Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Four hours after Alabama was sched­uled to exe­cute death-row pris­on­er Willie B. Smith III on February 11, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a fed­er­al appeals court injunc­tion bar­ring the exe­cu­tion from going for­ward unless the state per­mit­ted Smith’s pas­tor to be present to pro­vide him reli­gious com­fort in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber. Alabama then announced that it was calling off…

A coali­tion of 82 civ­il rights and advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions have called on President Joe Biden to hon­or his cam­paign promise of​“ensur­ing equal­i­ty, equi­ty, and jus­tice in our crim­i­nal legal sys­tem” by tak­ing exec­u­tive action to end fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. The groups, led by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, asked Biden to com­mute the sen­tences of every­one on fed­er­al death row, dis­man­tle the federal death…

The Harris County District Attorney​’s office has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to over­turn the death sen­tence imposed on Raymond Riles (pic­tured), the nation’s longest-serving death-row…

With two his­toric votes, the Virginia General Assembly has moved the com­mon­wealth to the cusp of becom­ing the first Southern state to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, approv­ing sep­a­rate bills that would end the state’s death penal­ty and resen­tence the two men on death row to life with­out parole. On February 3, 2021, the Virginia State Senate vot­ed along par­ty lines, 21 – 17, in favor of abol­ish­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Two days lat­er, three Republicans joined…

Lawyers for the daugh­ter of a man exe­cut­ed by Tennessee have asked a state appeals court to per­mit DNA test­ing that could prove…

The Virginia Senate moved the com­mon­wealth one step clos­er to becom­ing the first Southern state to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, vot­ing 21 – 17 on February 3, 2021 to approve a bill that would end the state’s death penal­ty and resen­tence the two men on death row to life…

The Federal Bureau of Prisons spent near­ly $4.7 mil­lion dol­lars on the first five exe­cu­tions car­ried out by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion in July and August 2020, accord­ing to redact­ed gov­ern­ment finan­cial records recent­ly obtained by the…

A major­i­ty of Ohioans sup­port repeal of the state’s death penal­ty, a new­ly released statewide…

Despite being under fed­er­al court order to under­take pro­tec­tive mea­sures against the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) took no action after being alert­ed that two reporters who had been media wit­ness­es to the fed­er­al exe­cu­tions at the Federal Correctional Complex at Terre Haute, Indiana in January 2021 had contracted…

From July 14, 2020 through January 16, 2021, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment exe­cut­ed thir­teen pris­on­ers. It was the most con­sec­u­tive exe­cu­tions by a sin­gle juris­dic­tion since the U.S. death penal­ty resumed in the 1970s and the longest peri­od of time in which an exe­cu­tion spree by any gov­ern­ment went unabat­ed while no other jurisdiction…