News & Developments
Race
Jan 21, 2021
New Podcast: ‘Martinsville 7’ Advocates Seek Posthumous Pardon for 7 Black Men Executed by Virginia After All-White Jury Convicted Them of Raping a White Woman
In February 1951, Virginia executed seven Black men on charges they had raped a white woman two years earlier. The “Martinsville 7” — Francis DeSales Grayson, Frank Hairst…
Clemency
Jan 20, 2021
Democratic Legislators Introduce Death Penalty Repeal Bills, Urge President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences
Democratic members of the U.S. House and Senate have called on incoming President Joe Biden (pictured) to take quick action on his campaign pledge to end the federal death penalty. Legislators introduced three bills to abolish the…
Victims' Families
Jan 19, 2021
The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure
The notion that death sentences and executions provide closure to victims’ families is a myth, says Susan A. Bandes, Centennial Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at DePaul University law school. In a January…
Jan 19, 2021
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Weeks of January 4 and 11, 2021
NEWS (1/13 – 16⁄21) — Federal: The federal government has executed Lisa Montgomery, Corey Johnson, and Dustin Higgs. The U.S. Supreme Court and the federal circuit courts of appeals collectively vacated 17 separate preliminary injun…
Intellectual Disability
Jan 18, 2021
‘This is Not Justice’ — Federal Execution Spree Ends with Planned Execution of African-American on Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday
An historically aberrant six-month federal execution spree came to a close after midnight on January 16, 2021 when an African-American man who was scheduled to die on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday was put to death…
Race
Jan 18, 2021
MLK Day 2021: The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Death Penalty
On Martin Luther King Day, DPIC looks at the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s views on capital punishment. In a November 1957 article in Ebony, Dr. King was asked “Do you think God approves the death penalty for crimes like rape…
Race
Jan 15, 2021
Virginia Legislators Poised to Attempt Death Penalty Repeal as Governor Sponsors Abolition Bill
Legislators in the Virginia House and Senate are poised to attempt a repeal of its capital punishment statute, as Governor Ralph Northam (pictured) announced that he would sponsor a bill to end the commonwealth’s …
Intellectual Disability
Jan 14, 2021
Federal Government Executes Corey Johnson, Who was Likely Intellectually Disabled, Without Any Judicial Review of His Eligibility for the Death Penalty
For the second time in less than five weeks, the federal government has executed a death-row prisoner who likely was intellectually disabled, without affording him judicial review to determine his eligibility for the death penalty. Corey J…
Mental Illness
Jan 13, 2021
Supreme Court Vacates Stays of Execution, Paves Way for Late-Night Execution of Lisa Montgomery
After a series of rulings by the United States Supreme Court summarily vacated two stays of execution and denied attempts to reinstate two others, the federal government executed death row prisoner Lisa Montgomery…
Innocence
Jan 12, 2021
Convicted by False Forensic Evidence, Eddie Lee Howard, Jr. Exonerated From Mississippi Death Row After 26 Years
Eddie Lee Howard, Jr., convicted and sentenced to death based on the false forensic testimony of a since disgraced prosecution expert witness, has been exonerated after nearly 26 years on Mississippi’s death row. …
