Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

UPDATE2: Awkal was giv­en a two-week stay by Gov. Kasich to allow time for a men­tal com­pe­ten­cy deter­mi­na­tion. Abdul Awkal (pic­tured) is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Ohio on June 6, despite evi­dence of his severe men­tal ill­ness. Awkal lived through 8 years of a civ­il war in Lebanon, his home coun­try, before escap­ing to Michigan. He was sen­tenced to death for mur­der­ing his estranged wife and broth­­er-in-law in 1992. There were…

The Death Penalty Information Center has pre­pared a sum­ma­ry of North Carolina v. Robinson, the first rul­ing issued under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act. The opin­ion by Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks on April 22, 2012, reduced Marcus Robinson’s (pic­tured) death sen­tence to life with­out parole. DPIC’s sum­ma­ry high­lights the sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence of racial bias in elim­i­nat­ing poten­tial black jurors that led the court to rule in Robinson’s favor. The Court…

The Missouri Department of Corrections has announced that it is switch­ing from a three-drug lethal injec­tion pro­to­col to a sin­­gle-drug method, using Propofol. Missouri would be the first state to use Propofol (Diprivan) as an exe­cu­tion drug.The drug is man­u­fac­tured by AstraZeneca. At least one med­ical expert has ques­tioned whether the new exe­cu­tion drug is appro­pri­ate. Missouri’s writ­ten pro­to­col does not require a physi­cian to be a part of the execution…

In the lat­est edi­tion of the Death Penalty Information Center’s pod­casts, we inter­view attor­ney Jennifer Whitfield (pic­tured) of Covington & Burling, who worked to secure the release of for­mer death row inmate Larry Smith in Alabama. Mr. Smith was sen­tenced to death in 1995 for a mur­der relat­ed to a rob­bery. His con­vic­tion hinged on a state­ment he made after 4 hours of inter­ro­ga­tion. In vio­la­tion of police guide­lines, his inter­ro­ga­tion was not recorded,…

A new book by Professor Jody Lynee’ Madeira of the Indiana University School of Law fol­lows the after­math of the Oklahoma City bomb­ing to explore whether the fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims obtain clo­sure from an exe­cu­tion. In Killing McVeigh: The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure, Prof. Madeira recounts her wide range of inter­views with those who expe­ri­enced this tragedy first-hand. Regarding the book, Professor Carol Steiker of Harvard said, ​“Everyone seems to have…

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Baptist Standard, pub­lished in Texas, recent­ly called for repeal­ing the death penal­ty in the next leg­isla­tive ses­sion. Among the rea­sons cit­ed by the paper for end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment were prin­ci­ples of reli­gious faith, the risk of exe­cut­ing inno­cent defen­dants, its inef­fec­tive­ness in deter­ring crime, the high costs of pros­e­cu­tion, and its unfair­ness in affect­ing the poor and peo­ple of col­or. The edi­to­r­i­al quot­ed the recent…