Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a cap­i­tal case chal­leng­ing the stan­dard of proof need­ed for claims of inno­cence based on new evi­dence. The Justices will con­sid­er an appeal filed by Paul House, a Tennessee death row inmate who says new DNA evi­dence proves he was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. In 1993 in Herrera v. Collins, a 5‑mem­ber major­i­ty of the Court said a claim of inno­cence based on new evi­dence alone is gen­er­al­ly not enough to mer­it a new hear­ing in fed­er­al court. However, in 1995 in…

Retired Orange County, California Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin, who was once known as ​“the hang­ing judge,” recent­ly called for an end to the death penal­ty. In a col­umn he pub­lished in the Orange County Register, McCartin revealed that a num­ber of recent death penal­ty cas­es and rul­ings by the U.S. Supreme Court have led him to now oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment because it is expen­sive and can nev­er be applied in a fair and bal­anced way. He…

After an audit of Virginia’s Division of Forensic Science result­ed in crit­i­cism of the crime lab­o­ra­to­ry’s pro­ce­dures in test­ing DNA evi­dence, the state announced that it will now review the lab’s find­ings in 160 cas­es, includ­ing approx­i­mate­ly 24 death penal­ty cas­es that hung on DNA evi­dence. Robert J. Humphreys, a Virginia Court of Appeals judge, is lead­ing the review effort to exam­ine cas­es that date from 1994. This marks the first time Virginia has vol­un­teered to revis­it find­ings in the…

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette stat­ed that the death penal­ty is more expen­sive than life with­out parole and offers Indiana res­i­dents no mea­sur­able ben­e­fit for their tax dol­lars. The paper said that end­ing the death penal­ty and real­lo­cat­ing funds cur­rent­ly put toward cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment would improve pro­grams such as vic­tim’s assis­tance, grass­roots police pro­grams, and social ser­vice agen­cies that work with at-risk youth. The Journal Gazette edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: The death penalty…

Texas Governor Rick Perry (pic­tured) has com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of 28 juve­nile offend­ers to life in prison, an act that brings the state into com­pli­ance with a recent U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing that deemed the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing those who were under 18 at the time of their crime uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. While some of these inmates will remain in more restric­tive seg­re­ga­tion, many will have their first expo­sure to prison work pro­grams, school­ing, and jobs with­in a prison unit. Current Texas…

In an edi­to­r­i­al high­light­ing pub­lic sup­port for the sen­tenc­ing option of life with­out parole in death penal­ty cas­es and the need to take steps to pro­tect against exe­cut­ing inno­cent peo­ple, USA Today recent­ly stat­ed that life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole is a ​“fit­ting replace­ment” for the death penal­ty. The edi­to­r­i­al praised the his­toric enact­ment of a life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole statute in Texas and oth­er recent activ­i­ties around the nation that seek to address problems with…

The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered a new sen­tenc­ing tri­al for Pennsylvania death row inmate Ronald Rompilla after find­ing that he was inad­e­quate­ly rep­re­sent­ed by coun­sel dur­ing his 1988 cap­i­tal tri­al. The 5 – 4 rul­ing marks the sec­ond time in one week that the U.S. Supreme Court has over­turned a death sen­tence cit­ing improp­er actions at tri­al. The Court not­ed that Rompilla’s tri­al attor­ney failed to inves­ti­gate records show­ing pos­si­ble mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence of men­tal retar­da­tion and a traumatic…

As Indiana death row inmate Michael Allen Lambert’s clemen­cy hear­ing was under­way, a fed­er­al court stayed his sched­uled June 22 exe­cu­tion in order to con­sid­er if his death sen­tence was con­sti­tu­tion­al in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Ring v. Arizona regard­ing the jury’s role in death sen­tenc­ing. During Lambert’s tri­al in 1992, a judge allowed the vic­tim’s wife to give an impact state­ment to the jury, which then rec­om­mend­ed that Lambert receive the death penal­ty. Four years later,…

Texas Governor Rick Perry (pic­tured) has signed the bill that gives juries in death penal­ty cas­es the option of sen­tenc­ing a defen­dant to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. ​“I believe this bill will improve our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem because it gives jurors a new option to pro­tect the pub­lic with the cer­tain­ty a con­vict­ed killer will nev­er roam our streets again,” Perry said. The new law is not retroac­tive, and will apply only to those sen­tenced after September 1, 2005. (Governor’s…

Former North Carolina Judge Tom Ross is urg­ing state law­mak­ers to enact leg­is­la­tion that would impose a two-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, a step he says is nec­es­sary in order to pre­vent an inno­cent per­son from being exe­cut­ed in the state. During his career, Ross served as a Superior Court Judge for 18 years, as the chair of the North Carolina Sentencing Commission, and as direc­tor of the Administrative Office of the Courts. He is cur­rent­ly the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Z. Smith Reynolds…