Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On August 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard argument in Jones v. Davis, an appeal by California of the 2014 U.S. District Court ruling that declared California’s death penalty unconstitutional. In 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney held that the decades-long delays caused by California’s failure to provide lawyers for nearly 350 of its death-row prisoners made its death penalty system unconstitutionally cruel and unusual. He said that the “random few” whom…

A new study by Professor Frank Baumgartner of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Tim Lyman, a Documentation Specialist in New Orleans, reports stark disparities in Louisiana death sentences and executions depending upon the race and gender of the homicide victim. The study — to be published in the Loyola University of New Orleans Journal of Public Interest Law — finds that defendants accused of killing white victims are nearly twice as likely to be sentenced to death and nearly…

A Colorado jury has returned a life sentence in the capital trial of Dexter Lewis in the stabbing deaths of 5 people in a Denver bar in 2012. After less than 3 hours of deliberation, the jury determined that the aggravating factors relating to the killing did not outweigh Lewis’ mitigating evidence detailing the extensive history of abuse and neglect in his upbringing, including chronic alcohol abuse by his mother while she was pregnant and nearly daily beatings when he was a child. The defense…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected an appeal in the case of Texas death row inmate Duane Buck, who argued that his trial was tainted by ineffective representation and racial bias when Buck’s own mental health expert testified that he could be a future danger to society because he is black. Dr. Walter Quijano, a clinical psychologist, testified in the sentencing phase of Buck’s case on the issue of future dangerousness. The prosecutor asked Quijano, “You have determined…

The Kansas Federation of College Republicans unanimously adopted a resolution calling for repeal of the death penalty in their state. “More young conservatives like myself recognize that our broken and fallible system of capital punishment in no way matches up with our conservative values,” said Dalton Glasscock, a Wichita State University student and chairman of the federation. Citing pro-life views and fiscal responsibility, the group urged Kansas legislators to repeal the state’s death…

In an op-ed for Newsweek, Stanford Law Professor John Donohue argues that there is “not the slightest credible statistical evidence that capital punishment reduces the rate of homicide” and presents data to show that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent. Comparisons between neighboring jurisdictions show no effect of capital punishment: “Whether one compares the similar movements of homicide in Canada and the U.S., when only the latter restored the death penalty, or in American…

(UPDATE: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted Bernardo Tercero a stay of execution to permit him to litigate evidence that a lead prosecution witness testified falsely against him.) The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a unit of the Organization of American States, has called on Texas officials to stay the execution of Nicaraguan citizen Bernardo Tercero (pictured), who is scheduled to be executed in Texas on August 26. Under international treaties on consular…

In the first episode of season 2 of “Death Row Stories,” CNN examined the case of Ruben Cantu, who was executed in Texas in 1993 despite serious doubts about his guilt. The episode featured an interview with Sam Milsap, the District Attorney at the time of Cantu’s trial, who asserted his belief in Cantu’s innocence. Cantu’s co-defendant and a key eyewitness from the case both supported Cantu’s claim of innocence. The hour-long episode of the documentary series recounted how Lise Olsen, an…

A Food and Drug Administration letter to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction indicated the state was considering importing sodium thiopental from overseas for use in executions. The letter warned the department that importing the drug would violate federal law: “Please note that there is no FDA approved application for sodium thiopental, and it is illegal to import an unapproved new drug into the United States.” A similar letter was sent to Nebraska officials after the state…

A recent op-ed by former Texas Governor Mark White (pictured) and former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan criticized a recently passed North Carolina law that imposes secrecy on the source of lethal injection drugs and removes execution procedures from public review and comment. The authors said the new law will only prolong litigation, rather than ending North Carolina’s hold on executions, as intended. The op-ed also maintained that the new policy violates democratic…