Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On May 11, attorneys for Robert Roberson, a death-sentenced prisoner in Texas, filed a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court asking it to reverse the decision of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA). Mr. Roberson’s conviction for the murder of his daughter Nikki was based on the so-called “Shaken Baby Syndrome” which has now been debunked by new scientific and medical evidence. The TCCA disregarded this and other evidence that showed his daughter’s death was attributable to natural…

Over a decade ago, four audio tapes and hundreds of execution documents were donated to the Library of the University of Virginia by a former Virginia correctional employee. National Public Radio (NPR) aired excerpts from those long-hidden tapes in January 2023. Shortly thereafter, a representative from the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) then requested the return of all the materials. NPR now reports that only two of the six boxes of material remain available for viewing at the…

The Death Penalty Information Center is pleased to announce that Robin M. Maher has joined the organization as Executive Director, effective May 15, 2023. Most recently, Ms. Maher was Senior Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Access to Justice. Ms. Maher previously worked in the federal defender system and at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and has more than twenty years’ experience training lawyers and judges in the United States and around the world. She was…

On May 9, 2023, the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on Senate Bill 101 that would abolish the state’s death penalty. The co-sponsors of the bill, Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio (D‑Lakewood) and Senator Stephen Huffman (R‑Tipp City), argued in favor of the bill’s passage and noted that more than one-third of Ohio’s senators have signed on as sponsors. Antonio said that the bill has received “the most bipartisan support yet” and described the death penalty as…

DPIC’s High School Curriculum on the Death Penalty, which was originally created in cooperation with Michigan State University’s Communications Technology Laboratory in 2001, has been updated and integrated into DPIC’s main website. This resource covers death penalty history, legal procedures, arguments for and against capital punishment, and narratives of real capital cases. The curriculum now includes interactive Tableau maps that allow students to explore state-level data on murder rates…

In an article for the University of Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit, Professor John Bessler discusses whether the use of the death penalty should be classified as torture under the norms of international law. Bessler argues that since psychological torture is prohibited under the most fundamental principles of international law (jus cogens norms) and since death threats are a form of psychological torture, then governmental death threats as part of the death penalty are torturous and a…

On May 3, 2023, the family of Joe Nathan James (pictured) sued the state of Alabama for the pain and suffering it caused during his three-hour-long lethal injection in 2022. It is believed to be the longest known execution in U.S. history. The suit asserts that “the execution team failed to execute Mr. James in a manner that comports with the U.S. Constitution, the Alabama Constitution, and applicable state law.” Normally, the first part of the process is supposed to take minutes, but the team…

On May 1, 2023, the state of Florida adopted legislation allowing the death penalty for sexual abuse of a child where no death occurred. This statute is unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008). Excerpts from that opinion and from an amicus brief cited by the Court follow: Excerpts from KENNEDY v. LOUISIANA (2008): Opinion of the Court STANDARDS OF DECENCY “Evolving standards of decency must embrace and express respect for the dignity of the…

A recent article in the The Guardian described the reactions of some of the California prisoners who have been moved from San Quentin’s death row and transferred to other facilities around the state. The prisoners are still under a sentence of death, but in 2019 Governor Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on executions and has dismantled the execution chamber. For example, Ramon Rogers, 63, who has been on death row since 1997, jumped at the opportunity for a different facility: “I was itching…