Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Leonard Taylor (pic­tured) is a Missouri death-row pris­on­er who was con­vict­ed in 2008 of a quadru­ple mur­der that occurred in St. Louis in December 2004. His exe­cu­tion is sched­uled for February 7, 2023. Taylor has con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence. Although Taylor’s attor­neys have dis­cov­ered new evi­dence to sub­stan­ti­ate his claim, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell announced that he would not ask a judge to hold an evi­den­tiary hear­ing in the…

The California Supreme Court grant­ed Nvwtohiyada Idehesdi Sequoyah (tried as and referred to in court doc­u­ments as Billy Ray Waldon) a new tri­al on January 23, 2023 after over­turn­ing his 1992 death sen­tence and con­vic­tion. Sequoyah was per­mit­ted to rep­re­sent him­self at tri­al despite strong evi­dence that he was incom­pe­tent to do so. The new rul­ing deter­mined that the tri­al court had failed to pro­tect a mentally ill…

Sayfullo Saipov (pic­tured) was found guilty in fed­er­al court on January 26, 2023 of killing eight peo­ple on a New York City bike path in 2017 by dri­ving a truck into a crowd of peo­ple. He will now like­ly be the first per­son to face a fed­er­al cap­i­tal penal­ty hear­ing dur­ing President Biden’s admin­is­tra­tion. On February 6, 2023, a jury in Manhattan will begin hear­ing evi­dence to deter­mine whether Saipov will be sen­tenced to death or life with­out parole. The jury must vote unan­i­mous­ly for a death…

On January 21, 2023, Texas death row pris­on­er Terence Andrus hanged him­self at the age of 34, a lit­tle more than 6 months after the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of his case for a sec­ond time. His lawyer, Gretchen Sween, told the Los Angeles Times that ​“he’d been careen­ing toward the abyss,” since their decision. ​“He was…

Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham will be leav­ing DPIC after eight years at its helm. He will be replaced on inter­im basis by for­mer Executive Director Richard…

Kevin Cooper (pic­tured) is a death-row pris­on­er in California who was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing four peo­ple in 1985. He has main­tained his inno­cence of the offense. On January 13, 2023, a spe­cial coun­sel appoint­ed by Governor Gavin Newsom to con­duct an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion of Cooper’s case released a report dis­miss­ing his claims of inno­cence, stating, ​“The evi­dence of Cooper’s guilt is extensive and…

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has appoint­ed a spe­cial coun­sel to conduct a ​‘thor­ough review’ of the case of death-row pris­on­er Richard Glossip, who has faced nine exe­cu­tion dates despite strong evi­dence that he is inno­cent of the 1997 alleged mur­der-for-hire of an Oklahoma City motel own­er. In a news release issued January 26, 2023, two days after the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals resched­uled Glossip’s execution from…

In North Carolina and Nevada, fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims are speak­ing out against the death penal­ty, encour­ag­ing offi­cials in both states to com­mute their death…

The Alabama Supreme Court announced a change to its rules of appel­late pro­ce­dure on January 12, 2023, elim­i­nat­ing auto­mat­ic plain error review for tri­al errors in death penal­ty cas­es. This new rule removes a sig­nif­i­cant safe­guard for cap­i­tal defen­dants’ rights, which had been in place since Alabama rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1976. Without the review, cap­i­tal defen­dants who were erro­neous­ly con­vict­ed or sen­tenced could spend many more years on death row before the error is…

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) has reset the state’s exe­cu­tion sched­ule, slow­ing down the pace at which the 25-per­son exe­cu­tion spree it autho­rized in July 2022 would move…