Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al, the Washington Post called atten­tion to the case of Earl Washington, who was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and almost exe­cut­ed in Virginia before being freed fol­low­ing DNA tests. The edi­to­r­i­al notes that even a con­fes­sion is far from defin­i­tive proof that the right per­son has been con­vict­ed. Washington was spared through the clemen­cy process after courts denied his claims. Now a new defen­dant, whose DNA matched evi­dence from the crime scene, has been…

A new study on the use of the death penal­ty in Trinidad and Tobago has been pub­lished by Roger Hood and Florence Seemungal. The authors close­ly exam­ine pros­e­cu­tions under the coun­try’s manda­to­ry death penal­ty statute, which requires impo­si­tion of a death sen­tence when­ev­er a defen­dant is found guilty of mur­der. The study found that, despite a high num­ber of killings, rel­a­tive­ly few peo­ple were con­vict­ed of mur­der, and not nec­es­sar­i­ly those who com­mit­ted the most heinous crimes.The authors note…

Justin Fuller was exe­cut­ed in Texas on August 24. He was the 19^th per­son exe­cut­ed this year, equal­ing the total num­ber of peo­ple exe­cut­ed last year in the state. The San Antonio Express-News report­ed that Fuller had been rep­re­sent­ed by an attorney who ​“filed an appeal with inco­her­ent rep­e­ti­tions, ram­bling argu­ments and lan­guage clear­ly lift­ed from one of his pre­vi­ous cas­es, so that at one point it described the wrong crime.“The appeal filed for Fuller copied word­ing that the attorney had…

A sophis­ti­cat­ed sta­tis­ti­cal study of homi­cide cas­es in South Carolina by Professor Isaac Unah of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and attor­ney Michael Songer found that pros­e­cu­tors were more like­ly to seek the death penal­ty when the vic­tim in the under­ly­ing mur­der was white, if the vic­tim was female, and when the crime occurred in a rur­al area of the state. The authors first exam­ined the raw data of homi­cide cas­es in South Carolina over a 5‑year peri­od and…

As stu­dents return for the start of the school year, DPIC’s award-win­n­ing Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty is avail­able for teacher and stu­dent use. This free cur­ricu­lum was designed by the Michigan State Communications Technology Laboratory in con­junc­tion with the Death Penalty Information Center. There are sep­a­rate teacher and stu­dent sites, flex­i­ble les­son plans, teacher overviews, dynam­ic maps, and edu­ca­tion­al objec­tives meet­ing nation­al stan­dards. The…

The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America is a new book by Marie Gottschalk of the University of Pennsylvania ana­lyz­ing the rea­sons behind the tremen­dous growth in the prison pop­u­la­tion in the United States. The book exam­ines issues of race, the inter­sec­tion of pris­ons with wom­en’s issues, and the con­se­quences of wide­spread incar­cer­a­tion on soci­ety and the econ­o­my. The author delves into the recent his­to­ry of the death penal­ty and relates it to…

Ray Krone (pic­tured, cen­ter) was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1992 for the mur­der Kim Ancona in Arizona. Krone’s con­vic­tion was even­tu­al­ly over­turned. He was re-tried and again con­vict­ed in 1996. Finally, in 2002, DNA test­ing exclud­ed Krone from the crime and he was freed. Now anoth­er man has plead­ed guilty to the offense. Kenneth Phillips, Jr. was sen­tenced to a term of 53 years to life in prison for the mur­der and sex­u­al assault on August 18, 2006. DNA evidence linked…

A fed­er­al judge pre­sid­ing over the Aryan Brotherhood mur­der tri­al in Santa Ana, California, has ruled that the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which requires that defen­dants be giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­front and cross exam­ine wit­ness­es tes­ti­fy­ing against them at tri­al, applies to at least part of the fed­er­al death penal­ty sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dure as well. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2004 in Crawford v. Washington that tes­ti­mo­ni­al evi­dence from a per­son against a defendant cannot…

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty was cre­at­ed in Rome on May 12, 2002, and con­sists of 52 orga­ni­za­tions through­out the world: NGOs, attor­neys’ asso­ci­a­tions, trade unions, local com­mu­ni­ties, and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions (includ­ing many that are active in the U.S.) chal­leng­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The Coalition has cho­sen October 10, 2006 as the day to put par­tic­u­lar focus on prob­lems with the death penal­ty around the…

The British Government plans to seek Parliamentary approval of a par­don for more than 300 sol­diers exe­cut­ed for mil­i­tary offens­es dur­ing World War I. The announce­ment came just after a par­don was revealed for Private Harry Farr, who was exe­cut­ed at age 25 for refus­ing to fight. Defense Secretary Des Browne…