Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Feb 06, 2012
MENTAL ILLNESS: Mississippi Inmate With Severe Mental Illness Faces Imminent Execution
Edwin Turner (pictured), a death row inmate in Mississippi, is scheduled for execution on February 8. His attorney, Jim Craig, has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court and Governor Phil Bryant for a reprieve, based in part on Turner’s mental illness. Craig said, “The Supreme Court has not decided the question of whether a prisoner with a severe mental disorder or disability which significantly impairs that person’s ability to rationally process information, to…
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Feb 03, 2012
INTERNATIONAL: New Report on China’s Changing Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty
Roger Hood (pictured), Professor Emeritus of Criminology at the University of Oxford, has published a report on official attitudes towards capital punishment in China. Abolition of the Death Penalty: China in World Perspective outlines the changes over the past decade on this issue within Chinese academic and judicial communities. Hood observed that one of the strongest justifications for the death penalty in China is “the belief that retribution based on the notion…
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Feb 02, 2012
RACE: New Video Highlights Stories of Jurors Excluded from Death Penalty Cases
A new video produced by the American Civil Liberties Union features three North Carolina citizens who believe they were excluded from serving on juries in capital cases because of their race. The video was released in conjunction with the first court challenge brought under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act. The defendant, Marcus Robinson, is asking his death sentence be commuted to life without parole because potential African-American…
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Feb 01, 2012
EDITORIALS: “Mistakes are made”
A recent editorial in Nebraska’s Journal Star urged support for a bill to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison. Among the reasons cited for its position was the risk of executing an innocent person. The editorial noted that advancements in DNA testing have shown the fallibility of the current system: “Seventeen people who were on death row have been set free after DNA testing proved they were wrongly convicted.” The editorial also pointed to…
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Jan 31, 2012
Possible Innocence Case Highlights Concerns About Ohio’s Death Penalty
Tyrone Noling (pictured) is an inmate on Ohio’s death row whose guilt has been called into doubt by a lack of physical evidence, recanting witnesses and refusal by the state to conduct a DNA test. Andrew Cohen, writing in a recent issue of The Atlantic, compared Noling’s case to that of Troy Davis, who was executed in Georgia in 2011, despite doubts about his guilt. Noling was convicted of the 1990 murders of an elderly couple in their home.
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Jan 30, 2012
RESOURCES: Recent Legislative Acitivity on the Death Penalty
DPIC is collecting information on pending legislation related to the death penalty. For example, at least nine states will consider bills to repeal the death penalty in 2012. In California, a coalition called Taxpayers for Justice has been collecting signatures to place a death penalty repeal initiative on the ballot in November. On January 25, the Washington Senate Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on a bill to repeal the death penalty. The bill’s…
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Jan 27, 2012
Relatives of Inmate Who Taunted Authorities About Ease on Death Row Paint a Different Picture
Relatives of a North Carolina inmate who bragged he had an easy life on death row recently made clear that he is seriously mentally ill and suffering greatly in his confinement. Danny Hembree Jr. had written a letter to his local newspaper tauntingly describing his experience on death row as a life of leisure filled with color TV and naps. However, his sister, Kathy Hembree Ledbetter, said he was a depressed man who had lashed out in hopelessness. She apologized to the…
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Jan 26, 2012
Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decision Highlights Representation Problems in Alabama
On January 18, the U.S. Supreme Court (7 – 2) ordered a new hearing in federal court for Cory Maples, an Alabama death row inmate whose state and federal appeals had been rejected by lower courts because his lawyers quit and missed a critical filing deadline. Writing for six of the Court’s Justices, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg highlighted the poor quality of representation offered by the state in death penalty cases. The…
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Jan 25, 2012
STUDIES:“Death Penalty for Female Offenders”
Professor Victor Streib (pictured) of the Ohio Northern University Law School has published the latest edition of his periodic reports, Death Penalty for Female Offenders. This study offers statistics and information related to women who have been executed or are currently on death row. Among the report’s findings are: — In 2011, women constituted 6.4% of all persons sentenced to death, the highest percentage for any year since 1973. — As of the end of…
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Jan 24, 2012
NEW VOICES: Former Ohio Attorney General Now Says Society Better Off Without Death Penalty
Jim Petro (pictured), former Attorney General of Ohio, strongly supported the death penalty as a state legislator, believed the state would save money because of the death penalty, and that it would act as a deterrent. But, he recently said, “Neither of those things have occurred, so I ask myself, ‘Why would I vote for it again?’ I don’t think I would. I don’t think the law has done anything to benefit society and us. It’s cheaper and, in my…
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