Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Jan 102017

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…

Read More

News 

Jan 092017

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…

Read More

News 

Jan 062017

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,…

Read More

News 

Jan 052017

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…

Read More

News 

Jan 032017

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…

Read More

News 

Dec 312016

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]…

Read More

News 

Dec 292016

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…

Read More

News 

Dec 272016

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.

Read More