Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Cardinal William H. Keeler (pic­tured), arch­bish­op of Baltimore and chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, made an his­toric vis­it to Maryland’s death row and met with Wesley Eugene Baker, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in a few days. Cardinals Keeler, Theodore McCarrick of Washington, DC, and Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, Delaware also sent a let­ter to Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich urg­ing him to com­mute Baker’s sentence to…

Virginia Governor Mark Warner (pic­tured) com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Robin Lovitt to life in prison with­out parole, a deci­sion he made to ​“ensure that every time the ulti­mate sanc­tion is car­ried out, it is done fair­ly.” Warner not­ed his deci­sion was based on con­cerns that Lovitt could not pur­sue new DNA test­ing on cru­cial evi­dence that could prove his inno­cence. The evi­dence, a pair of scis­sors that pros­e­cu­tors say Lovitt used as the mur­der weapon, had been thrown out by a Virginia court…

As the 1,000^th exe­cu­tion approach­es, over 1,000 reli­gious lead­ers from more than a dozen reli­gious faiths have issued an open let­ter call­ing for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. The let­ter reaf­firms the lead­ers’ moral oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty and reit­er­ates the groups’ belief in the sacred­ness of life and the human capac­i­ty for change. The faith lead­ers called on pub­lic offi­cials to reex­am­ine cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and to seek bet­ter ways to help com­mu­ni­ties heal from…

Mother Jones mag­a­zine recent­ly fea­tured an arti­cle about the grow­ing oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment among U.S. Catholics, and it high­light­ed con­ser­v­a­tive Catholics who have changed their posi­tion in response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ call for an end to the death penal­ty. The arti­cle not­ed that Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, for­mer­ly a staunch sup­port­er of the death­penal­ty, is now call­ing for lim­its on its use. And Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, another…

The U.S. con­duct­ed the 1,000^th exe­cu­tion since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976 on December 2. This is a somber mile­stone in the his­to­ry of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but it comes at a time when the use of the death penal­ty in this coun­try is sharply declin­ing. Death sen­tences, the size of death row, exe­cu­tions, and pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty are all low­er than they were five years ago. This event presents an oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect on the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty over the…

A clemen­cy peti­tion filed with Virginia Governor Mark Warner on behalf of Robin Lovitt, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on November 30, has gained the back­ing of some of the state’s most con­ser­v­a­tive voic­es. Among those encour­ag­ing Warner to com­mute Lovitt’s sen­tence to life are for­mer Republican Virginia attor­ney gen­er­al Mark L. Earley, Rutherford Institute founder John W. Whitehead, and Lovitt’s attor­ney Kenneth Starr, who now serves as dean of the Pepperdine…

Dr. Richard Land, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and a strong death penal­ty sup­port­er in the past, recent­ly said that sup­port is only war­rant­ed if the death penal­ty is applied fairly. ​“If you are going to sup­port the death penal­ty then you have to be as sup­port­ive of its equi­table and just appli­ca­tion,” Land said. He not­ed that it would be immoral to sup­port cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment oth­er­wise. Land added…

A New Jersey Policy Perspectives report con­clud­ed that the state’s death penal­ty has cost tax­pay­ers $253 mil­lion since 1983, a fig­ure that is over and above the costs that would have been incurred had the state uti­lized a sen­tence of life with­out parole instead of death. The study exam­ined the costs of death penal­ty cas­es to pros­e­cu­tor offices, pub­lic defend­er offices, courts, and cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties. The report’s authors said that the cost estimate is ​“very con­ser­v­a­tive” because…

A two-part inves­tiga­tive series by the Houston Chronicle casts seri­ous doubt on the guilt of a Texas man who was exe­cut­ed in 1993. Ruben Cantu had per­sis­tent­ly pro­claimed his inno­cence and was only 17 when he was charged with cap­i­tal mur­der for the shoot­ing death of a San Antonio man dur­ing an attempt­ed rob­bery. Now, the pros­e­cu­tor and the jury fore­woman have expressed doubts about the case. Moreover, both a key eye­wit­ness in the state’s case against Cantu and Cantu’s co-defen­­dant have come…

Harold Wilson is the 6^th Person Exonerated in Pennsylvania More than 16 years after a Pennsylvania jury returned three death sen­tences against Harold Wilson, new DNA evi­dence has led to his acquit­tal. During Wilson’s 1989 cap­i­tal tri­al, the pros­e­cu­tion used racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices in select­ing the jury. In 1999, Wilson’s death sen­tence was over­turned when a court deter­mined that his defense coun­sel had failed to inves­ti­gate and present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence dur­ing his original…