Publications & Testimony
Items: 151 — 160
Mar 15, 2024
Women’s History Month Profile Series: Sarah Belal, Executive Director of Justice Project Pakistan
This month, DPIC celebrates Women’s History Month with weekly profiles of notable women whose work has been significant in the modern death penalty era. The second entry in this series is Sarah Belal, founder and executive director of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a nonprofit organization in Lahore,…
Read MoreMar 14, 2024
North Carolina Racial Justice Act Hearing Concludes in Hasson Bacote Case
On Friday, March 8, 2024 a Johnston County trial court concluded a historic hearing regarding the claims of Hasson Bacote, a death-sentenced prisoner in North Carolina, that racial discrimination in jury selection played a role in his 2009 capital sentencing. The case, which is being reviewed pursuant to North Carolina’s 2009 Racial Justice Act (RJA), could have implications for more than 100 other death row prisoners who have pending claims under the…
Read MoreMar 13, 2024
Tennessee Death Row Prisoner’s New Appeal Alleges Innocence, Prosecutorial Misconduct, and Ineffective Counsel
Jessie Dotson, a man sentenced to death for killing six people in 2008 in the Binghampton neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee, has filed a petition for a writ of a habeas corpus asking a judge to vacate his conviction and death sentence. His petition alleges that he is innocent, that police coerced him to falsely confess, and that a number of prosecutorial and defense errors occurred at trial. Mr. Dotson has been on death row since 2008, when he was sentenced to death for the murders of four…
Read MoreMar 12, 2024
Three Largest Nitrogen Gas Manufacturers in the U.S. Prohibit Products from Use in Executions
As more states consider nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, three of the largest manufacturers in the U.S. have barred their products intended for life-saving measures from use in…
Read MoreMar 11, 2024
OP-ED: Journalist Recalls Witnessing an Execution and Describes the Importance of Media Witnesses
In May 1990, Jonathan Eig, then a reporter for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, witnessed the electric-chair-execution of Dalton Prejean at Angola State Penitentiary for the 1977 murder of a Louisiana state trooper. Mr. Eig watched Mr. Prejean’s execution through an observation window, and reported seeing “his chest heave, his fists clench and his right wrist twist outward. A spark and a puff of smoke shot from the electrode attached to his left leg.” In the years following the execution, Mr.
Read MoreMar 08, 2024
Women’s History Month Profile: U.S. District Court Judge Natasha Merle
This month, DPIC celebrates Women’s History Month with weekly profiles of notable women whose work was significant in the modern death penalty era. The first entry in this series is U.S. District Court Judge Natasha…
Read MoreMar 07, 2024
Georgia Sets March 20 Execution Date for Willie Pye Despite Strong Evidence of Intellectual Disability and Previous Finding of Ineffective Representation by Attorney with History of Racial Bias
The Georgia Attorney General has announced that Willie James Pye, who previously had his death sentence reversed due to his attorney’s failure to investigate his background, only to see the death sentence reinstated on appeal, is set to be executed on March 20. Mr. Pye’s court-appointed trial attorney, Johnny Mostiler, has been accused of ineffective representation or racial bias in at least four cases involving Black defendants and reportedly called one of his own clients a “little n****r.”…
Read MoreMar 06, 2024
Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Afghanistan, China, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United States, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe
In the aftermath of Idaho’s failed execution of Thomas Creech and Texas’ execution of Ivan Cantu on February 28, the European Union released a statement expressing its regret and reiterating its unequivocal opposition to the death penalty.. “[The death penalty] is a violation of the right to life and fails to act as a deterrent to crime. It represents the ultimate punishment that makes miscarriages of justice irreversible,” said the statement. “[W]e are concerned by the fact that the number…
Read MoreMar 05, 2024
Oklahoma Execution Moratorium Bill Unanimously Passes Committee and Makes Its Way to the State-House Floor
On February 28, 2023, the Oklahoma House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee unanimously passed a bill that would pause all pending executions and prohibit new death sentences while an independent task force reviews current Oklahoma death penalty procedures. House Bill 3138, also known as the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, was introduced by Republican Representative Kevin McDugle and would create a five-member Death Penalty Reform Task Force to “study and report on the progress of…
Read MoreMar 01, 2024
Death-Sentenced Philadelphia Prisoner Daniel Gwynn Exonerated After Nearly 30 Years
On February 27, 2024, Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara A. McDermott approved a motion from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to dismiss first-degree murder, arson, and aggravated assault charges against 54-year-old death-sentenced prisoner Daniel Gwynn. Mr. Gwynn is the 197th person exonerated after being sentenced to death since 1973, according to DPIC’s Innocence Database. “Today is mostly for us a day of tremendous relief and sadness, a guy like him, an innocent soul spent that…
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