Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Judge John Gleeson, a promi­nent fed­er­al judge in New York, recent­ly crit­i­cized U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft for reg­u­lar­ly over­rul­ing local pros­e­cu­tors by direct­ing them to seek the death penal­ty though they have rec­om­mend­ed against it. In an arti­cle appear­ing in the November 2003 issue of the Virginia Law Review, Gleeson not­ed that the policy ​“under­mines the inves­ti­ga­tion and pros­e­cu­tion of vio­lent crimes.” He stated, ​“For the sake of the death penal­ty in a few more federal cases,…

A decade after Georgia leg­is­la­tors estab­lished the sen­tenc­ing option of life in prison with­out parole, the num­ber of Georgia defen­dants sen­tenced to death has dropped from an annu­al aver­age of 10 to 4 or few­er each year. The decline is the result of jurors opt­ing to sen­tence defen­dants to life with­out parole and plea bar­gains in cap­i­tal cas­es. District Attorney J. Tom Morgan not­ed that life with­out parole is in effect a death sentence: ​“It takes a lit­tle bit longer, but it is more certain…

Jurors in Virginia sen­tenced juve­nile offend­er Lee Boyd Malvo to life in prison with­out parole after find­ing him guilty of mur­der­ing Linda Franklin, who was one of 10 vic­tims killed dur­ing a series of shoot­ings in October 2002. Malvo was 17 at the time of the crime. Attorney General John Ashcroft had cit­ed Virginia’s abil­i­ty to impose ​“the ulti­mate sanc­tion” in send­ing Malvo and his men­tor, John Muhammad, to Virginia for pros­e­cu­tion. Virginia is one of only 21 states that allow the execution…

A recent Baltimore Sun edi­to­r­i­al crit­i­cized state lead­ers for fail­ing to respond to a series of stud­ies show­ing that race plays a dis­turb­ing role in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Maryland. The paper not­ed that a study con­duct­ed by University of Maryland Professor Raymond Paternoster agreed with four oth­er reviews that all revealed sim­i­lar find­ings regard­ing race and the death penal­ty in Maryland. The paper…

Harris County District Attorney Joseph S. Owmby, who helped pros­e­cute Andrea Yates for cap­i­tal mur­der, recent­ly told a gath­er­ing of 200 Houston area men­tal health and law enforce­ment pro­fes­sion­als that had Yates received more hos­pi­tal treat­ment for her post­par­tum depres­sion, she prob­a­bly would­n’t have mur­dered her chil­dren. Owmby not­ed that Yates lost her last chance for recov­ery when she was released from a hos­pi­tal in League City while she was still dan­ger­ous­ly delu­sion­al. He said that what…

A new poll con­duct­ed by ABC News revealed that only 37% of the pub­lic sup­ports the death penal­ty for Lee Boyd Malvo, who was recent­ly con­vict­ed of mur­der in Virginia. Malvo was 17 at the time of a series of shoot­ings in the Washington, DC area. 52% of respon­dents pre­ferred a sen­tence of life with­out parole for Malvo. Even stronger oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty for juve­niles in gen­er­al was revealed in the same poll: only 21% were in favor of the death penal­ty for juve­niles, ver­sus the 62%…

On December 17, 2003, Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation released a report regard­ing the per­spec­tives of fam­i­ly mem­bers on the juve­nile death penalty: ​“I Don’t Want Another Kid to Die.” The report opens a win­dow into mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies strug­gles with the death penal­ty in gen­er­al, and more specif­i­cal­ly, how the issue changes when the defen­dant is a juve­nile. Read their Press Release. Read the Report (in PDF…

The Chicago City Council finance com­mit­tee quick­ly approved a $2.2 mil­lion wrong­ful con­vic­tion set­tle­ment for for­mer death row inmate Ronald Jones. ​“I think it is a good deal for the city,” said Chicago Alderman William Beavers, indi­cat­ing that he and oth­er alder­men breathed a sigh of relief that the city will get off so cheap­ly in its set­tle­ment with Jones, who was coerced into a con­fes­sion to a 1985 rape and mur­der that he did not com­mit. Jones spent 14 years on Illinois’s death row before…

After 16 years on death row, Darnell Williams was 3 days from exe­cu­tion when then Governor Frank O’Bannon issued a reprieve to allow the genet­ic test­ing of droplets of blood found on Williams’ shorts after the shoot­ing. Recently released test results sup­port Williams’ claim that he was­n’t present when a Gary, Indiana cou­ple was fatal­ly shot 17 years ago. Thomas Vanes, the pros­e­cu­tor at Williams’ 1986 tri­al, now says that Williams should not be exe­cut­ed. He said, ​“I agree now that this is not…