Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

UPDATE: On August 8, 2023, the Oklahoman report­ed that AG Drummond has declined Representative Humphrey’s request to retest DNA evi­dence in Anthony Sanchez’s…

Reverend Melissa Potts-Bowers, the spir­i­tu­al advi­sor to Michael Tisius, recent­ly described her expe­ri­ence min­is­ter­ing to him dur­ing his execution as ​“quite hor­ri­fy­ing — as it’s intend­ed to be.” Mr. Tisius was exe­cut­ed by the state of Missouri on June 6,…

In a July 31 Letter to the Editor, Demetrius Minor, the National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty crit­i­cizes the Louisiana Pardon Board deci­sion to decline review of clemen­cy peti­tions filed by near­ly every death-sen­­tenced prisoner in…

On August 1, 2023, death-qual­i­­fied fed­er­al jurors unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed a sen­tence of death for Robert Bowers, who they had ear­li­er con­vict­ed of killing 11 Jewish wor­ship­pers at a Pittsburgh syn­a­gogue in October 2018. The jury agreed with all five aggra­vat­ing fac­tors alleged by the pros­e­cu­tion dur­ing the penal­ty phase but reject­ed defense counsel’s argu­ment that Mr. Bowers’ schiz­o­phre­nia and delu­sions meant he should not be sen­tenced to death. He will be for­mal­ly sen­tenced by the court on…

On July 29, 2023, the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals lift­ed a tem­po­rary stay of exe­cu­tion that had been issued for Johnny Johnson, a death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er in Missouri. Mr. Johnson’s attor­neys allege that he is insane and there­fore inel­i­gi­ble for exe­cu­tion. Barring a last-minute stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Johnson will be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion on August 1, 2023, for the 2002 killing of 6‑year-old Casey…

The Death Penalty Information Center has cre­at­ed a web­page ded­i­cat­ed to restora­tive jus­tice, a sen­tenc­ing alter­na­tive in crim­i­nal cas­es, includ­ing lim­it­ed use in death penal­ty cas­es. This resource high­lights the foun­da­tions of restora­tive jus­tice, com­mon approach­es, recent stud­ies relat­ed to the prac­tice, and exam­ples of its…

On July 24, 2023, the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Parole set aside all 56 clemen­cy appli­ca­tions filed by near­ly every death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er in Louisiana last month with­out review­ing the mer­its of a sin­gle one of them. The pris­on­ers asked for their sen­tences to be com­mut­ed to life with­out parole, but the Board made its deci­sion to return the appli­ca­tions based on an advi­so­ry, non­bind­ing opin­ion from the Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. Attorneys for death row prisoners have…

On July 21, 2023, Alabama death row pris­on­er James Barber was exe­cut­ed two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his motion for a stay in a 6 – 3 deci­sion. This marks the state’s first exe­cu­tion since a series of three botched exe­cu­tions in 2022 and an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion into the Alabama Department of Corrections’ (ADOC) exe­cu­tion…

The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section has announced its forth­com­ing annu­al report, The State of Criminal Justice 2023, exam­in­ing the state of the American criminal legal…

In the July 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, speaks with Kirk Bloodsworth (pic­tured), the first per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row by DNA evi­dence. Mr. Bloodsworth reflects on the thir­ty years since his exon­er­a­tion and dis­cuss­es the expe­ri­ence of being wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. He also describes the work he and oth­er exonerees have done, and how the issue of inno­cence has affect­ed leg­is­la­tion on the death…