Publications & Testimony
Items: 1001 — 1010
Feb 17, 2021
Divided Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Death Sentence for Texas Mother of Child Who May Have Died in Accidental Fall
Continuing an unparalleled pattern of rulings adverse to Texas death-row prisoners, a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reinstated the conviction and death sentence of a mother convicted of killing her two-year-old daughter in what, the defense has argued, was actually an accidental…
Read MoreFeb 17, 2021
Exonerations Discovered During DPIC Death Penalty Census Research
In the course of researching the outcome of every death sentence since 1973 — more than 9,700 death sentences nationwide — DPIC identified 12 cases not previously included on the innocence list in which people who had been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death were later exonerated. Read more about the cases…
Read MoreFeb 16, 2021
BOOKS: “Let The Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty”
In his new book, Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, journalist Maurice Chammah presages the death of America’s capital punishment system. Chammah expertly weaves together systemic issues with individual, humanizing case details to illustrate the efforts of lawyers, organizations, and activists who are challenging the foundations of the system with the goal of abolishing the death penalty. The New York Times called it “a case…
Read MoreFeb 15, 2021
Associated Press Finds Federal Executions Were Likely COVID Superspreader Events
Inadequate testing, resistance to contact tracing, and poor social distancing practices likely made the thirteen federal executions in 2020 – 2021 COVID-19 superspreader events, the Associated Press has concluded. In the ten days after the December 10, 2020 execution of Brandon Bernard, 70% of prisoners on federal death row and hundreds of others incarcerated in the Terre Haute Correctional Complex where the executions took place tested positive for COVID-19.
Read MoreFeb 15, 2021
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of February 8, 2021
NEWS (2/11/21) — Alabama: In a splintered vote with three conservative justices noting their dissents, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Alabama Attorney General’s application to vacate a federal appeals court injunction that had halted that night’s scheduled execution of Willie B. Smith III unless the state permitted his pastor to be present in the death chamber to provide religious…
Read MoreFeb 12, 2021
Former Pennsylvania Death Row Prisoner Christopher Williams Released From Prison After Being Cleared of Another Murder
Pennsylvania death-row exoneree Christopher Williams (pictured) was released from prison on February 9, 2021, after being exonerated in a second murder case. The second wrongful murder conviction had kept Williams incarcerated after he was cleared of the murder for which he was wrongfully condemned to…
Read MoreFeb 11, 2021
Former Florida Public Defender Who Dismantled Duval County Capital Defense Capabilities Pleads Guilty to Ethics Violations
Former Florida public defender Matt Shirk (pictured), who was defeated for re-election after scandals related to personal misconduct and undermining criminal defense services in one the nation’s most prolific death sentencing counties, faces suspension of his law license after pleading guilty to multiple ethics violations during his time in office. If the plea is approved by the Florida Supreme Court, Shirk will be suspended from practice for six months, and…
Read MoreFeb 10, 2021
Supreme Court Lets Stand Federal Appeals Court Injunction Halting Alabama Execution on Claim of Religious Discrimination
Four hours after Alabama was scheduled to execute death-row prisoner Willie B. Smith III on February 11, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a federal appeals court injunction barring the execution from going forward unless the state permitted Smith’s pastor to be present to provide him religious comfort in the execution chamber. Alabama then announced that it was calling off the…
Read MoreFeb 09, 2021
More Than 80 Civil Rights and Advocacy Organizations Urge President Biden to End Federal Executions
A coalition of 82 civil rights and advocacy organizations have called on President Joe Biden to honor his campaign promise of “ensuring equality, equity, and justice in our criminal legal system” by taking executive action to end federal executions. The groups, led by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, asked Biden to commute the sentences of everyone on federal death row, dismantle the federal death chamber, rescind the federal execution…
Read MoreFeb 08, 2021
Harris County DA Seeks to Vacate Sentence for Nation’s Longest-Serving Death-Row Prisoner
The Harris County District Attorney’s office has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the death sentence imposed on Raymond Riles (pictured), the nation’s longest-serving death-row…
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