Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A new study test­ing inter­nal atti­tudes and stereo­types among poten­tial jurors in six death penal­ty states may help to explain the racial dis­par­i­ties that per­sist in the appli­ca­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Researchers Justin Levinson (l.), Robert Smith (r.), and Danielle Young test­ed 445 jury-eli­gi­ble indi­vid­u­als and found they har­bored two kinds of racial bias: they main­tained racial stereo­types about Blacks and Whites and made asso­ci­a­tions between the race of an indi­vid­ual and the value of…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recent­ly held that Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti is sane enough to be exe­cut­ed, despite his long his­to­ry of severe men­tal ill­ness. Panetti was sen­tenced to death for the 1992 mur­der of his in-laws. Putting aside Panetti’s bizarre behav­ior in court, the judge allowed him to rep­re­sent him­self at tri­al, where he wore a pur­ple cow­boy suit and sub­poe­naed Jesus Christ and Anne Bancroft as wit­ness­es. Panetti had…

As Ohio pre­pares to change its exe­cu­tion process in October, the Toledo Blade called on the state to stop the secre­cy sur­round­ing the selec­tion of an alter­na­tive to cur­rent lethal injec­tion drugs. The editors wrote, ​“No state should pro­ceed with sched­uled exe­cu­tions until the drug, or mul­tidrug cock­tail, it plans to use has been proven to be humane and effi­cient. The process of chang­ing how peo­ple are exe­cut­ed in Ohio should unfold with far more…

A new Texas law requir­ing DNA test­ing of all bio­log­i­cal evi­dence pri­or to seek­ing the death penal­ty could reduce the num­ber of cap­i­tal cas­es. District Attorney Billy Byrd of Upshur County noted, ​“Essentially, every piece of evi­dence will have to be test­ed,” he said, which could delay tri­als more than a year. ​“Certainly, that will be the case. We will have to deal with cer­tain delays and longer waits,” he added, not­ing it is not uncom­mon for DNA evidence to…

A fed­er­al judge in Pennsylvania over­turned the con­vic­tion of a death row inmate, stat­ing he was ​“sen­tenced to die for a crime in all prob­a­bil­i­ty he did not com­mit.” U.S. District Court Judge Anita Brody found errors in all facets of the case, noting that ​“Improper police work char­ac­ter­ized near­ly the entire­ty of the inves­ti­ga­tion.” She described the prosecution as ​“a grave mis­car­riage of jus­tice,” and crit­i­cized the defense for fail­ing to ade­quate­ly inves­ti­gate the evidence.

A num­ber of promi­nent groups have filed sup­port­ive briefs with the North Carolina Supreme Court ask­ing that the prac­tice of racial bias in select­ing jurors for death penal­ty cas­es be end­ed. Former senior mil­i­tary offi­cials, fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims, and poten­tial jurors denied the oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve because of their race were among those argu­ing that a rul­ing under the state’s Racial Justice Act be upheld. In 2012, Judge Gregory Weeks held that Marcus Robinson’s…

The moth­ers of two teenagers who were killed in California are plead­ing with the District Attorney to refrain from seek­ing the death penal­ty against the man accused of the crimes. Leah Sherzer said her daugh­ter Bodhi (pic­tured) was an adher­ent of the teach­ings of Gandhi, who advo­cat­ed non-vio­­lence. She said ​“Bodhi believed that the death penal­ty was wrong and that she would not want her case to be tried as a death penal­ty case.” Pam Thompson, the moth­er of the other teenager…

A new book by Lori St John, The Corruption of Innocence: A Journey to Justice, recounts the author’s quest to save the life of Joseph O’Dell because of her strong belief in his inno­cence. St John describes the resis­tance she expe­ri­enced in try­ing to have crime-relat­ed items test­ed for DNA evi­dence, and the inter­na­tion­al sup­port that O’Dell attract­ed while on death row. O’Dell was exe­cut­ed in Virginia in…

Many states are seek­ing alter­na­tive ways to car­ry out exe­cu­tions by lethal injec­tion. Missouri announced it intends to use the anes­thet­ic propo­fol, though no oth­er state has used this drug and the drug’s man­u­fac­tur­er has strong­ly object­ed to such use. Officials in Texas and Ohio announced they will be chang­ing their exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols in the near future because their cur­rent exe­cu­tion drug (pen­to­bar­bi­tal) is expir­ing and is no longer…

Vicki Werneke is a fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er who rep­re­sent­ed Billy Slagle on Ohio​’s death row. She recent­ly wrote about her fren­zied work dur­ing the last week­end before Slagle’s death on August 4. She not­ed that he was only 18 and high­ly intox­i­cat­ed at the time of his crime. He had been remorse­ful ever since, try­ing to do some good with his life while on death row. Even the District Attorney of the coun­ty that pros­e­cut­ed him supported a…