Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Alan Gell of North Carolina became the nation’s 113^th exon­er­at­ed death row inmate today, February 18, 2004. Gell, who has main­tained his inno­cence since his 1998 con­vic­tion, was acquit­ted of all charges by a jury that delib­er­at­ed for only two and a half hours at his retri­al. In December 2002, a North Carolina judge vacat­ed Gell’s mur­der con­vic­tion and ordered a new trial…

The authors of a new study pub­lished in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (J. Blume, T. Eisenberg, & M. Wells,​“Explaining Death Row’s Population and Racial Composition,” Vol. I, Issue 1, March 2004, at 165) con­clud­ed that Texas’ rep­u­ta­tion as the lead­ing death penal­ty state in the U.S. is attrib­ut­able more to its high num­ber of exe­cu­tions and the large num­ber of mur­ders in the state, rather than to its sen­tenc­ing rate. Despite lead­ing the coun­try by far in terms…

Federal pros­e­cu­tors dropped charges against Darrell Rice short­ly before he was to face cap­i­tal charges for two mur­ders in Shenandoah National Park. New foren­sic evi­dence cast doubt on the case against Rice, despite the fact that Attorney General John Ashcroft had made a pub­lic announce­ment of Rice’s indict­ment employ­ing a new law in 2002. (Washington Post, Feb. 7, 2004). A fed­er­al…

Federal pros­e­cu­tors dropped charges against Darrell Rice short­ly before he was to face cap­i­tal charges for two mur­ders in Shenandoah National Park. New foren­sic evi­dence cast doubt on the case against Rice, despite the fact that Attorney General John Ashcroft had made a pub­lic announce­ment of Rice’s indict­ment employ­ing a new law in 2002. (Washington Post, Feb. 7, 2004). A fed­er­al judge…

According to Don Dawson, Tennessee’s chief post-con­vic­­­tion defend­er, Dr. Smith had com­plet­ed the autop­sies, super­vised the autop­sies, or tes­ti­fied dur­ing tri­al in 30 to 40 per­cent of the state’s cap­i­tal cas­es. Of the state’s 97 death row inmates, 38 were con­vict­ed in Shelby County where…

Texas has sched­uled the exe­cu­tion of four juve­nile offend­ers between March and June of 2004 despite the fact that the U. S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether such exe­cu­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al. Arguments in Roper v. Simmons, No. 03 – 633, a case from Missouri where the state Supreme Court ruled that the exe­cu­tion of those under the age 18 at the time of their crime would be cruel and…

Charlize Theron, who recent­ly won a Golden Globe Award for her por­tray­al of exe­cut­ed Florida death row inmate Aileen Wuornos in the movie​“Monster,” has stat­ed that mak­ing the movie made her more aware of how​“inef­fec­tive” cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is. Theron, who is opposed to the death penal­ty, was only 15 when her own moth­er shot and killed her drunk­en father after he threat­ened to kill his wife and daugh­ter.​“I don’t think con­demn­ing peo­ple who murder…

Prosecutors from Middlesex County, New Jersey, have decid­ed to adhere to the wish­es of the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly and will not seek the death penal­ty against Dwayne Carreker of New Brunswick at his retri­al. They will instead seek a sen­tence of life in prison.​“The vic­tim’s moth­er has said she is more inter­est­ed in jus­tice and clo­sure than she is with the death penal­ty,” said First Assistant Prosecutor William Lamb. Lamb not­ed that his office con­sid­ered the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly’s…

A recent inves­ti­ga­tion of California’s death penal­ty by the Associated Press found that the geo­graph­ic loca­tion of a crime plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in whether a defen­dant receives the death penal­ty. California has the nation’s largest death row. A dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly high num­ber of inmates are from places such as Kern, Riverside, and Shasta Counties, where pros­e­cu­tors have voiced strong sup­port for the death penal­ty and jurors have been more like­ly to support the…

After con­sult­ing with the fam­i­ly of the mur­der vic­tim, Maryland pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed not to seek the death penal­ty against Kenneth Collins dur­ing a recent resen­tenc­ing hear­ing. Collins’ death sen­tence was over­turned because of an inad­e­quate defense at his orig­inial tri­al. Margaret Breeden, the vic­tim’s wid­ow, not­ed that seek­ing the death penal­ty for Collins would result in years of ago­niz­ing appeals and that her fam­i­ly is​“tired of reliv­ing the mem­o­ries of his…