Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On January 30, a Texas judge stayed the exe­cu­tion of Larry Swearingen, sched­uled for February 27. Swearingen’s lawyers argued more time was required to com­plete DNA test­ing agreed to by the pros­e­cu­tion, which they believe will prove his inno­cence. This is the fourth such delay he has received. Five foren­sic experts have con­clud­ed that the decom­po­si­tion of the victim’s body shows she was killed while Swearingen was in jail on unre­lat­ed charges, thereby…

The the­o­ry of the death penal­ty is that pros­e­cu­tors select offend­ers who have com­mit­ted aggra­vat­ed mur­der and obtain death sen­tences for the most heinous offend­ers through a scrupu­lous tri­al with full due process. The real­i­ty in Pennsylvania is rad­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent. Hundreds of inmates have been sen­tenced to death, but of the cas­es that have com­plet­ed the appeals process, 100% have been over­turned, most­ly because of errors in the con­vic­tion or sen­tenc­ing stages. (Three inmates…

Lawyers for Kimberly McCarthy, who is to be exe­cut­ed on January 29, have peti­tioned Texas Governor Rick Perry for a 30-day reprieve because of evi­dence of racial bias in the coun­ty in which she was tried. The District Attorney for Dallas County, Craig Watkins, has already called for pas­sage of a Racial Justice Act to address the bias he has found. Attorneys for McCarthy cit­ed sev­er­al stud­ies point­ing to racial dis­par­i­ty in the appli­ca­tion of the death…

Ohio Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill recent­ly vot­ed to strike down the death penal­ty, when he dis­sent­ed in an order set­ting an exe­cu­tion date for Jeffrey Wogenstahl. Justice O’Neill wrote, ​“I would hold that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment vio­lates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 9 of the Ohio Constitution. The death penal­ty is inher­ent­ly both cru­el and unusu­al and there­fore is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Capital pun­ish­ment dates back to…

The Death Penalty Information Center has intro­duced a new series of graphs and quotes from promi­nent indi­vid­u­als, empha­siz­ing var­i­ous death penal­ty issues. These info­graph­ics have been dis­played on Facebook and oth­er out­lets in the past few months. We are now offer­ing them seri­al­ly in a slide show on DPIC’s web­site. The graph­ics can be indi­vid­u­al­ly down­loaded for use in var­i­ous medi­ums. The slide show is avail­able at this link. The infographics are…

Professor Samuel R. Gross (pic­tured) of the University of Michigan Law School has pub­lished an arti­cle in the Iowa Law Review exam­in­ing the his­tor­i­cal impor­tance of a series of stud­ies show­ing racial bias in the death penal­ty. The issue of race was brought to a head by the Supreme Court’s con­sid­er­a­tion of McCleskey v. Kemp in 1987. McCleskey focused on a sta­tis­ti­cal exam­i­na­tion of Georgia death sen­tences con­duct­ed by David Baldus.

Dallas County (Texas) District Attorney Craig Watkins said he plans to advo­cate for a state law to allow death row inmates to appeal their con­vic­tion or sen­tence using stud­ies show­ing that racial bias affect­ed the process. Such laws have been passed in North Carolina and Kentucky and are referred to as a ​“Racial Justice Act.” Watkins said, ​“Throughout his­to­ry, race has unfor­tu­nate­ly played a part, an ugly part, in our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. This is an…

A new book by Professor Robert Bohm of the University of Central Florida exam­ines the per­son­al impact of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment on those involved in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, beyond the vic­tim and per­pe­tra­tor of the crime. Bohm lis­tened to those involved in all steps of the judi­cial process, includ­ing inves­ti­ga­tors, jurors, and the exe­cu­tion team. He has probed the effects of the death penal­ty on the fam­i­lies of both the mur­der vic­tim and the offend­er. The book,…

Richard Viguerie has been called the ​“fund­ing father of the con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment,” and has helped start such ini­tia­tives as the Conservative Digest and the Moral Majority. He was recent­ly inter­viewed in Sojourners Magazine, where he spoke about his faith-based oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. He said the issue of inno­cence was a key problem: ​“I’ve become aware that through­out his­to­ry, many inno­cent peo­ple have been con­vict­ed of crimes and exe­cut­ed. There…

A new book, ​“Where Justice and Mercy Meet: Catholic Opposition to the Death Penalty,” offers a com­pre­hen­sive dis­cus­sion of Catholic teach­ing on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. It explores a wide range of issues relat­ed to the death penal­ty, includ­ing racism, men­tal ill­ness, and eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties. The book is edit­ed by Trudy Conway and David Matzko McCarthy, both pro­fes­sors at Mount St. Mary’s University, and Vicki Schieber – the moth­er of a mur­der vic­tim. It includes a…