Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Dec 232016

REPORT: Two-Thirds of Oregon’s Death Row Have Mental Impairments, History of Severe Trauma, or Were Under 21 at Offense

Most of the pris­on­ers on Oregon​’s death row suf­fer from sig­nif­i­cant men­tal impair­ments, accord­ing a study released on December 20, 2016 by the Fair Punishment Project at Harvard University. The Project’s analy­sis of case records, media reports, and opin­ions of Oregon legal experts found that two-thirds of the 35 peo­ple on the state’s death row​“pos­sess signs of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness or intel­lec­tu­al impair­ment, endured devastatingly…

Read More

News 

Dec 222016

Florida Supreme Court: More Than 200 Prisoners Unconstitutionally Sentenced to Death May Get New Sentencing Hearing

More than 200 Florida death row pris­on­ers may have their death sen­tences over­turned, while more than 150 oth­ers who may have been uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly sen­tenced to death will not, as a result of two lengthy opin­ions issued by the Florida Supreme Court on December 22. The rul­ings in the cas­es of Asay v. State and Mosley v. State would enti­tle death row pris­on­ers whose uncon­sti­tu­tion­al death sen­tences became​“final” in or…

Read More

News 

Dec 212016

DPIC Releases Year End Report: Historic Declines in Death Penalty Use Continue

Death sen­tences, exe­cu­tions, and pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty con­tin­ued their his­toric declines in 2016, accord­ing to DPICs annu­al report,​“The Death Penalty in 2016: Year End Report,” released on December 21. The 30 death sen­tences imposed this year are the fewest in the mod­ern era of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the U.S. — since the Supreme Court declared all exist­ing death penal­ty statutes uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1972 — and declined 39% from 2015s…

Read More

News 

Dec 202016

Federal Jury Awards Illinois Death Row Exoneree $22 Million in Damages

A fed­er­al jury award­ed $22 mil­lion in dam­ages to Nathson Fields (pic­tured), who was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed of a gang-relat­ed mur­der and sen­tenced to death in 1986. Fields was exon­er­at­ed in 2009. The jury found that two Chicago police detec­tives vio­lat­ed Fields’ civ­il rights by hid­ing crit­i­cal evi­dence that sug­gest­ed he did not com­mit the crime of which he was con­vict­ed. For many years, the Chicago police depart­ment main­tained a practice of…

Read More

News 

Dec 192016

Directed to Reconsider its Death Penalty Statute, Alabama Appeals Court Upholds Constitutionality of 3 Death Sentences

Directed by the U.S. Supreme Court to recon­sid­er its rul­ings uphold­ing the death sen­tences imposed upon four Alabama defen­dants, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed three of the death sen­tences on December 16. The state court ruled that the death sen­tences imposed upon Ronnie Kirksey, Corey Wimbley, and Ryan Gerald Russell do not vio­late the Supreme Court’s January 16, 2016 decision in…

Read More

News 

Dec 162016

Delaware Supreme Court Decision Paves Way to Clear State’s Death Row

On December 15, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in Powell v. State that death-row pris­on­er Derrick Powell will get the ben­e­fit of its August 2016 deci­sion in Rauf v. State declar­ing Delaware’s death sen­tenc­ing statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The court direct­ed that Powell be resen­tenced to life with­out parole, in a rul­ing that also paves the way for resen­tenc­ing Delaware’s twelve other death…

Read More

News 

Dec 152016

NEW VOICES: Latinos Increasingly Vocal in Opposition to Death Penalty

Juan Cartagena (pic­tured), President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF (for­mer­ly the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund), says there is​“a grow­ing under­stand­ing” among Latinos in Florida and across the coun­try​“that the death penal­ty is bro­ken and it can’t be fixed.” In an op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel, Cartagena explains the rea­sons for Latino oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty, espe­cial­ly in Florida, which has a large Latino population and…

Read More

News 

Dec 142016

Judge Finds Federal Death Penalty Arbitrary and Unreliable, But Leaves Constitutionality for Supreme Court to Decide

After a two-week long​“exten­sive hear­ing regard­ing the unre­li­a­bil­i­ty and arbi­trari­ness of the death penal­ty sys­tem, the exces­sive delay involved in exe­cu­tions, and the grow­ing decline in the use of the death penal­ty,” U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford (pic­tured) ruled in the case of U.S. v. Donald Fell that the Federal Death Penalty Act (“FDPA”)​“falls short of the [con­sti­tu­tion­al] stan­dard … for identifying…

Read More

News 

Dec 132016

As Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty Petitions, Justice Breyer Renews Call For Constitutional Review

In the span of one week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review peti­tions from six death row pris­on­ers, deny­ing them relief in their cas­es. The peti­tion­ers raised issues relat­ed to DNA pro­ce­dures, con­flict of coun­sel, a dis­put­ed guilty plea, juror bias, judi­cial over­ride, and a pre­vi­ous­ly botched exe­cu­tion attempt. In two of the cas­es, the Court allowed exe­cu­tions to pro­ceed in Georgia and Alabama. The case of Ronald Smith left the Court…

Read More

News 

Dec 122016

OUTLIER COUNTIES: Miami-Dade Death Sentences Reflect Constitutional Defects, Misconduct

Miami-Dade County has his­tor­i­cal­ly been a sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor to Florida​’s death row and large pro­por­tions of its recent death sen­tences raise seri­ous con­sti­tu­tion­al ques­tions about the prac­tices that result in death ver­dicts and the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the defen­dants who are sen­tenced to death. Miami-Dade imposed five death sen­tences between 2010 and 2015, plac­ing it among the 16 coun­ties that pro­duced more death sentences…

Read More