Publications & Testimony

The United States Supreme Court has vacat­ed the con­vic­tion of a Native American death-row pris­on­er in Oklahoma, giv­ing dra­mat­ic effect to a sweep­ing new deci­sion that affirmed the sov­er­eign­ty of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation over trib­al lands that span the eastern half…

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to step in to resolve fes­ter­ing dis­putes about the scope of the pro­tec­tions its pri­or rul­ings afford to intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled death-row pris­on­ers. On July 2, 2020, the Court denied peti­tions to review three such cas­es, allow­ing death sen­tences in Alabama and Tennessee to stand despite the appli­ca­tion of uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly restric­tive stan­dards in assess­ing a prisoner’s…

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (pic­tured), the​“Golden State Killer,” whom pros­e­cu­tors had one year ear­li­er held out as a​“poster child for the death penal­ty,” has plead­ed guilty to 13 counts each of mur­der and rape in exchange for multiple…

Former Pennsylvania death-row pris­on­er Kareem Johnson has been exon­er­at­ed, thir­teen years after being wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death by a Philadelphia jury. On July 1, 2020, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas com­plet­ed his exon­er­a­tion, for­mal­ly enter­ing an order dis­miss­ing all charges against him in his cap­i­tal case. On May 19, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had barred his repros­e­cu­tion because of…

New death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions were at his­toric lows in the first half of 2020, the Death Penalty Information Center report­ed in its 2020 Mid-Year Review. The report, released July 2, attrib­uted the record-low num­bers to the com­bined effects of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic and a con­tin­u­ing broad nation­al decline in the use of…

Four California death-row pris­on­ers are dead and more than 210 have been infect­ed in a coro­n­avirus out­break that news reports say is​“tear­ing through” the nation’s…

NEWS (7/​2/​20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court denied relief to death-row pris­on­er Leroy Pooler, apply­ing two recent deci­sions that retroac­tive­ly rescind­ed case prece­dent that could have overturned his…

In the June 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Henderson Hill (pic­tured), Senior Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project, speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about North Carolina​’s Racial Justice Act. Hill, who has spent decades as a pub­lic defend­er, cap­i­tal defense attor­ney, and civ­il rights advo­cate, is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ing North Carolina death-row…

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a chal­lenge to the fed­er­al exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, remov­ing a poten­tial major obsta­cle to the Department of Justice​’s (DOJ) plan to resume fed­er­al exe­cu­tions after a 17-year hia­tus. The deci­sion leaves in place an April 2020 rul­ing by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that lift­ed an injunc­tion that had halt­ed fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. The Department has sched­uled four executions in…

NEWS (6/​26/​20) — California: A California tri­al judge has accept­ed the January 29 rec­om­men­da­tion by a Tulare County jury to sen­tence Hernan Rodriguez to death. The death sen­tence is the 12^th DPIC is aware of so far in 2020, and only the sec­ond since mid-March, when the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic sus­pend­ed most court pro­ceed­ings in capital…