Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A group of 8^th graders from North Andover Middle School in North Andover, Massachusetts are championing efforts to posthumously pardon a young woman who was sentenced to death for witchcraft in 1693 during the height of the Salem witchcraft hysteria. The students in Carrie LaPierre’s civics class spent a year researching the case of Elizabeth Johnson Jr., who they discovered was the only remaining person wrongfully convicted of witchcraft in the colony who had not been exonerated. They…

A California trial court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by conservative media commentator John V. Lacy that had challenged the constitutionality of the March 2019 executive order by Governor Gavin Newsom (pictured) declaring a moratorium on executions in the state. In orders issued on August 31, 2021, the Sacramento Superior Court denied Lacy’s motion to strike down Newsom’s moratorium for allegedly exceeding his authority under the California constitution and granted Newsom’s motion to dismiss…

The number of people on death row or facing possible capital resentencing in the United States has fallen to its lowest level in nearly three decades, according to a DPIC analysis of the latest death-row data compiled by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). LDF’s Winter 2021 edition of its quarterly Death Row USA (DRUSA) census, released on August 31, 2021, reports that 2,528 people were imprisoned on state, federal, or military death rows in the United States as of January 1…

In the third episode of the Discussions with DPIC podcast’s Rethinking Public Safety series, Miriam Krinsky (pictured) speaks with DPIC Senior Director of Research and Special Projects Ngozi Ndulue about her experiences as a former federal prosecutor and the Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP), a network of elected prosecutors devoted to promoting fairness, equity, compassion, and fiscal responsibility in the criminal legal system. Krinsky and Ndulue explore a range of issues…

Three members of the jury who voted to convict and sentence Toforest Johnson (pictured, center) to death in his capital trial in Birmingham in 1998 are now urging Alabama’s courts to grant him a new trial. Having learned of significant prosecutorial misconduct during Johnson’s trial for the murder of a sheriff’s deputy, including the revelation that a key witness lied to collect reward money, Jay Crane, Matthew Young, and Monique Hicks all say that Johnson’s conviction should be overturned. “I…

The California Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of a death-row prisoner who was permitted to waive counsel and represent himself despite a mental health expert’s finding that he was too mentally ill even to stand trial. On August 23, 2021, the appeals court granted a new trial to Edward M. Wycoff in the 2006 murders of his sister and brother-in-law. In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Martin Jenkins (pictured), the court held that Wycoff’s trial was unconstitutionally tainted…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has affirmed Dylann Roof’s federal-court convictions and death sentences for the racially motivated murders of nine parishioners in an historic Charleston, South Carolina African-American church in 2017. In a 149-page decision issued on August 25, 2021 by a special panel of judges assembled from outside the circuit, the federal appeals court unanimously rejected nineteen issues raised by Roof’s appellate lawyers. Those issues include matters…

In the 1970s, the United States Supreme Court famously declared that “death is different” from all other punishments and, as such, required the provision of heightened procedural safeguards to ensure that its application was not cruel or unusual. But in a new article, Death Penalty Exceptionalism and Administrative Law, University of Richmond law professor and capital punishment scholar Corinna B. Lain (pictured) argues that in the context of administrative law, the doctrine has been “turn[ed]…

In a confusing about-face that has angered human rights activists, the Malawian Supreme Court of Appeal has retreated from a prior decision of the court that had appeared to have abolished the African nation’s death penalty. On August 18, 2021, seven justices of the high court issued a “perfected” judgment in the case of Khoviwa v. The Republic declaring that the original opinion, authored by since-retired Justice of Appeal Dunstain Mwaungulu (pictured) and read from the bench in his absence on…

A Nevada death-row prisoner has asked for a clemency hearing to present new evidence of significant brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder caused by military service and childhood trauma. On August 10, 2021, lawyers for Zane Floyd (pictured, right) filed an application for clemency with the Nevada Board of Pardons requesting that Floyd’s life be spared. “Clemency is an act of mercy,” said Brad Levenson, Floyd’s attorney. “If a death case does not qualify for consideration, what does?”