Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Mar 082017

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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News 

Mar 082017

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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News 

Mar 062017

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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News 

Mar 032017

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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News 

Mar 022017

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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News 

Mar 012017

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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News 

Feb 282017

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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News 

Feb 272017

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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News 

Feb 242017

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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News 

Feb 232017

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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