Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Jan 25, 2017
Texas Prisoner Seeks Stay of Execution Based on Claims of Innocence, Discriminatory Jury Selection, Junk Science
Alleging wrongful prosecution, Texas death row prisoner Terry Edwards (pictured), who is scheduled for execution on January 26, is seeking a stay of execution and an opportunity to present new evidence that his case was tainted by racially-discriminatory jury selection, prosecutorial misconduct, and false and misleading forensic testimony. Edwards was prosecuted by Dallas County assistant district attorney Thomas…
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Jan 24, 2017
Anesthesiologist Says Lethal Injection Creates Moral Dilemma for Physicians
Lethal injection as practiced in U.S. executions“is an impersonation of medicine populated by real doctors who don’t acknowledge the deception,” Dr. Joel Zivot (pictured), an anesthesiologist and associate professor of anesthesiology at Emory University School of Medicine, writes in an op-ed for CNN. Setting aside the question of the rightness or wrongness of capital punishment itself, he says,“it’s time to reject lethal…
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Jan 23, 2017
Texas Court Orders Release of Former Death Row Prisoner Who Spent 32 Years in Prison Without a Valid Conviction
A Texas Court of Appeals ruled on January 19, 2017 that all charges against Jerry Hartfield should be dismissed with prejudice after the state had kept the intellectually disabled former death row prisoner in prison for 32 years without retrying him after his conviction had been overturned. Calling the situation a“criminal judicial nightmare,” the court ruled that the three-decade delay in trying Hartfield violated his…
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Jan 20, 2017
Isaiah McCoy Exonerated from Delaware Death Row, the 157th Death Row Exoneration Since 1973
Isaiah McCoy (pictured), a former Delaware death row inmate, was exonerated on January 19, 2017, when a judge acquitted him at a retrial. He is the 157th person exonerated from death row in the United States, the first in 2017, and the…
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Jan 19, 2017
Alabama Faith Leaders Hold Panel on Death Penalty, Spotlight ‘Rocky’ Myers’ Case of Possible Innocence
Inspired by the case of Robin“Rocky” Myers (pictured), an intellectually disabled and possibly innocent Alabama death row prisoner whom an elected state judge sentenced to death despite a 9 – 3 jury recommendation for life, a panel of faith leaders gathered in Montgomery, Alabama to discuss religious views on the death penalty and the intersection of faith and justice. Before the discussion began, the faith…
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Jan 18, 2017
President Obama Commutes Two Death Sentences
On January 17, 2017, President Barack Obama (pictured) commuted the death sentences of Abelardo Arboleda Ortiz, a federal death row prisoner, and Dwight Loving, a military death row prisoner. The two men were among 209 commutations and 64 pardons announced by the White House on the 17th. Ortiz’s lawyers sought clemency from the President on the grounds that Ortiz was intellectually disabled, his right to consular…
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Jan 17, 2017
With Bipartisan Sponsors, Washington Attorney General, Governor Propose Bill to Abolish State’s Death Penalty
With the support of a bipartisan group of state officials and legislators, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (pictured) and Governor Jay Inslee have proposed legislation to repeal the state’s death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life without parole. At a news conference announcing the bill, Ferguson, a Democrat, was joined by former Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, in calling for abolition.
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Jan 13, 2017
Mental Health Professionals, Religious Leaders Join Ricky Gray’s Plea for Clemency
Ricky Gray (pictured), who is scheduled to be executed on January 18, is seeking clemency from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, and his clemency petition has been joined by a diverse group of mental health professionals and the Virginia Catholic Conference. A letter signed by more than 50 mental health professionals, including two former commissioners of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, urges…
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Jan 12, 2017
REPORT: 5 Florida Counties Disproportionately Impose Death Penalty Against Seriously Mentally Impaired Defendants
Nearly two-thirds of death row prisoners in five Florida counties whose cases were studied by Harvard University’s Fair Punishment Project suffer from serious mental impairments. According to a report released by the project on January 12, 2017, the Florida Supreme Court’s December 2016 ruling in Mosley v. State requires reconsideration of the sentences imposed on approximately 150 people on Florida’s death row who were sentenced…
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Jan 11, 2017
Texas Set to Execute Christopher Wilkins Despite Lawyers’ Conflicts of Interest
Christopher Wilkins (pictured) is scheduled to be executed in Texas on January 11, even as he has a petition pending before the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that he has been improperly denied the opportunity to develop and present evidence that he suffers from significant cognitive…
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