Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On April 1, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Harbison v. Bell that fed­er­al­ly appoint­ed coun­sel can rep­re­sent indi­gent cap­i­tal clients in state clemen­cy pro­ce­dures. The case, which was argued before the Supreme Court in January 2009, asked whether a fed­er­al law that pro­vides lawyers to indi­gent state death row inmates for parts of their appeal guar­an­tees them the con­tin­u­a­tion of that rep­re­sen­ta­tion through the state clemen­cy process. The law says that…

A new report released by The Justice Project, ​“Convicting the Innocent: Texas Justice Derailed,” ana­lyzes the cas­es of 39 inno­cent Texans who col­lec­tive­ly spent more than 500 years in prison for crimes they did not com­mit. The study focus­es on these non-cap­i­­tal crimes as it rec­om­mends reforms Texas should imple­ment to improve the qual­i­ty of evi­dence used and reduce the risk of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Eyewitness misiden­ti­fi­ca­tion was the lead­ing cause of wrong­ful convictions in…

UPDATE: JOSE BRISENO RECEIVED A STAY OF EXECUTION ON APRIL 2. Texas death row inmate Jose Briseno is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 7. However, a stream of let­ters and sup­port, includ­ing some from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice staff, fel­low pris­on­ers, and a net­work of peo­ple out­side of prison has been sent to the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles ask­ing that his sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life. According to the clemen­cy peti­tion sub­mit­ted by his…

On March 26, the Maryland House of Delegates approved a bill requir­ing spe­cif­ic evi­dence of guilt if the death penal­ty is sought. The same bill was passed ear­li­er by the Senate, and the gov­er­nor sup­ports the leg­is­la­tion. Calling it a ​“step for­ward,” Gov. O’Malley indi­cat­ed he will sign the bill, lim­it­ing cap­i­tal cas­es to those with bio­log­i­cal or DNA evi­dence of guilt, a video­taped con­fes­sion, or a video­tape link­ing the defen­dant to a homi­cide. The restric­tions derived from an…

John Connor, who served as chief spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor in Montana for 21 years and who pros­e­cut­ed five prison homi­cide cas­es, is now call­ing for the repeal of Montana’s death penal­ty. Connor orig­i­nal­ly believed that the death penal­ty was need­ed to keep cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers safe from inmates serv­ing life in prison with­out parole. But through his expe­ri­ence he found, ​“The real­i­ty is that the death penal­ty is not, and nev­er has been, a deter­rent. Prison safety…