Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A recent poll by the Washington Post revealed more Marylanders pre­fer a sen­tence of life in prison with no chance of parole over the death penal­ty for some­one con­vict­ed of mur­der– by 49% to 40%. Maryland has had a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions since 2006, after the state’s high­est court ruled that pro­ce­dures for lethal injec­tions had not been prop­er­ly adopt­ed. Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley spon­sored legislation to…

A recent issue of the award-win­n­ing prison news mag­a­zine, The Angolite, fea­tured a sto­ry by inmate Lane Nelson about Gerald Bordelon, the first per­son to be exe­cut­ed in Louisiana since 2002. Bordelon expe­dit­ed his own exe­cu­tion by choos­ing to waive his appeals, includ­ing his direct appeal, which was pre­vi­ous­ly thought to be a manda­to­ry part of the state’s death penal­ty process. Bordelon volunteered for…

Family mem­bers of the vic­tim whom Ronnie Lee Gardner killed in Utah are now ask­ing that his life be spared. Gardner’s attor­neys have request­ed a clemen­cy hear­ing and the fam­i­ly mem­bers of the vic­tim, Michael Burdell, would be called to tes­ti­fy in favor of spar­ing Gardner’s life. Gardner has cho­sen to be exe­cut­ed by fir­ing squad.​“Knowing Michael, as I did, he would not want Ronnie Lee to be exe­cut­ed,” said Donna Nu,…

North Carolina​’s News & Observer recent­ly report­ed on the declin­ing use of the death penal­ty in the state. North Carolina has over 150 inmates on death row but has not had an exe­cu­tion since 2006. Last month, a jury opt­ed for a sen­tence of life with­out parole for Samuel Cooper, who was con­vict­ed of five first-degree mur­ders. Jim Woodall, pres­i­dent of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, said this decline…

The American Board of Anesthesiologists (ABA), rep­re­sent­ing 40,000 mem­bers, recent­ly ruled that it will revoke the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of any mem­ber who par­tic­i­pates in an exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion. Most hos­pi­tals require board cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for their anes­the­si­ol­o­gists. According to the board sec­re­tary Mark Rockoff, the deci­sion reflects the ABA​’s belief that anes­the­si­ol­o­gists are​“heal­ers, not exe­cu­tion­ers.” Some states have recruited…

After spend­ing 20 years on death row, inmates Roy Gene Smith and David Lewis had their death sen­tences thrown out by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on April 28. The state’s high­est crim­i­nal court ruled that jurors who con­vict­ed Smith were erro­neous­ly kept from hear­ing tes­ti­mo­ny about his upbring­ing in a crime-rid­­­den Houston neigh­bor­hood. The court also deter­mined that Lewis should have been able to present evidence of…

A New York truck dri­ver, who spent near­ly 19 years in prison for mur­der, was released on April 28, after test­ing of DNA found in the vic­tim’s cloth­ing exclud­ed him as the killer. Frank Sterling, now 46, was con­vict­ed of the 1988 mur­der of Viola Manville after he con­fessed to the crime dur­ing an all-night inter­ro­ga­tion. He lat­er recant­ed this con­fes­sion, claim­ing he had slipped into an hyp­not­ic state dur­ing the lengthy questioning and…