Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Dec 13, 2023
After Five-Year Execution Pause, Ohio Leaders Question Value of Death Penalty
A proposed death penalty repeal bill in the Ohio legislature is drawing attention to the state’s five-year pause on executions, and leading state officials from both parties to question whether the death penalty system is working. Ohio Attorney General David Yost (pictured) summed up the situation by saying,“This system satisfies nobody. Those who oppose the death penalty want it abolished altogether, not ticking away like a time bomb that might or might not…
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Dec 12, 2023
New Research Finds That Historical News Coverage Reduced Executed Black Men to “Faceless, Interchangeable Public Safety Hazards” While Executed White Men Were Portrayed As “Tragic Heroes”
Homononsapiens, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by— sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia…
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Dec 11, 2023
Activists Call on North Carolina Governor to Commute Death Row “As an Act of Racial Justice”
In North Carolina, a coalition of activists is calling on Governor Roy Cooper to commute the death sentences of 136 people“as an act of racial justice” before he leaves office in 2024. Edward“Ed” Chapman, a death row exoneree who spent 14 years on death row, along with other advocates with the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, are urging Gov. Cooper to grant clemency to all death-sentenced individuals in North Carolina“because of the…
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Dec 08, 2023
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Classifying Capital Punishment as Torture with John Bessler
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with John Bessler (pictured), Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Professor Bessler is the author of several books on the death penalty, including his 2023 book The Death Penalty’s Denial of Fundamental Human Rights: International Law, State Practice, and the Emerging Abolitionist Norm. In his most recent book, Professor Bessler argues that the death penalty…
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Dec 07, 2023
Mississippi Supreme Court Delays Decision on Willie Manning Execution Date, Allows Time for Appeal
Courtesy of Krissy Nobile, Mr. Manning’s…
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Dec 04, 2023
Oklahoma Executes Phillip Hancock After Governor Rejects Clemency Recommendation: “Phil’s Execution Is Simply Not Justice,” says Oklahoma Legislator
DOC…
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Dec 01, 2023
DPIC Year End Report 2023: High-Profile Innocence Cases Contribute to Public Perception that the Death Penalty is Unfairly Administered
Against a backdrop of high-profile innocence cases and the U.S. Supreme Court’s seeming indifference to them, the 2023 Gallup poll found that more Americans now believe that the death penalty is administered unfairly than fairly. Use of the death penalty remained geographically isolated, with only five states carrying out executions and only seven imposing death sentences. For the ninth consecutive year, fewer than 30 people were executed and fewer…
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Nov 30, 2023
DPIC to Release New Report on How the History of Racial Violence and Discrimination Have Shaped the Death Penalty in Missouri
Tomorrow, the Death Penalty Information Center will release a report that documents how racial bias and violence affected the past use of the death penalty in Missouri and how that history continues to influence the current administration of capital punishment in the state. Compromised Justice: How A Legacy of Racial Violence Informs Missouri’s Death Penalty Today, scheduled for release on December 1, 2023, notes that…
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Nov 29, 2023
Former U.S. Judge Andy Lester Calls for Moratorium of Oklahoma’s “Fundamentally Flawed” Capital Punishment System Until Significant Reforms are Implemented
Andy…
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Nov 28, 2023
Discussions with DPIC: Gender and the Death Penalty with Sandra Babcock
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sandra Babcock (pictured), Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School, Faculty Director, and founder of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. Ms. Babcock’s clinic currently represents death sentenced women in the United States, Malawi, and Tanzania and is focused on providing defense teams in retentionist countries with training and consultation in order to provide…
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