Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Concerned that a fin­ger­print iden­ti­fi­ca­tion error could lead to the exe­cu­tion of an inno­cent per­son, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is exam­in­ing all cas­es of state and fed­er­al pris­on­ers sched­uled for exe­cu­tion to deter­mine whether FBI fin­ger­print experts made mis­takes that led to death sen­tences. Eighteen months ago, the FBI dis­cov­ered that a fin­ger­print exam­in­er for the Bureau had mis­tak­en­ly matched a print found near the site of terrorist bombings…

As California law­mak­ers con­sid­er leg­is­la­tion that would put exe­cu­tions on hold for two years while a 13-mem­ber com­mis­sion reviews the prob­lem of wrong­ful con­vic­tions in the state, a group of cur­rent and for­mer pros­e­cu­tors have sent mem­bers of the state Assembly a let­ter urg­ing pas­sage of the mea­sure.​“The exe­cu­tion of an inno­cent per­son is unac­cept­able, and it is imper­a­tive that California takes every pre­cau­tion that it nev­er hap­pens. This is not just…

New Jersey law­mak­ers have vot­ed to sus­pend exe­cu­tions in the state while a task force stud­ies the fair­ness and costs of impos­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. After pass­ing the Senate in December and the Assembly on January 9 by a vote of 55 – 21, the mea­sure now goes to Governor Richard Codey for his sig­na­ture into law. Codey has indi­cat­ed that he will sign the bill, an act that will make New Jersey the first state to pass a death penal­ty mora­to­ri­um into law through…

Virginia Governor Mark Warner has ordered DNA evi­dence retest­ed to deter­mine whether Roger Keith Coleman, who was exe­cut­ed in 1992, was actu­al­ly inno­cent. Warner said he ordered the tests because of tech­no­log­i­cal advances that could prove a lev­el of cer­tain­ty that was not avail­able at the time of Coleman’s exe­cu­tion. Warner, who will leave office on January 14, not­ed,​“This is an extra­or­di­nar­i­ly unique cir­cum­stance, where tech­nol­o­gy has advanced…

An ongo­ing review of DNA tests con­duct­ed by the Houston Police Department has revealed ​“severe and per­va­sive prob­lems” with the lab’s find­ings in more than two dozen cas­es, includ­ing three death penal­ty cas­es. The new report released by inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tor Michael Bromwich, who is review­ing more than 1,100 Houston Police Department DNA cas­es ana­lyzed between 1987 and 2002, also linked the DNA lab’s trou­bles to​“very dis­turb­ing prob­lems” with­in the Houston…

Support for restora­tion of the death penal­ty in Great Britain, even when the mur­der vic­tim is a police offi­cer, has fall­en below 50% for the first time since its abo­li­tion four decades ago. According to a YouGov poll con­duct­ed for The Daily Telegraph, the num­ber of peo­ple who oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment even when the vic­tim is a police offi­cer has risen to 43%. The fig­ure is a dra­mat­ic changed from the 20% who voiced oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty in a 1960 poll…

A Virginia judge ruled that pros­e­cu­tors may not seek the death penal­ty against a Vietnamese man accused of mur­der­ing two peo­ple because police vio­lat­ed the man’s rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not inform­ing him that he could con­tact his coun­try’s con­sulate. “[T]he duty to give notice is absolute.… [T]he idea that the state can com­plete­ly ignore its treaty oblig­a­tions with­out con­se­quence essen­tial­ly oblit­er­ates the pur­pose for which the…

Amidst wide­spread sus­pi­cion that inno­cent peo­ple have been sen­tenced to death or exe­cut­ed, China has announced that reform­ing its death penal­ty sys­tem is a pri­or­i­ty and it is imple­ment­ing pro­ce­dur­al changes to pro­tect against wrong­ful con­vic­tions. In October 2005, the People’s Supreme Court announced that it would reverse a deci­sion from the ear­ly 1980​’s that gave final review on many death penal­ty cas­es to provin­cial high courts. Under the new pol­i­cy, the…

Former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin and for­mer San Quentin war­den Daniel Vasquez are urg­ing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemen­cy to Clarence Ray Allen. Allen, who will turn 76 just a day before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on January 17, is blind and dis­abled, con­di­tions that his attor­neys have argued would make his exe­cu­tion cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. In a let­ter to Schwarzenegger, Grodin, who authored the court’s 1986 opinion…

A recent pub­lic opin­ion poll of Australians found that 69% of respon­dents believe the penal­ty for mur­der should be impris­on­ment, while only 25% of those polled stat­ed it should be the death penal­ty. The poll, con­duct­ed by Roy Morgan International just one week after an Australian cit­i­zen was exe­cut­ed by Singapore for pos­sess­ing less than a half a kilo­gram of hero­in, revealed that pub­lic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is con­tin­u­ing to decline in Australia. In…