Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Current and for­mer law enforce­ment offi­cials in California recent­ly dis­cussed their views on the future of the death penal­ty dur­ing a con­fer­ence in San Francisco. Jeanne Woodford (pic­tured left), for­mer Warden of San Quentin prison, said that the time has come to end exe­cu­tions in the United States: ​“I have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to view this issue from every point of view. I absolute­ly am pas­sion­ate about the posi­tion that it’s time to end the death penalty in…

Dale Recinella for­mer­ly worked as an attor­ney on large finan­cial deals, includ­ing the build­ing of a National Football League sta­di­um. He also sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. But he now focus­es on the needs of death row inmates and oth­er pris­on­ers in Florida. His new book, entitled ​“Now I Walk on Death Row,” tells of his career tran­si­tion and the rever­sal in his views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Although he attrib­ut­es his changes to his…

A recent Philadelphia Inquirer study revealed that the death penal­ty is almost nev­er hand­ed down for homi­cides in Pennsylvania, and that exe­cu­tions are even more unlike­ly. From a com­pi­la­tion of 1,975 homi­cide cas­es dat­ing from 2007 to Feb. 3, 2011 pro­vid­ed by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, only 8 result­ed in a death sen­tence. Almost all cas­es end­ed with a sen­tence of life with­out parole, with guilty pleas, acquit­tals or dis­missal of charges. Of the…

Jeanne Woodford (pic­tured), the for­mer direc­tor of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Warden of San Quentin dur­ing 4 exe­cu­tions, recent­ly became the Executive Director of Death Penalty Focus, one of the largest non­prof­it advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions in the nation ded­i­cat­ed to repeal­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. During her years in cor­rec­tions, Woodford came to the con­clu­sion that the death penalty was…

A black defen­dant fac­ing exe­cu­tion in Louisiana for the killing of a white fire­fight­er is chal­leng­ing the fair­ness of his tri­al because a Confederate flag was fly­ing out­side the Caddo Parish cour­t­house in Shreveport, Louisiana, dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings. Felton Dorsey’s legal team recent­ly argued before the Louisiana Supreme Court that the pres­ence of the flag had an impact on jury selec­tion and on Dorsey’s con­vic­tion. Carl Staples, a prospec­tive black juror, was struck from the…

A num­ber of promi­nent con­ser­v­a­tives in Ohio are lend­ing their voic­es in sup­port of clemen­cy for Shawn Hawkins (pic­tured), who is fac­ing exe­cu­tion on June 14. Republicans Ken Blackwell, a for­mer Secretary of State and 2006 guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date, for­mer Attorney General Jim Petro, and state Sen. Bill Seitz have all writ­ten let­ters to Gov. John Kasich or to the Parole Board on behalf of Hawkins. Blackwell wrote, ​“I have been a pub­lic advo­cate for the death…

The lat­est edi­tion of the Death Penalty Information Center’s series of pod­casts, DPIC on the Issues, is now avail­able. This pod­cast address­es Women and the Death Penalty, includ­ing a short his­to­ry of women exe­cut­ed in America, the pos­si­bil­i­ty of gen­der bias, and dif­fer­ences between women and men in sup­port of the death penal­ty. Generally, this series of pod­casts offers brief, infor­ma­tive dis­cus­sions of key death penal­ty issues. Other recent episodes include discussions on…