Publications & Testimony

Items: 141 — 150

Jul 26, 2024

Analysis: Why Executive Officials Grant Clemency

In a new analy­sis, the Death Penalty Information Center has found that exec­u­tive offi­cials most often cite dis­pro­por­tion­ate sen­tenc­ing, pos­si­ble inno­cence, and mit­i­ga­tion fac­tors such as intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty or men­tal ill­ness as rea­sons to grant clemen­cy in cap­i­tal cas­es. Ineffective defense lawyer­ing and offi­cial mis­con­duct are also com­mon fac­tors in clemen­cy grants. While present in few­er cas­es, sup­port for clemen­cy from the victim’s family or…

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Jul 22, 2024

Missouri Attorney General Opposes Opportunity for Marcellus Williams to Establish His Innocence Before Execution Date

On July 18, 2024, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the state Supreme Court to block a sched­uled evi­den­tiary hear­ing for Marcellus Williams and deny him the oppor­tu­ni­ty to estab­lish his inno­cence before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on September 24, 2024. The Circuit Court of St. Louis County sched­uled the August 21st hear­ing to assess the​“clear and con­vinc­ing” evi­dence of Mr. Williams’ actu­al inno­cence that prompt­ed St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to…

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Jul 17, 2024

United States Supreme Court Issues Rare Last-Minute Stay for Ruben Gutierrez

The state of Texas was sched­uled to exe­cute Ruben Gutierrez (pic­tured) on July 16, 2024; how­ev­er, the United States Supreme Court issued a rare, last-minute stay of exe­cu­tion just 20 min­utes before he was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion. This is the first stay of exe­cu­tion grant­ed by the Supreme Court since it issued a stay for Richard Glossip in 2023. In a peti­tion filed with the Supreme Court, attor­neys for Mr. Gutierrez asked the Court to intervene because…

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Jul 16, 2024

Alabama and Texas are Set to Execute Prisoners This Week, Despite Serious Constitutional Questions in their Cases

On Thursday, July 18, 2024, the state of Alabama is sched­uled to exe­cute Keith Gavin (pic­tured left) by lethal injec­tion, despite court find­ings that his tri­al coun­sel was inef­fec­tive. Mr. Gavin was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the shoot­ing death of a deliv­ery dri­ver. A non-unan­i­­mous jury vot­ed 10 – 2 in favor of the death penal­ty for Mr. Gavin, and the tri­al court accept­ed the jury’s sen­tenc­ing out­come. During the penal­ty phase of tri­al, Mr. Gavin’s…

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Jul 12, 2024

Articles of Interest: Op-ed says new Tennessee law that expands the death penalty to child rape ​“creates more problems than it solves.”

A July 7, 2024 op-ed in the Tennessean argues that the recent enac­tion of SB 1834, which makes the rape of a child pun­ish­able by death,​“does more harm than good.” Sarah McGee (pic­tured), coor­di­na­tor for Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, explains that dur­ing her work as a vic­­tim-wit­­ness coor­di­na­tor for Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, pro­ba­tion offi­cer, and assis­tant pub­lic defend­er, she ​“learned that when child ser­vice providers and…

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