Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On March 6, sev­er­al stake­hold­ers in California​’s death penal­ty sys­tem filed sup­port­ive briefs urg­ing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold a District Court rul­ing that the state’s death penal­ty is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The 9^th Circuit is con­sid­er­ing the state’s appeal in the case of Ernest Jones, whose death sen­tence was over­turned by Judge Cormac Carney (pic­tured). In an ami­cus brief on behalf of Jones, Bethany Webb, whose sis­ter was murdered…

UPDATE: The repeal bill unan­i­mous­ly passed out of the Judiciary Committee on Mar. 9. Earlier: At a Nebraska leg­isla­tive hear­ing on March 4, dozens of peo­ple tes­ti­fied in favor of abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives from fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims, from law enforce­ment, the judi­cia­ry, and Nebraska Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty. Among the co-spon­­sors of the bill to replace the death penal­ty with life with­out parole are…

In an unusu­al joint edi­to­r­i­al on March 5, four nation­al Catholic pub­li­ca­tions called for an end to the death penal­ty in the U.S. The edi­tors of America, National Catholic Register, National Catholic Reporter, and Our Sunday Visitor urged ​“the read­ers of our diverse pub­li­ca­tions and the whole U.S. Catholic com­mu­ni­ty and all peo­ple of faith to stand with us and say, ​‘Capital pun­ish­ment must end.’ ” Citing oppo­si­tion to the…

Terence Inch, a for­mer police com­mis­sion­er in Hellam Township, Pennsylvania, recent­ly wrote in sup­port of Gov. Tom Wolf’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions and point­ed to the mis­takes that can hap­pen in high-profile crimes: ​“In the after­math of a bru­tal homi­cide, par­tic­u­lar­ly one involv­ing mul­ti­ple vic­tims or chil­dren, there is enor­mous pres­sure on law enforce­ment to solve the case and to solve it quickly…In the rush to solve these high profile…

Midland County, Texas, District Attorney Teresa Clingman (pic­tured) recent­ly accept­ed a sen­tence of life with­out parole rather than seek­ing the death penal­ty for Dan Higgins, a man who pled guilty to killing a Midland County Sheriff’s Deputy. Clingman’s deci­sion was part of a larg­er trend of pros­e­cu­tors choos­ing life with­out parole even for the most seri­ous crimes. West Texas A&M crim­i­nol­o­gy pro­fes­sor and for­mer prison war­den Keith Price said, ​“Capital death has so many…

The exe­cu­tion of Kelly Gissendaner was post­poned just hours before it was sched­uled to take place on March 2, after cor­rec­tion­al offi­cials in Georgia became con­cerned that the lethal injec­tion chem­i­cals appeared cloudy. ​“The Department of Corrections imme­di­ate­ly con­sult­ed with a phar­ma­cist, and in an abun­dance of cau­tion, Inmate Gissendaner’s exe­cu­tion has been post­poned,” the Department of Corrections said in a state­ment. Georgia is one of several states…

A February 2015 study by the Brennan Center for Justice exam­ined sev­er­al pos­si­ble expla­na­tions for the dra­mat­ic drop in crime in the U.S. in the 1990s and 2000s. Among the the­o­ries stud­ied was use of the death penal­ty, which the report found had no effect on the decline in crime. The authors explained, ​“Empirically, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is too infre­quent to have a mea­sure­able effect on the crime drop. Criminologically, the exis­tence and use of the death penal­ty may not even…

Several state leg­is­la­tures have recent­ly tak­en action on bills relat­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In Arkansas, a bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voice vote. Bill spon­sor Sen. David Burnett, a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor and judge who both sought and imposed the death penal­ty, said, ​“It’s no longer a deter­rent. It’s a pun­ish­ment that’s actu­al­ly bro­ken. It does­n’t work. And it costs a huge amount of mon­ey to try and pros­e­cute those cases.”…

Cynthia Portaro, whose son, Michael (pic­tured), was killed in 2011, stood before a Nevada court­room on February 23 and asked pros­e­cu­tors to stop seek­ing the death penal­ty for the man con­vict­ed of her son’s mur­der. Prosecutors agreed to the request and said they would ask the judge to sen­tence Brandon Hill to life with­out parole. Portaro said, ​“I per­son­al­ly didn’t want to see anoth­er per­son die. I got what I want­ed — an apol­o­gy from Brandon. I felt a sense of relief that there…

UPDATE: Gissendaner’s exe­cu­tion has been resched­uled to Monday, March 2, due to a win­ter storm fore­cast to hit Georgia. Previously: On February 25 the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemen­cy to Kelly Gissendaner, the only woman on the state’s death row. Gissendaner was con­vict­ed of orches­trat­ing the mur­der of her hus­band, but did not car­ry out the killing her­self. At Gissendaner’s clemen­cy hear­ing, 21 peo­ple tes­ti­fied in favor of…