Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Feb 22, 2016
Pope Francis Seeks Ban on Executions During ‘Year of Mercy,’ Renews Call for Abolition of Death Penalty
In an address at the Vatican on February 21, Pope Francis (pictured) broadened his call for a global end to capital punishment and urged Catholic leaders around the world to take action to halt all executions during the Church’s ongoing“Holy Year of Mercy.” The pontiff’s address was a prelude to a two-day international conference,“A World Without the Death Penalty,” hosted in Rome by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic organization that…
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Feb 19, 2016
Orthodox Jewish Organization Calls for an End to Capital Punishment in the U.S.
“As Jews, as citizens of a nation dedicated to liberty and justice, we believe that governments must protect the dignity and rights of every human being. The use of the death penalty, in America, fails to live up to this basic requirement,” wrote Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz (pictured), founder and President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Orthodox Jewish social justice movement. In a column for Jewish Journal, Rabbi Yanklowitz outlines the reasons for Jewish opposition to…
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Feb 18, 2016
NEW VOICES: A Leader of Florida Federation of Young Republicans Calls for Re-examination of Death Penalty
Saying that if one is looking to identify“failed government programs …, Florida’s death penalty certainly fills the bill,” Brian Empric (pictured), vice-chairman of the Florida Federation of Young Republicans, presents a conservative case against the death penalty. In a recent guest column for the Orlando Sentinel, Empric says that — as the Florida legislature weighs its response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hurst v. Florida — the…
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Feb 17, 2016
Former State Chief Justices: Pennsylvania Justice Should Not Have Approved Death as D.A., Then Reviewed Case on Appeal
In a recent Washington Times op-ed, two former state supreme court chief justices argue that a state supreme court justice who, as district attorney, had authorized the capital prosecution of a defendant, should not have later participated as a judge in deciding an appeal in that case. Gerald Kogan (pictured, l.), former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, and Michael Wolff (pictured, r.), former chief justice of the…
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Feb 16, 2016
Georgia Naval Veteran Files for Clemency as More Culpable Superior Officer Will Become Eligible for Parole
Naval veteran Travis Hittson (pictured), scheduled to be executed by Georgia on February 17, has filed an application for clemency with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. Hittson assisted his superior officer, Edward Vollmer, to kill and dismember a fellow sailor, Conway Utterbeck in 1992. Despite evidence that Vollmer was the more culpable of the two, prosecutors permitted him to plead guilty and receive a life…
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Feb 15, 2016
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, Outspoken Defender of Capital Punishment, Has Died
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Court’s most ardent defenders of the constitutionality of capital punishment, has died at age 79. Appointed to the Court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, Justice Scalia voted to uphold the application of the death penalty in a wide variety of circumstances. He was part of 5 – 4 conservative majorities in a number of significant death penalty cases, including the 1987…
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Feb 12, 2016
Judge Orders Evidentiary Hearing On Constitutionality of Federal Death Penalty
U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford has ordered an evidentiary hearing on Donald Fell’s (pictured) challenge to the constitutionality of the federal death penalty. In court filings seeking to bar federal prosecutors from seeking death against him in a pending retrial, Fell has argued that the federal death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Fifth and Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Among…
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Feb 11, 2016
Texas Prisoner Seeks Supreme Court Review of Death Sentence Tainted By Racial Bias
Duane Buck, who was sentenced to death after a defense expert witness testified that Buck could pose a future danger to society because he is black, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to grant him a new sentencing hearing because of his lawyer’s ineffectiveness. Buck is one of six defendants whose Texas capital trials were identified by a Texas Attorney General’s report as having been tainted by race-based testimony by…
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Feb 10, 2016
Texas Board Confirms Disbarment of Prosecutor for Misconduct in Anthony Graves Case
The disciplinary board of the Texas State Bar rejected an appeal on February 9 from Charles Sebesta, the prosecutor whose misconduct led to the wrongful conviction of Anthony Graves (pictured, r.). The board’s decision disbarring Sebesta for what it called“egregious” misconduct is now final. Anthony Graves was convicted in 1994 on the false testimony of Robert Carter, who claimed Graves was his accomplice. Graves was exonerated…
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Feb 09, 2016
Majority of Floridians Prefer Life Sentence to Death Penalty, 73% Would Require Unanimous Jury Vote for Death
In the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Florida’s death-sentencing procedures, a new poll shows that nearly two thirds of Floridians now prefer some form of life sentence to the death penalty and nearly three-quarters favor requiring the jury to unanimously agree on the sentence before the death penalty can be imposed. The poll by Public Policy Polling found that 62% of respondents preferred some form of life in prison over the death…
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