Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Jan 10, 2017
Denver’s Newly Elected District Attorney Says She Will Not Seek the Death Penalty
Newly-elected Denver, Colorado District Attorney Beth McCann (pictured), sworn into office on January 10, 2017, has said that her administration will not seek the death penalty. Asked by 9News, Denver’s NBC affiliate, whether Denver was“done with the death penalty,” McCann said:“We are under my administration. I don’t think that the state should be in the business of…
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Jan 09, 2017
National Black Caucus of State Legislators Call for Repeal of Death Penalty
Saying that“race plays a decisive role in who lives and who dies” in capital cases in the United States, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) voted at its 40th annual conference on December 14, 2016, to adopt its first ever resolution calling for the abolition of the death penalty. The resolution states that“racial bias in the criminal justice system, including the death penalty and its application, is an undisputed fact,” and…
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Jan 06, 2017
INTERNATIONAL: Human Rights Group, Reprieve Issues Report on Global Executions in 2016
Despite a sharp drop in executions, the United States ranked sixth among the world’s executioners in 2016 behind only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Pakistan, according to a report by the British-based international human rights group, Reprieve. Maya Foa, a director of Reprieve, said “[i]t is alarming that countries with close links to the UK and [European Union] continue to occupy the ranks of the world’s most prolific executioners in 2016.” Questions of innocence,…
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Jan 05, 2017
California Agency Rejects Proposed Execution Protocol
In a new setback to efforts to restart executions in California, the state’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has rejected the new lethal injection protocol proposed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. On December 28, 2016, the OAL, which is responsible for reviewing regulatory changes proposed in California, issued a 25-page decision of disapproval, citing inconsistencies, inadequate justification for certain parts…
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Jan 04, 2017
Texas Sues Food and Drug Administration Over Seizure of Execution Drugs
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice filed suit on January 3, 2017 against the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the FDA’s continued detention of drugs Texas had attempted to import…
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Jan 03, 2017
Washington Governor Issues Reprieve, Calls for Abolition of Death Penalty
Citing“serious concerns about the use of capital punishment in the state of Washington,” Governor Jay Inslee (pictured) granted a reprieve to Clark Richard Elmore, whom the state’s Department of Corrections had scheduled for execution on January 19, 2017, and urged the state legislature to abolish capital punishment in the state. The December 29, 2016 warrant of reprieve was the first reprieve order issued under…
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Dec 31, 2016
NEW VOICES: Regretting Execution, Murder Victim’s Family Urges Governor to Commute Missouri’s Death Row
When Missouri executed Jeff Ferguson in 2014 for the rape and murder of Kelli Hall, her father said the Hall family“believed the myth that Ferguson’s execution would close our emotional wounds.” At that time, Jim Hall told reporters“It’s over, thank God.” But, he now says, it wasn’t. In an op-ed in the Columbia Daily Tribune, Mr. Hall writes that his family has“come to deeply regret [Ferguson’s]…
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Dec 29, 2016
First-Degree Murder Charges Dropped Against Two Former Pennsylvania Death Row Prisoners With Innocence Claims
On December 22, 2016, Pennsylvania prosecutors dropped first-degree murder charges against two former Pennsylvania death row prisoners who have asserted their innocence for decades. In courtrooms 100 miles apart, Tyrone Moore and James Dennis entered no-contest pleas to charges of third-degree murder, avoiding retrials on the charges that had initially sent the men to death row and paving the way for…
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Dec 28, 2016
OUTLIER COUNTIES: Orange County, California Plagued by Misconduct Scandals
Orange County, California imposed nine death sentences between 2010 and 2015, more than 99.8% of American counties, and ranking it among the 6 most prolific death-sentencing counties in the country…
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Dec 27, 2016
United Nations Overwhelmingly Adopts Resolution Calling for Global Moratorium on the Death Penalty
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on December 20 to adopt a resolution co-sponsored by 89 countries urging a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty. 117 nations voted in support of the world body’s sixth resolution on the subject, equaling the record number of countries who supported a UN moratorium resolution in 2014. 40 member nations, including the United States, voted against the measure, while 31 abstained.
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