Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Nov 212005

Investigative Series Reveals Texas May Have Executed An Innocent Man

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…

Read More

News 

Nov 182005

122nd Inmate Freed From Death Row

Harold Wilson is the 6th 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…

Read More

News 

Nov 172005

NEW RESOURCE: Law Review Explores Mental Illness and the Death Penalty

A new edi­tion of the Catholic University Law Review includes papers from the uni­ver­si­ty’s recent sym­po­sium on men­tal ill­ness and the death penal­ty. The pre­sen­ta­tions by experts deliv­ered dur­ing the sym­po­sium address how pol­i­cy mak­ers and the courts might resolve the pro­pri­ety of exe­cut­ing those with men­tal ill­ness. Articles exam­ine rec­om­men­da­tions from the Task Force of the ABAs Section of Individual Rights and Reponsibilities regarding mental…

Read More

News 

Nov 172005

NEW RESOURCE: Sentencing Project Examines Relationship Between Incarceration and Crime

Incar­cer­a­tion and Crime: A Complex Relationship, a new report by The Sentencing Project, exam­ines the finan­cial and social costs of incar­cer­a­tion, and eval­u­ates the lim­it­ed effec­tive­ness it has on crime rates. The report notes that the num­ber of peo­ple incar­cer­at­ed in the United States has risen by more than 500% over the past three decades, up from 330,000 peo­ple in 1972 to 2.1 mil­lion peo­ple today. Though an increase in the num­ber of offenders…

Read More

News 

Nov 162005

Pennsylvania Man Becomes the 122nd Inmate Freed From Death Row

More than 16 years after a Pennsylvania jury returned three death sen­tences against Harold Wilson (pic­tured), new DNA evi­dence has helped lead to his acquit­tal. Yesterday, Wilson became the nation’s 122nd per­son freed from death row accord­ing to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). During his 1989 cap­i­tal tri­al, Wilson was pros­e­cut­ed by for­mer Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Jack McMahon, a man best known for his role in a train­ing video that advised new…

Read More

News 

Nov 162005

Massachusetts Death Penalty Bill Rejected

A bill to rein­state the death penal­ty in Massachusetts was reject­ed by the House of Representatives, end­ing Governor Mitt Romney’s effort to estab­lish a​“gold stan­dard” for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. House mem­bers defeat­ed the mea­sure by a vote of 100 – 53 after four hours of floor debate. Romney had described the bill as​“fool­proof,” stat­ing that it con­tained strict safe­guards that could pro­tect against wrong­ful con­vic­tions and that the nar­row scope of the bill meant that…

Read More

News 

Nov 152005

NEW VOICES: Judge Urges Public to Reconsider Death Penalty

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill recent­ly announced that he is rethink­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment because it is expen­sive, can be polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed, and risks inno­cent lives. Winmill, who freed death row exoneree Charles Fain in 2001 after DNA evi­dence proved his inno­cence, said that Fain’s case and the very dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence of sen­tenc­ing a guilty man to die for mur­der prompt­ed him to rethink cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. During a speech before the City Club of Boise,…

Read More

News 

Nov 152005

U.S. Catholic Bishops Issue Strong Statement on Ending U.S. Death Penalty

A state­ment approved dur­ing this week’s meet­ing of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) calls for an end to the death penal­ty in the United States and notes that the death penal­ty​“con­tributes to a cycle of vio­lence in our soci­ety that must be bro­ken.” The state­ment, draft­ed by the USCCB Domestic Policy Committee, is the first com­pre­hen­sive state­ment focused on the death penal­ty by the Catholic bish­ops of the United States in 25 years. It is part of the…

Read More

News 

Nov 102005

NEW RESOURCE: Justice Department Releases Capital Punishment, 2004” Report

The Bureau of Justice Statistics released its lat­est report on the sta­tus of the death penal­ty in the U.S., Capital Punishment, 2004, on November 13. According to the report, the nation’s death row pop­u­la­tion, exe­cu­tions, and the num­ber of peo­ple giv­en death sen­tences last year all declined. There were 3,315 peo­ple on state and fed­er­al death rows at the con­clu­sion of 2004, 63 few­er than in 2003. Last year, 125 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death, the fewest…

Read More

News 

Nov 092005

North Carolina Law Results in Sharp Drop in Death Sentences

According to the North Carolina News & Record, death sen­tences in the state have sig­nif­i­cant­ly declined since the 2001 enact­ment of leg­is­la­tion that allows defen­dants to plead guilty to first-degree mur­der and receive a sen­tence of life with­out parole rather than go to tri­al and risk the death penal­ty. Juries are also return­ing few­er death sen­tences. The paper argues that the emer­gence of the life-with­­­out-parole alter­na­tive should result in…

Read More