Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

When Connecticut abol­ished the death penal­ty in 2012, it did so prospec­tive­ly, leav­ing its death row pop­u­la­tion in place. Now, Connecticut new­pa­per The Day is call­ing on the state to ​“have the courage and con­sis­ten­cy to out­law gov­ern­ment sanc­tioned killing in all instances.” The edi­to­r­i­al first high­lights the paper’s long­stand­ing oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, saying ​“It remains our posi­tion that a state-spon­­sored execution disproportionately…

A new poll by ABC News and the Washington Post found a major­i­ty (52%) of Americans pre­fer life with­out parole as pun­ish­ment for con­vict­ed mur­der­ers, with just 42% pre­fer­ring the death penal­ty. This is the first time that this poll has found a major­i­ty sup­port for life with­out parole over the death penal­ty. Without an alter­na­tive sen­tence offered, sup­port for the death penal­ty was 61%, equal­ing the low­est lev­el of sup­port in polls going back to the ear­ly 1980s, and showing a…

The Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from Romell Broom (pic­tured), whose exe­cu­tion was halt­ed in 2009 after cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers spent two hours try­ing to insert an IV for a lethal injec­tion. Broom was pricked 18 times dur­ing the attempt­ed exe­cu­tion. The court will decide whether fur­ther attempts to exe­cute Broom would vio­late dou­ble-jeop­ardy rules or the Eighth Amendment ban on cru­el and unusual punishment. ​“Romell Broom has a con­sti­tu­tion­al right not to be…

Executions have been on hold in Kentucky since 2010, when Franklin Circuit Judge Philip Shepherd began a review of the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. The state revised its pro­to­col in 2012 to call for a one-drug method, with a two-drug method as a back­up if spe­cif­ic drugs were not avail­able. Now, that new pro­to­col is also being scru­ti­nized because it calls for the same drugs that caused the botched exe­cu­tion of Dennis McGuire in Ohio. Corrections…

Sabrina Butler (pic­tured), the only woman among the 144 peo­ple exon­er­at­ed from death row since 1973, recent­ly told her sto­ry in TIME…

As states con­tin­ue to seek alter­na­tive drugs and drug sources for lethal injec­tions, three sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ments occurred last week. Indiana announced recent­ly that they would use Brevital, an anes­thet­ic, as the first drug in its three-drug pro­to­col. On May 27, Par Pharmaceutical, the pro­duc­er of Brevital, released a state­ment announc­ing efforts to pre­vent the use of their prod­uct in exe­cu­tions. The statement said, ​“The state of Indiana’s pro­posed use is con­trary to our…

The New Republic has just released autop­sy pho­tos tak­en after the Florida exe­cu­tion of Angel Diaz in 2006. The exe­cu­tion was so bad­ly botched that it prompt­ed then-Governor Jeb Bush to tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend exe­cu­tions so the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure could be reviewed. The nee­dles that should have been insert­ed into Diaz’s veins were instead pushed through into the sur­round­ing tis­sue, caus­ing exten­sive chem­i­cal burns. Dr.

In a 5 – 2 rul­ing issued on May 19, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the state’s law that hides the source and the iden­ti­ty of the pre­par­er of drugs and equip­ment used in exe­cu­tions. The court said, ​“We con­clude that Georgia’s exe­cu­tion process is like­ly made more time­ly and order­ly by the exe­cu­­tion-par­tic­i­­pant con­fi­den­tial­i­ty statute.…” The rul­ing lift­ed the stay of exe­cu­tion that was in place for Warren Hill, whose lawyers chal­lenged the law. In a dissent,…

I Am Troy Davis is a recent book by Jen Marlowe and Troy Davis’ sis­ter, Martina Davis-Correia, that tells the sto­ry of a pos­si­bly inno­cent man who was exe­cut­ed in Georgia in 2011. Troy Davis was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a police offi­cer in Savannah. Years lat­er evi­dence cast­ing doubts about his guilt emerged, includ­ing recan­ta­tions from sev­er­al of the wit­ness­es who had tes­ti­fied against him. Pope Benedict XVI, President…

On May 27, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Hall v. Florida that Florida’s strict IQ cut­off for deter­min­ing intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty in cap­i­tal cas­es is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The Court concluded, ​“Florida’s law con­tra­venes our Nation’s com­mit­ment to dig­ni­ty and its duty to teach human decen­cy as the mark of a civilized…