Race

Jan 15, 2021

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

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

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

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. …

Mental Illness

Jan 11, 2021

Ohio has banned the death penal­ty for defen­dants who were severe­ly men­tal­ly ill at the time of the offense. On January 9, 2021, Governor Mike DeWine (pic­tured) signed into law House Bill 136, which pro­hibits impos…

Lethal Injection

Jan 08, 2021

The fed­er­al government’s his­tor­i­cal­ly aber­rant exe­cu­tion spree has been fraught with irreg­u­lar­i­ties and ​“has tram­pled over an array of bar­ri­ers, both legal and prac­ti­cal,” accord­ing to an inves­tiga­tive report by the non-prof­it news organization, 

Deterrence

Jan 07, 2021

Calling the death penal­ty ​“inef­fec­tive, racial­ly based, hyp­o­crit­i­cal and inhu­mane,” St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell (pic­tured) has renewed his pledge to nev­er autho­rize a cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion. In a December 23, 20…

Innocence

Jan 06, 2021

Witness to Innocence, the nation­al orga­ni­za­tion of U.S. death-row exonerees, has released a series of short videos under the tag “#ImLivingProof,” fea­tur­ing the sto­ries of men and women who had been wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and senten…

Federal Death Penalty

Jan 05, 2021

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has removed a senior prison offi­cial from his posi­tion as a death-row coun­selor in the wake of charges that he used an anony­mous Twitter account to troll a death-penal­ty activist and to mock fed…

Upcoming Executions

Jan 04, 2021

One week before the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment intends to put three pris­on­ers to death, two of the sched­uled exe­cu­tions remain in doubt after rul­ings by fed­er­al courts in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. The sched­uled January 12, 2021 exe­cu­tion of Lisa Mon…