Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Nov 16, 2023
After “Due Process Disaster,” Texas Death Row Prisoner Whose Appeal Was Lost is Resentenced and Eligible for Parole
A death-sentenced prisoner whose appeal was lost for thirty years was resentenced to life with parole on November 14, 2023, when the Harris County, Texas District Attorney’s office said it is no longer pursuing the death penalty. Syed Rabbani, a Bangladeshi national, has been on death row since 1988 for a fatal Houston shooting. Mr. Rabbani filed his appeal in 1994, but it remained pending in the Harris County Court system until 2022, when the Harris County District Clerk’s Office…
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Nov 15, 2023
Randomness and Prosecutorial Misconduct in Death Penalty Cases Highlighted in South Carolina
A recent article in the Post and Courier details research into the reasons why 18 death sentences have been overturned in South Carolina, finding one of the main reasons to be prosecutorial misconduct. Research found that 11 of the 18 prisoners received new sentences because of prosecutorial misconduct, while the other seven received new sentences after the decision in Atkins v. Virginia because they had intellectual…
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Nov 14, 2023
$9.1 million wrongful conviction settlement for Pennsylvania death row exoneree Walter Ogrod
Death-row exoneree Walter Ogrod’s federal lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia and members of the Philadelphia Police Department was settled for $9.1 million on November 3, 2023. Mr. Ogrod, who was exonerated in 2020 after 23 years on death row, was initially convicted in 1996 based on a coerced confession and false testimony from jailhouse informants in a case further tainted by police and prosecutorial misconduct and inadequate legal representation at trial. In a statement confirming…
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Nov 13, 2023
Alabama Schedules A Second Execution for Kenneth Smith, Using Nitrogen Gas for the First Time in U.S. History
On November 8, 2023, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey scheduled an execution date for Kenneth Smith, marking the first attempt by a U.S. state to use nitrogen gas in an execution. Mr. Smith was convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire death of Elizabeth Sennett in Jefferson County, Alabama and has been on death row for nearly 34 years. Following the state Supreme Court’s 6 – 2 decision greenlighting Attorney General Steve Marshall’s request for an execution warrant, Gov. Ivey set a 32-hour execution date…
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Nov 09, 2023
Tennessean Op-Ed Discusses DPIC Report on Race and Tennessee’s Death Penalty
On November 2, 2023, Demetrius Minor, the National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty and Davis Turner, a retired attorney whose brother was murdered in Nashville in 2009 and a board member of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, co-authored an op-ed in The Tennessean discussing a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center. “Doomed to Repeat: The Legacy of Race in Tennessee’s Contemporary Death Penalty” details the history of racial violence…
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Nov 07, 2023
Pennsylvania House Committee Passes Death Penalty Repeal Bill
A bill to repeal the death penalty in Pennsylvania has passed a committee in the commonwealth’s House of Representatives. The Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee voted 15 – 10 in favor of HB 999 on October 31, 2023. That vote is the first step toward abolishing the death penalty in Pennsylvania, which has had a formal moratorium on executions since 2015 and has not executed anyone since…
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Nov 06, 2023
POLL: For the First Time, More Americans Believe the Death Penalty Is Applied Unfairly in the United States
The Gallup Crime Survey has asked about the fairness of death penalty application in the United States since 2000. For the first time, the October 2023 survey reports that more Americans believe the death penalty is applied unfairly (50%) than fairly (47%). Between 2000 and 2015, 51%-61% of Americans said they thought capital punishment was applied fairly in the U.S., but this number has been dropping since 2016. This year’s number of 47% represents a historic low in the history of Gallup’s…
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Nov 03, 2023
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: How a British Charity Works to Support U.S. Capital Defenders
In this month’s Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Margot Ravenscroft (pictured), Director of AMICUS UK, a British charity whose volunteers support the capital defense effort in the United States. Ms. Ravenscroft describes how AMICUS was founded by a British woman who became a pen friend to a Louisiana death row prisoner Andrew Lee Jones. Jane Officer, a retired schoolteacher, spent many years exchanging letters with Mr. Jones and returned to the UK after…
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Oct 31, 2023
SCOTUS Denies Review to Texas Prisoner Sentenced to Death with Contested Junk Science
On October 30, 2023, the United States Supreme Court denied Texas death-sentenced prisoner Brent Brewer’s (pictured) petition for certiorari, clearing the way for his scheduled execution on November 9th. Mr. Brewer’s attorneys argue that unreliable “future dangerousness” junk science testimony from a psychiatrist who never even met Mr. Brewer resulted in his death sentence. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, attorneys for Mr. Brewer submitted a clemency application, detailing the fact…
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Oct 27, 2023
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Issues Last-Minute Stay in William Speer’s Scheduled Execution
On October 26, 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) granted a stay of execution for William Speer, who was set to be executed the same evening for the killing of another prisoner 26 years ago. Mr. Speer has been scheduled to die by lethal injection, but his attorneys asked the TCCA to pause his execution over allegations that prosecutors failed to disclose evidence at trial, knowingly presented false testimony, and that his trial lawyers provided inadequate representation by…
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