Entries by Leah Roemer
News
Feb 11, 2025
State Spotlight: California Death Row Shrinks Sharply in 2024, Driven by the Resentencing of At Least 45 People to Life Sentences or Less
When California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on executions in 2019, he said that the state’s“death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure.” He explained that the death penalty“has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, Black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation…[while providing] no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent.” In 2024, California courts agreed that execution was not the…
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Jan 22, 2025
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Only Woman on Oklahoma Death Row, Confirming Admission of Prejudicial, Gendered Evidence Can Violate Due Process Rights
At Brenda Andrew’s 2004 trial in Oklahoma for the murder of her husband, the prosecutor called witnesses to testify about her“provocative” clothing and her previous sexual relationships, and questioned“whether a good mother would dress or behave” the way she had. Jurors heard Ms. Andrew called a“hoochie” and a“slut puppy.” In his closing argument, the prosecutor opened a suitcase and showed the jury Ms. Andrew’s underwear, asking,“The grieving widow…
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Jan 14, 2025
New Analysis: Marion Bowman’s Scheduled Execution in South Carolina Raises Concerns About Youth Culpability, Fits Pattern of Disproportionate Executions of Young Black Men
When Marion Bowman was arrested at age 20 for the murder of Kandee Martin, society did not consider him mature enough to drink alcohol, rent a car, or enter a casino. Yet he was deemed old enough to be sentenced to death. Now 44, he has spent over half his life on South Carolina’s death row and is scheduled for execution on January 31. “Retribution is not proportional if the law’s most severe penalty is imposed on one whose culpability or blameworthiness is diminished, to a substantial degree…
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Jan 07, 2025
Aaron Gunches Asks for February Execution Date, Raising New Concerns About Arizona’s Lethal Injection Protocol and the Execution of “Volunteers”
No jury has ever learned about Aaron Gunches’ life history and experiences, nothing about his childhood, mental and physical health, or trauma — the mitigation evidence that the Supreme Court has said is essential to a constitutional death sentence. Arizona courts judged Mr. Gunches competent to represent himself in two separate trials for the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s husband, and he presented no defense in either proceeding. Jurors twice sentenced him…
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Dec 17, 2024
Indiana’s First Execution in 15 Years Raises Serious Constitutional Concerns
If Joseph Corcoran had been sentenced to death just a few miles to the east, across the border in Ohio instead of in Fort Wayne, Indiana, it’s likely that a court would have barred his execution. Ohio law prevents a person with a serious mental illness (SMI) at the time of their crime, defined as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or delusional disorder, from being put to death. Mr. Corcoran, who has a long history of paranoid…
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Dec 05, 2024
Hidden Casualties: Executions Harm Mental Health of Prison Staff
In March, Oklahoma officials asked the state’s high court to increase the time between executions from 60 to 90 days, citing the“lasting trauma” and“psychological toll” of executions on corrections officers. But Judge Gary Lumpkin dismissed these concerns, telling officials that prison staff needed to“suck it up” and“man up.” A few weeks later, Brian Dorsey was executed in Missouri after the governor ignored the pleas of an unprecedented 72 corrections…
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Nov 22, 2024
New Resource: In Era of Secrecy, States Increasingly Restrict Media Access to Executions
On December 18, Joseph Corcoran is scheduled to be the first person executed by Indiana officials in 15 years. For the first time, the state will use a single drug, pentobarbital, which comes from an unknown source and has been known to cause prisoners“excruciating” pain during executions. But no media witnesses will be present to relay what happens to the public. Indiana is an outlier in its policy decision to completely exclude the press from witnessing…
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Nov 07, 2024
Idaho: Federal Judge Grants Stay of Execution for Thomas Creech; Defense Asks Court to Bar Death Penalty for Bryan Kohberger
After surviving a botched execution attempt in February, Thomas Creech was scheduled for execution a second time on November 13 in Idaho. On Wednesday, November 6, a federal district court issued a stay of execution to allow more time to consider Mr. Creech’s legal claims. The Idaho Department of Corrections announced that “execution preparations have been suspended” and the execution warrant will…
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Oct 24, 2024
New Analysis: Death-Sentenced Prisoners “Volunteer” for Execution at Ten Times Civilian Suicide Rate
Derrick Dearman first told his mother that he wanted to die when he was four years old. On October 17, he was executed by the state of Alabama, becoming the 20th person executed in the United States this year and the 165th in the modern era to“volunteer” for death. A new analysis by the Death Penalty Information Center shows that despite falling rates of death sentences, executions, and public support for the death penalty, the number of death-sentenced prisoners…
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Oct 18, 2024
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Professor Steve Vladeck on the Supreme Court’s Death Penalty Shift
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Executive Director Robin Maher speaks with Steve Vladeck, a Georgetown law professor and expert on the Supreme Court. Professor Vladeck is the author of The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic, released in 2023, as well as the weekly newsletter One First, which breaks down the Court’s rulings and history. Professor Vladeck explains why the Court’s treatment of…
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