Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A recent op-ed by Pulitzer Prize-win­n­ing colum­nist Nicholas Kristof (pic­tured) of the New York Times focus­es on the pos­si­ble inno­cence of Kevin Cooper, a black defen­dant on California​’s death row. Kristof writes, ​“This case is a trav­es­ty. It under­scores the cen­tral pit­fall of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment: no sys­tem is fail-safe. How can we be about to exe­cute a man when even some of America’s lead­ing judges believe he has been framed?” Cooper…

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Bruce Webster, an inmate on the fed­er­al death row with evi­dence that he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abed. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that the exe­cu­tion of a per­son with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties (men­tal retar­da­tion) would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Webster’s evi­dence indi­cates that three fed­er­al doc­tors deter­mined he had an intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty when he applied for disability…

A short­age of qual­i­fied crim­i­nal defense lawyers in California has caused major delays in the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. Nearly half of those sen­tenced to death in California are wait­ing for the state to appoint them a post-con­vic­­tion attor­ney. Death row inmates wait an aver­age of 10 – 12 years. The long delay is attrib­uted to the lack of expe­ri­enced lawyers to take on this part of the appeals process. The California Supreme Court requires that lawyers…

A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Barry Scheck, co-direc­­tor of the Innocence Project, high­lighs flaws in Texas’s death penal­ty sys­tem that led to the exe­cu­tion of Claude Jones (pic­tured). Then-gov­­er­nor George Bush reject­ed Jones’s appli­ca­tion for a reprieve. Bush was not informed that the reprieve would allow time for DNA tests to be per­formed on a strand of hair that was found at the crime scene. This hair had been…

In an article entitled ​“Solitary Men” in The Texas Observer, Dave Mann describes the con­di­tions for inmates on Texas​’s death row. Inmates in the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas, spend almost their entire time alone in a 60-square-foot cell. He writes, ​“The cells have a small win­dow at one end. The steel door has a nar­row win­dow and, at the bot­tom, a slit through which guards slide trays of food.…Little pen­e­trates these cement boxes except…

An op-ed by Bob Herbert of the New York Times high­lights issues raised by for­mer Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens that changed his mind on the death penal­ty in the U.S. Herbert cites infor­ma­tion col­lect­ed by the Death Penalty Information Center and points to shod­dy defense and state mis­con­duct in the delib­er­ate with­hold­ing of evi­dence as promi­nent abus­es in the system. ​“Executions have been upheld in cas­es in which defense…

On Nov.19, a Davidson County judge ruled that Tennessee​’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, pos­si­bly delay­ing the exe­cu­tion of Stephen Michael West and oth­ers on death row. Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman, who issued the rul­ing, said that the state’s lethal injection procedure ​“allows for death by suf­fo­ca­tion while con­scious,” because it did not spec­i­fy a suf­fi­cient dosage for sodi­um thiopen­tal, the first of three drugs used in lethal injec­tions. In Baze v.