Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Oct 122020

Supreme Court Native Sovereignty Decision Continues to Reverberate Through Oklahoma’s Death Penalty

A recent U.S. Supreme Court deci­sion that affirmed the sov­er­eign­ty of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation over trib­al lands that span much of the east­ern half of Oklahoma con­tin­ues to rever­ber­ate through the state’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem as pris­on­ers sen­tenced for mur­ders com­mit­ted by or against Native Americans on trib­al lands chal­lenge the state’s author­i­ty to have prosecuted their…

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News 

Oct 092020

Senate Confirmation Hearings Set to Begin for Amy Coney Barrett to Fill Supreme Court Seat Left Vacant by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death

The U.S. Senate is prepar­ing to move for­ward on October 12, 2020 with con­fir­ma­tion hear­ings on the con­tro­ver­sial nom­i­na­tion of con­ser­v­a­tive fed­er­al appeals judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court vacan­cy caused by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If con­firmed, Judge Barrett would shift the cen­ter of the Court far­ther to the right, solid­i­fy­ing the hold of a con­ser­v­a­tive major­i­ty that has become increas­ing­ly hos­tile to con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenges to death sentences and…

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News 

Oct 022020

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Reverses Course, Takes A Second Foreign National with Intellectual Disability Off Death Row

For sec­ond time in eight days, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has reversed course after ini­tial­ly reject­ing a death-row prisoner’s claim of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty and has resen­tenced the pris­on­er to life. The deci­sions, both involv­ing for­eign nation­als and both sup­port­ed by local pros­e­cu­tors, marked the sixth and sev­enth time that Texas courts have vacat­ed death sen­tences imposed on intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled cap­i­tal defen­dants since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017

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News 

Oct 012020

New Podcast: Native American Rights Fund Lawyer Joel Williams on Tribal Sovereignty and the U.S. Death Penalty

In the September 30, 2020 episode of the Discussions With DPIC pod­cast, Native American Rights Fund senior staff attor­ney Joel Williams joins Death Penalty Information Center exec­u­tive direc­tor Robert Dunham for a con­ver­sa­tion about trib­al sov­er­eign­ty, the death penal­ty, and the his­toric U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing in McGirt v.

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