in which juries had opted to sentence a defendant to life without parole instead of the death penalty. No jury in Wake County has imposed a death sentence since 2007. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against Holden for murdering his ex-wife’s parents and…
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Mar 03, 2017
Florida, Alabama Consider Legislation on Exoneree Compensation
As the Florida legislature considers a bill that would change Florida’s“Clean Hands” policy, which denies compensation for wrongful convictions if the defendant had a prior felony record, Alabama lawmakers are deciding whether to grant compensation to Anthony Ray Hinton (pictured), who was exonerated in 2015 after spending nearly 30 years on death row. In Florida, death row exoneree Herman Lindsey told the Senate Criminal Justice…
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Mar 02, 2017
Exoneree Urges Dallas Prosecutor to Drop Death Penalty Against Veteran With PTSD
Texas capital murder exoneree Christopher Scott (pictured) has urged Dallas County’s new District Attorney, Faith Johnson, to drop the death penalty from murder charges pending against Erbie Bowser. Bowser, who is black, is a seriously mentally ill Marine veteran who was discharged from military service after having been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He faces four capital charges in the…
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Mar 01, 2017
Ohio Jurors Report Emotional Toll of Serving on Capital Case
The costs of the death penalty are more than financial, they are emotional; and these effects are felt not just by the parties to the trial and the families of victims and defendants, but by the jurors as well. A recent report in the Akron Beacon Journal describes the traumatic psychological impact serving in the Summit County, Ohio death penalty trial of Eric Hendon had on the jurors in that case. After a three-month trial and…
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Feb 28, 2017
Arkansas Schedules Unprecedented Eight Executions in Eleven-Day Period
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed orders on February 27 for an unprecedented eight executions to be carried out over a period of eleven days in April. The scheduled dates for the four sets of double executions are: April 17, Bruce Ward and Don Davis; April 20, Stacey Johnson and Ledell Lee; April 24, Jack Jones and Marcel Williams; and April 27,…
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Feb 27, 2017
Federal Appeals Court Overturns Tennessee Death Penalty as a Result of Prosecutorial Misconduct
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned the conviction and death sentence of Tennessee death-row prisoner Andrew Lee Thomas, Jr. on February 24, ruling that Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich had unconstitutionally withheld evidence that a key prosecution witness had been paid for her cooperation in the case and then elicited perjured testimony from the witness…
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Feb 24, 2017
American Bar Association Human Rights Magazine on Capital Punishment
Human Rights Magazine, a quarterly publication by the American Bar Association, focused its first-quarter 2017 edition on capital punishment, marking the 40th anniversary of Gregg v. Georgia. Articles by nationally-renowned death penalty experts examine geographic disparities in death sentences, secrecy and lethal injection, intellectual disability, mental illness, and other critical questions in the current discourse around the death…
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Feb 23, 2017
American Nurses Association Adopts Position Statement Against Capital Punishment
In an expansion of their stance opposing nurse participation in executions, the American Nurses Association (ANA) announced on February 21, 2017 that the organization now for the first time opposes capital punishment itself.“Capital punishment is a human rights violation, and ANA is proud to stand in strong opposition to the death penalty,” ANA President Pamela F. Cipriano said.“All human beings, regardless of their crimes, should be treated with dignity. For…
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