Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Expressing their desire to end emo­tion­al­ly strain­ing court pro­ceed­ings, the fam­i­lies of Maryland mur­der victims Betina ​“Kristi” Gentry and Cynthia V. Allen recent­ly urged Anne Arundel County’s top pros­e­cu­tor to end his 3^rd attempt to get a death sen­tence for the man accused of killing the two women 10 years ago. ​“They’ve been through so much. I can’t look them in the eye and say, ​‘Nah, you have to relive it again.’ I can’t do that,” said State’s Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee after agreeing to…

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley has sent a let­ter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft request­ing that the Justice Department not seek the death penal­ty for a Dorchester drug deal­er charged with mur­der­ing a rival. Ashcroft has indi­cat­ed that the 25-year-old defen­dant, Brima Wurie, could be a can­di­date for the fed­er­al death penal­ty. Conley believes a fed­er­al death penal­ty case against Wurie would alien­ate com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers whose assis­tance has been a valu­able part of…

The pos­si­ble exon­er­a­tion of a man con­vict­ed of rape in 1987 has led inves­ti­ga­tors of the Houston police depart­ment crime lab­o­ra­to­ry to con­clude that the lab’s reli­a­bil­i­ty cri­sis may be worse than was first antic­i­pat­ed. This rev­e­la­tion could lead to re-test­ing of evi­dence in thou­sands of addi­tion­al cas­es from the past 25 years. Six inde­pen­dent foren­sic sci­en­tists said that a crime lab­o­ra­to­ry offi­cial either lacked the basic knowl­edge of blood typ­ing or know­ing­ly gave false tes­ti­mo­ny leading to…

Jefferson Parish pros­e­cu­tors today dis­missed all charges against for­mer Louisiana death row inmate Ryan Matthews. He became the nation’s 115^th death row inmate to be freed accord­ing to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Matthews was sen­tenced to die in 1999 and spent near­ly five years on death row before DNA evi­dence helped clear him of a mur­der that occurred just two weeks after his 17^th birth­day. (The U.S. Supreme Court will con­sid­er whether death sen­tences for 16- or…

ABC-TV begins a new six-part documentary series ​“In the Jury Room” on Tuesday, August 10 (10 PM Eastern time), with a first-hand look at a death penal­ty delib­er­a­tion. Narrated by senior legal cor­re­spon­dent Cynthia McFadden (pic­tured), the debut cap­tures the delib­er­a­tions of twelve jurors select­ed to decide the cap­i­tal mur­der case against Ohio defen­dant Mark Ducic. The pro­gram allows the audi­ence to see jurors strug­gling through the clash­es that often accom­pa­ny death penalty…

A recent San Jose Mercury News edi­to­r­i­al rec­om­mend­ed includ­ing the death penal­ty in the California Performance Review pre­pared for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce pub­lic spend­ing. The paper stat­ed that the aban­don­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment would save valu­able tax­pay­er dol­lars in the state and praised local efforts to sup­port a tem­po­rary halt to exe­cu­tions while cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is reviewed. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: Termination of the death penal­ty would add immea­sur­ably to the $32…

A fed­er­al judge has thrown out Ernest Ray Willis’ cap­i­tal con­vic­tion after finding ​“strong rea­son to be con­cerned that Willis may be actu­al­ly inno­cent” and that West Texas author­i­ties need­less­ly drugged him and con­cealed evi­dence at his tri­al. The deci­sion casts doubt on Willis’ 1987 con­vic­tion for the arson-mur­der of two women in Pecos County, a crime that anoth­er death row inmate, David Long, lat­er con­fessed he had com­mit­ted. In his rul­ing, U.S. District Judge Royal Furgeson said…

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley signed a bill into law that requires pros­e­cu­tors to share their files in all felony cas­es. The bill was approved in the wake of alle­ga­tions that pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence in the cap­i­tal mur­der tri­al of Alan Gell, who was lat­er exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row. The new open dis­cov­ery statute requires dis­trict attor­neys to open their inves­tiga­tive files in felony cas­es to defense lawyers who request such access pri­or to tri­al. The law requires…

An op-ed appear­ing in the Arizona Republic and authored by Dr. Mark Wellek, past pres­i­dent of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, and Carol Kamin, cur­rent pres­i­dent of the Arizona Chapter of the Children’s Action Alliance, echoed grow­ing nation­al con­cerns about the cul­pa­bil­i­ty of juve­nile offend­ers who face cap­i­tal charges despite sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence that they may be less cul­pa­ble than adult offend­ers. Wellek and Kamin noted: ​“American soci­ety has many gray areas. Our many…

In Alameda County, California, pros­e­cu­tors announced that they will not seek the death penal­ty against Richard Dean Wilson because it is unlike­ly that a jury would return a death sen­tence. State authories say the deci­sion to seek a life sen­tence for Wilson avoids a cost­ly death penal­ty case and saves tax­pay­er dol­lars from financ­ing a lengthy tri­al with an uncer­tain out­come. Wilson plead­ed no con­test to the mur­der of Angela Marie Bledsoe. Prosecutor Jim Anderson noted, ​“This was the best…