Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Oct 222024

Federal Court Dismisses Claims of Bias and Rules South Carolina Governor Has Sole Authority in Richard Moore’s Clemency Case

On October 21, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled that South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has the sole pow­er to grant clemen­cy to Richard Moore. In response to alle­ga­tions of bias pre­sent­ed by Mr. Moore’s coun­sel, Judge Lewis said that “[t]he Court is con­fi­dent… Governor McMaster will give full, thought­ful, and care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion to any clemen­cy peti­tion filed by Moore, giv­ing both com­pre­hen­sive and indi­vid­u­al­ized atten­tion to the unique cir­cum­stances of his…

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News 

Oct 212024

Testimony at Texas Legislature Does Not Include Robert Roberson But Witnesses Confirm Serious Concerns about the Possible Execution of an Innocent Man

The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence heard tes­ti­mo­ny on Monday October 21, 2024 from nov­el­ist John Grisham, talk show host Dr. Phil” McGraw, but not its expect­ed star wit­ness, Robert Roberson, whose sub­poe­naed tes­ti­mo­ny result­ed in a dra­mat­ic last-minute stay of exe­cu­tion on October 17th from the Texas Supreme Court. Legislators said they could not reach an agree­ment with the Office of the Texas Attorney General to facil­i­tate Mr. Roberson’s in-per­­son tes­ti­mo­ny, and Committee…

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News 

Oct 172024

Idaho Amends Lethal Injection Execution Protocol and Sets Second Execution Date for Thomas Creech

On October 15, 2024, the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) amend­ed its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and facil­i­ties to enable staff to place a cen­tral intra­venous line, if nec­es­sary, to deliv­er lethal injec­tion drugs to a pris­on­er. IDOC now has a new exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tion room in which venous access would be estab­lished pri­or to trans­fer­ring the pris­on­er to the exe­cu­tion cham­ber. This change, and accom­pa­ny­ing prison ren­o­va­tions this past sum­mer, came after the February 28, 2024 failed execution of…

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News 

Oct 152024

Joseph Giarratano, Former Death Row Prisoner and Prison Reform Advocate, Has Died

Joseph Giarratano (pic­tured, cen­ter) died on October 6, 2024. He had spent near­ly forty years in prison, many of them on death row, for a crime he main­tained he did not com­mit. During his time behind bars, he sought to improve prison con­di­tions and secure access to attor­neys. After being paroled in 2017, he worked at the University of Virginia’s Innocence Project, con­tin­u­ing his work to assist incarcerated…

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News 

Oct 112024

French and German Embassies Host a Discussion on Innocence and the Death Penalty

On October 11, 2024 the Embassies of France and Germany host­ed a dis­cus­sion on the ques­tion of inno­cence and the death penal­ty at the res­i­dence of the French Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Panelists includ­ed Herman Lindsey, a death row exoneree and Executive Director of Witness to Innocence; Vanessa Potkin, Director of Special Litigation at the Innocence Project; and Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, Director of the Death Penalty Abolition Program at Catholic Mobilizing Network. The approx­i­mate­ly 75

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News 

Oct 072024

Delaware Officially Removes Death Penalty from State Statutes Eight Years After State Supreme Court Finds It Unconstitutional

On September 26, 2024, Governor John Carney (D) signed House Bill 70, which offi­cial­ly repeals the death penal­ty from the state’s law. Although Delaware’s Supreme Court found its death penal­ty statute to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 2016, inval­i­dat­ing it for future use and effec­tive­ly abol­ish­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the pas­sage of HB 70 amends Title 11 of the state’s code to remove the death penal­ty and replace it with life with­out parole as the most severe pun­ish­ment for first-degree murder for…

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News 

Oct 012024

Citing Misconduct, Japanese Court Formally Exonerates Iwao Hakamada of 1966 Murder After 46 Years on Death Row

On September 26, 2024, a Japanese court for­mal­ly acquit­ted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada (pic­tured), who was wrong­ful­ly sen­tenced to death in 1968 for the mur­der of his for­mer boss and fam­i­ly in Shizuoka, Japan. After 46 years on death row, and anoth­er decade of lit­i­ga­tion, Judge Kunii Tsuneishi of the Shizuoka District Court ruled that blood-stained cloth­ing used to con­vict Mr. Hakamada was fab­ri­cat­ed long after the murders. The court can­not accept the fact that the blood stain would remain…

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News 

Sep 262024

Oklahoma, Alabama Executions Raise Concerns About Clemency Process and Execution Methods

Executions in Oklahoma and Alabama, sched­uled just hours apart on September 26, high­light issues of pro­por­tion­al sen­tenc­ing and exper­i­men­tal meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was exe­cut­ed at 10:17am CT, had received a rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy from Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board because of con­flict­ing evi­dence about whether he or a co-defen­­dant actu­al­ly killed the vic­tim. Alan Miller, sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in the evening of September 26, sur­vived a botched lethal…

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News 

Sep 242024

Missouri Supreme Court and Governor Reject Innocence Claims and Refuse to Pause Execution for Marcellus Williams

On September 23, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court heard oral argu­ments on the joint motion by Marcellus Williams’ legal team and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney (PA) Wesley Bell to over­turn a low­er court’s deci­sion reject­ing Mr. Williams’ appeal. Later the same day, the state supreme court unan­i­mous­ly denied the motion, stat­ing that there was no cred­i­ble evi­dence of actu­al inno­cence or any show­ing of a con­sti­tu­tion­al error under­min­ing con­fi­dence in the orig­i­nal judg­ment.” Also the same…

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News 

Sep 202024

Dismissing Codefendant’s Last-Minute Admission that Khalil Allah Was Not Present at the Crime Scene, South Carolina Supreme Court Clears Way for Today’s Execution

On September 19, 2024, attor­neys for Khalil Allah, for­mer­ly known as Freddie Eugene Owens, filed an emer­gency motion for a stay of exe­cu­tion after receiv­ing a signed affi­davit from his code­fen­dant in the 1997 shoot­ing death of Irene Graves that Mr. Allah was not present” dur­ing the crime. Just two days ahead of Mr. Allah’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion, Steven Golden, who was also charged in Ms. Graves’ death, recant­ed his tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny and said that Mr. Allah is not the per­son who shot Irene…

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