Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied habeas cor­pus relief to a Georgia death row inmate who claims he is inno­cent and who has received inter­na­tion­al sup­port. In a 2 – 1 deci­sion, the court held that Troy Davis could have pre­sent­ed most of his new evi­dence ear­li­er and that the evi­dence did not offer clear and con­vinc­ing proof of his inno­cence. Hence, the court did not con­sid­er his free-stand­ing claim of inno­cence on its…

Judge Boyce Martin, Chief Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, recent­ly con­curred in a cap­i­tal case and stat­ed his con­clu­sion that the death penal­ty sys­tem is now bro­ken beyond repair. Writing in Wiles v. Bagley on April 14, Judge Martin said that the death penalty is ​“so fun­da­men­tal­ly flawed at its very core that it is beyond repair.” He con­tin­ued,​“Now in my thir­ti­eth year as a judge on…

The Justice Project has released a new report enti­tled​“Improving Prosecutorial Accountability: A Policy Review.” The report details some of the caus­es of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and makes rec­om­men­da­tions for reform. With a par­tic­u­lar focus on pre­vent­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al errors that lead to wrong­ful con­vic­tions, the study explores how a lack of trans­paren­cy and account­abil­i­ty has allowed pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct to persist nationwide.

The Virginia Senate upheld Gov. Tim Kaine’s vetoes of pro­pos­als to expand cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment on April 8. The Senate vote fell short of the two-thirds need­ed to over­ride Gov. Kaine’s vetoes of the bills that would have extend­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to mur­der accom­plices who were not the actu­al killer and to those who kill on-duty fire mar­shals and aux­il­iary police offi­cers. This marks the third con­sec­u­tive year that Gov. Kaine has vetoed bills to expand…

A for­mer Illinois death row inmate, Nathson Fields, was acquit­ted on April 8 of a dou­ble homi­cide for which he spent eleven and a half years on death row.​“I feel like my prayers have been answered,” said Fields after the judge issued the not guilty ver­dict in the retri­al. In Field’s orig­i­nal tri­al, the judge took a $10,000 bribe, but then returned the mon­ey when he dis­cov­ered he was under fed­er­al inves­ti­ga­tion. Fields and a co-defendant…