Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Jun 07, 2021
California Supreme Court Hears Case That Could Undo Hundreds of State Death Sentences
The California Supreme Court heard oral argument on June 2, 2021 in a capital case whose outcome could affect the fate of hundreds of prisoners on the state’s death row. Supported by friend-of-the-court briefs by California Governor Gavin Newsom and an alliance of progressive California district attorneys, lawyers for death row prisoner Don’te McDaniel argued to the court that California’s capital sentencing scheme is unconstitutional because it fails to…
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Jun 04, 2021
Pew Poll: Support for Death Penalty Declining, But Higher in Internet Polling than Phone Polling
A new poll by the Pew Research Center reports that support for the death penalty is down in the United States but may be higher than previous estimates because some poll respondents are unwilling to admit to a live pollster that they support capital…
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Jun 03, 2021
New Podcast: Rethinking Public Safety, A Conversation with Former Nevada Prison Doctor, Dr. Karen Gedney
In 1989, Nevada prison doctor, Dr. Karen Gedney (pictured) refused a request by state officials to write a prescription for execution drugs, believing that doing so violated her medical oath to do no harm and her duty to provide medical care to prisoners. In the second episode of the Discussions With DPIC podcast’s Rethinking Public Safety series, Dr. Gedney speaks with DPIC Managing Director Anne Holsinger about this and…
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Jun 02, 2021
Arizona Prepares for Executions With Gas Used in Holocaust Death Camps
Arizona reportedly has “refurbished” its gas chamber and has spent more than $2,000 to acquire ingredients to execute prisoners with cyanide gas, the same gas used by the Nazis to murder more than one million men, women, and children during the…
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Jun 01, 2021
California Gov. Gavin Newsom Orders Investigation into Kevin Cooper Capital Murder Conviction
California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered an independent investigation into the case of Kevin Cooper, who has consistently maintained his innocence in the 1983 quadruple-murder for which he was sentenced to death. Newsom’s May 28, 2021 executive order appoints the law firm Morrison and Foerster, LLP as Special Counsel to the California Board of Parole Hearings and directs the firm to “conduct a full review of the trial and appellate records in [Cooper’s]…
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May 28, 2021
In New Round of Racial Justice Act Litigation, North Carolina Judge Orders Prosecutors to Disclose Data on Decades of Jury Strikes
In the first Racial Justice Act case to reach a hearing since the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state legislature’s attempt to retroactively repeal the landmark law, a North Carolina judge has ordered state prosecutors to produce decades of data on jury selection in capital cases. On May 20, 2021, Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons (pictured) granted a request from the legal team representing death-row prisoner Hasson…
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May 27, 2021
Citing Mental Incompetency From Racist Delusions, Appeal Lawyers Argue Trial Court Should Not Have Permitted Dylann Roof to Represent Himself
Lawyers for federal death row prisoner Dylann Roof argued to a federal appeals court that the avowed white supremacist’s convictions and death sentences in his trial for the 2015 murders of nine Black churchgoers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina should be overturned because the judge presiding over his case unconstitutionally permitted Roof to represent himself while mentally…
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May 26, 2021
NEW VOICES: Former Unilever CEO Says Business Leaders Should Take Stand Against Death Penalty
Saying that “the private sector can no longer be a silent bystander in the society it inhabits,” former Unilever CEO Paul Polman, has called on business leaders around the world to take a stand against the death…
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May 25, 2021
California Committee on Revision of Penal Code Recommends Repeal of Death Penalty
A committee created by the California state legislature to study the state’s penal code and propose improvements in the law has recommended that California repeal its death penalty and expeditiously reduce the size of its death…
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May 24, 2021
Citing ‘Inexperience’ and ‘Miscommunication,’ Texas Conducts Execution Without Media Witnesses
In a failure of transparency one legislative leader described as “unfathomable,” the State of Texas put Quintin Jones (pictured) to death on May 19, 2021 without any media witnesses present to observe the execution. It was the first time in the 571 executions conducted by Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its death penalty statute in 1976 that no media witnesses were…
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