Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct filed sev­en charges of mis­con­duct against Chief Justice Sharon Keller (pic­tured) of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) stem­ming from her actions in a death penal­ty appeal in 2007. Judge Keller is charged with not fol­low­ing court pro­ce­dure and improp­er­ly clos­ing the court to the appeal of Michael Richard short­ly before he was to be exe­cut­ed. Among oth­er charges, the Commission stated, ​“Judge…

Casper Taylor, Jr., a long-time Maryland House of Delegates mem­ber and for­mer sup­port­er of the death penal­ty, has writ­ten an op-ed call­ing for the end of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Maryland. ​“In 28 years in the Maryland House of Delegates, nine as speak­er, I cast thou­sands of votes,” wrote Taylor. ​“I have few regrets. But there is one vote I wish I could take back — my 1978 vote to rein­state the death penal­ty in Maryland.” Taylor continued,…

Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio has grant­ed clemen­cy to death row inmate Jeffrey Hill (pic­tured), who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on March 3. ​“After the review of exten­sive mate­r­i­al asso­ci­at­ed with this case, I con­cur with the unan­i­mous ratio­nale and rec­om­men­da­tion of the Ohio Parole Board,“ Strickland said in a state­ment. The Board had vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly for Hill’s com­mu­ta­tion in part because of the victim’s family’s tes­ti­mo­ny that they…

The New Mexico House of Representatives vot­ed February 11 to repeal the death penal­ty. After a more than two-hour debate, the House vot­ed 40 to 28 in favor of replac­ing the death penal­ty with life in prison with­out parole. This is the third time in recent years New Mexico’s House of Representatives has vot­ed to ban cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. House Bill 285 will now move to the…

Bestselling author Thomas Cahill has writ­ten a new book, ​“A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green,” about his encounter and grad­ual under­stand­ing of the life of a Texas death row inmate named Dominique Green. Green, who was only 18 at the time of his arrest, was exe­cut­ed in 2004. Cahill’s sto­ry of Green’s life high­lights issues of race, pover­ty, and abuse, trac­ing details of his child­hood through his years on death row. Thomas Cahill is probably…

The Ohio Parole Board unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed that Jeffrey Hill’s death sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life in prison with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Hill, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on March 3, was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing his moth­er while under the influ­ence of drugs. The parole board noted the ​“com­pelling and unan­i­mous opin­ion” of the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly that her son and killer should not be exe­cut­ed. The board said, ​“They have suffered…