Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On January 18, 2011, sev­en reli­gious lead­ers from Texas will hold a ground­break­ing pan­el dis­cus­sion in Houston address­ing faith-based views on the death penal­ty. The pan­el will be mod­er­at­ed by Sister Helen Prejean (pic­tured), author of Dead Man Walking, and Vicki Schieber of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights. The free pre­sen­ta­tion will include lead­ers from a diver­si­ty of faiths and denom­i­na­tions, includ­ing: Cardinal…

On December 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reject­ed a claim by Oklahoma death row inmate Jeffrey Matthews that the use of the drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal could result in a cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The Court unan­i­mous­ly con­clud­ed that the amount of pen­to­bar­bi­tal author­i­ties plan to use, as the first in a three-drug pro­ce­dure, would like­ly be lethal by itself. The deci­sion also allows…

According to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) enti­tled, ​“Slamming the Courthouse Doors: Denial of Access to Justice and Remedy in America,” many states severe­ly restrict access to jus­tice for cap­i­tal defen­dants and lim­it the avail­abil­i­ty of reme­dies to cor­rect errors. The prob­lem of inad­e­quate coun­sel con­tin­ues to per­vade death penal­ty sys­tems across the coun­try:​“Few states pro­vide ade­quate funds to…

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…

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…

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…

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…