U.S. Supreme Court stayed the Alabama execution scheduled for night of Jan. 31.

Watch the Independent Film Channel’s piece on the U.S. Supreme Court case regarding lethal injection, Baze v. Rees. The video also includes a discussion of death penalty trends with DPIC’s Richard Dieter and an interview with former Texas death row chaplain Carroll Pickett.

2007: DPIC’s Year End Report

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2007 REPORT

Executions for the year: 42 - lowest in 13 years
% Executions in Texas: 62%
% Executions in South: 86%

Death sentences: 110 projected - lowest in 30 years
Exonerations: 3 - in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and North Carolina
Commutations: 11 - including 1 in Texas and 8 in New Jersey
New States without the death penalty: New Jersey and New York - bringing total to 14 states

National moratorium on executions effectively in place as Supreme Court considers lethal injection protocols.

New Voices:
“I’ve lived through the state’s process of trying to kill [a murderer], and I can say without hesitation that it is not worth the anguish that it puts survivors through.” - Jim O’Brien of New Jersey, whose daughter was murdered in 1982

“[W]e believe the state of Texas should abandon the death penalty – because we cannot reconcile the fact that it is both imperfect and irreversible. - Editorial, The Dallas Morning News

Read the 2007 Year End Report, released Dec. 18, 2007.