Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) recent­ly pub­lished a report on the use of the death penal­ty for drug crimes around the world. The report dis­tin­guish­es between coun­tries that have leg­is­la­tion allow­ing a death sen­tence for drug offens­es and those that actu­al­ly apply it in prac­tice. According to the report, 32 juris­dic­tions retain the death penal­ty for drug offens­es (out of the 58 coun­tries that have the death penal­ty for any offense),…

On June 4, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland grant­ed clemen­cy to Richard Nields, reduc­ing his death sen­tence to life with­out parole. Nields was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed lat­er in June for the 1997 mur­der of his girl­friend in sub­ur­ban Cincinnati. In May, the Ohio Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed Nields for clemen­cy because of prob­lems with med­ical tes­ti­mo­ny at Nields’s tri­al. Dr. Paul Shrode, who was still in train­ing at the time of…

On Monday, June 7, the Pennsylvania State Government Management and Cost Study Commission will hear from experts on pro­pos­als to cut the costs of var­i­ous gov­ern­ment pro­grams. The Commission, estab­lished in 2009, is com­prised of pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor cost-mind­ed lead­ers in Pennsylvania and has been charged with study­ing the man­age­ment of gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions and mak­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for cost-cut­t­ing mea­sures. Among the experts who will…

David Powell (pic­tured left), who was sen­tenced to death in 1978 for the shoot­ing of Austin police offi­cer Ralph Ablanedo (pic­tured below), faces exe­cu­tion in Texas on June 15. During his 30 years on death row, Powell has shown sin­cere remorse and regret for his actions. In 2009, Powell wrote to Officer Ablanedo’s fam­i­ly:​“I am infi­nite­ly sor­ry that I killed Ralph Ablanedo. I shot Officer Ablanedo and I take…

The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber details the his­to­ry and devel­op­ment of the gas cham­ber as a method of exe­cu­tion in the United States. Author Scott Christianson explores con­nec­tions between the gas cham­ber and the eugen­ics move­ment, as well as new evi­dence about Hitler’s adop­tion of gas cham­ber tech­nol­o­gy devel­oped in the United States. Charles Lanier, Director of the Capital Punishment Research…

A recent study pub­lished by the Equal Justice Initiative, a non­prof­it human rights and legal ser­vices orga­ni­za­tion in Alabama, shows that the prac­tice of exclud­ing blacks and oth­er racial minori­ties from juries remains wide­spread and large­ly unchecked, espe­cial­ly in the South. The study,​“Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy,” found that in Alabama, courts have found racially…

Last Words of the Executed by Robert K. Elder is a com­pi­la­tion of the final state­ments of death row inmates short­ly before their exe­cu­tion. The book, with a fore­word by Studs Terkel, also describes the crime and some of the social set­ting of each case pre­sent­ed. According to a review in The Economist,​“The last words are remark­able for their remorse, humour, hatred, res­ig­na­tion, fear and brava­do…. America’s diverse heritage…

On May 24, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a deci­sion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, there­by giv­ing the defen­dant anoth­er chance to show that his tri­al coun­sel was con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly inef­fec­tive. Lawrence Jefferson was sen­tenced to death in Georgia, despite the fact that he had suf­fered seri­ous head injuries as a child. In an appeal in state court, he claimed that his attor­ney failed to investigate…