Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Bruce Webster faces a fed­er­al exe­cu­tion despite new evi­dence – includ­ing eval­u­a­tions by three doc­tors – indi­cat­ing he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. Although the U.S. Supreme Court banned the exe­cu­tion of the ​“men­tal­ly retard­ed” (now referred to as ​“intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled”) in 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in April denied Webster’s request for a hear­ing on his men­tal capac­i­ty claim. The court found that Webster had exhaust­ed all his…

A recent poll con­duct­ed by Lake Research Partners found that a major­i­ty of Illinois reg­is­tered vot­ers pre­fer an alter­na­tive sen­tence to the death penal­ty for those who com­mit mur­der. The poll­sters sur­veyed vot­ers in April, and found that 43% believed that the penal­ty for mur­der should be life with no pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole and a require­ment to make resti­tu­tion to the victim’s fam­i­ly. Another 18% felt that the penal­ty for mur­der should be life in prison with no possibility of…

An inmate who spent 27 years on Oklahoma​’s death row was released ear­li­er in July after he accept­ed a plea agree­ment with pros­e­cu­tors. James Fisher was con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death in 1983. A fed­er­al appeals court over­turned his death sen­tence because of inad­e­quate attor­ney rep­re­sen­ta­tion, thus send­ing the case back to tri­al. In 2005, Fisher was again con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. The sec­ond death sen­tence was also over­turned, this time by…

More often than many real­ize, inno­cent peo­ple false­ly con­fess to crimes they did not com­mit, accord­ing to a recent review in the Chicago Tribune. For exam­ple, Kevin Fox, was accused of sex­u­al­ly assault­ing and mur­der­ing his 3‑year-old daugh­ter in Illinois. He con­fessed to the crime after spend­ing 14 hours in inter­ro­ga­tion, dur­ing which police ignored his requests for a lawyer and told him that they would arrange for inmates to rape him in jail. Fox was lat­er released after DNA…

Defense attor­neys for Georgia cap­i­tal defen­dant Jamie Weis have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state from seek­ing the death penal­ty because state pros­e­cu­tors hand picked the pub­lic defend­ers assigned to the case and because the case has lan­guished for years with­out ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Prosecutors announced in August 2006 that they would seek the death penal­ty against Weis. By March of the next year, the state ran out of mon­ey to pay Mr. Weis’…