Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

In one of the most com­pre­hen­sive inves­ti­ga­tions ever under­tak­en about the exe­cu­tion of a pos­si­bly inno­cent defen­dant, Professor James Liebman and oth­er researchers at Columbia University Law School have pub­lished a ground­break­ing report on the case of Carlos DeLuna (pic­tured), who was exe­cut­ed in Texas in 1989. This​“Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution” is being pub­lished today (May 15) in Columbia’s Human Rights Law…

UPDATE: Execution stayed by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (May 14). Steven Staley (pic­tured) is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on May 16, despite the like­li­hood that he would be deemed incom­pe­tent for exe­cu­tion if he was not being forcibly med­icat­ed under court order. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to exe­cute an inmate who is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. In a non-death penal­ty con­text, the Court has also held…