Publications & Testimony

Seventy-nine-year-old James Frazier (pictured) is Ohio’s oldest death-row prisoner. He has dementia, he cannot walk, and he requires the assistance of aides to complete daily tasks. Because of his special medical needs, he is incarcerated at the Franklin Medical Center, rather than on Ohio’s death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. Ohio is scheduled to execute him on October 20, 2021. An April 19, 2020 story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer highlights Franklin’s case and the growing…

Jerry Givens (pictured), who performed 62 executions during his time as a Virginia corrections officer, but later became an activist against the death penalty, died April 13, 2020 of COVID-19. He was 67 years old. During his 17 years (1982 – 1999) as a member of Virginia’s execution team, the commonwealth performed more executions than any other state except Texas. Though he swore an oath not to tell even his family about his role as executioner until he left his corrections position, Givens…

The Tennessee Supreme Court has stayed the June 4, 2020 execution of death-row prisoner Oscar Franklin Smith (pictured) and rescheduled his execution for February 4, 2021. The order, issued on April 17, 2020, granted a stay request filed by Smith’s lawyers, who had sought a postponement on the grounds that, because of the coronavirus pandemic, they had lost ​“critical time” for investigation in the case. In a March 18 Motion for Stay of Execution Due to COVID-19 Pandemic and an April 8…

A federal district court judge has approved a settlement of a class action challenge to the conditions of confinement on Pennsylvania’s death row that officially ends the state’s policy of mandatory incarceration of death-row prisoners in permanent solitary confinement. The court approval comes nearly five months after the Department of Corrections agreed to a tentative change to the conditions of incarceration. In a 14-page Memorandum and Order, Judge John E. Jones III of the United States…

Beginning April 15, 2020, two television series — one a new program from Netflix and the other new episodes of a returning series from CNN — will highlight stories of wrongful convictions, including some death-penalty cases. The new Netflix documentary series, The Innocence Files, will debut on April 15, with its first episode featuring the case of Texas death-row exoneree Alfred DeWayne Brown. The fifth season of CNN’s series, Death Row Stories, will premiere on April 19 with an episode that…

In the April 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann (pictured) speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about Colorado’s repeal of capital punishment. McCann was elected DA in 2016, as part of a nationwide wave of reform-oriented prosecutors. Both as prosecutor and in her eight years in the Colorado legislature, McCann has advocated for broad criminal justice reforms, including the abolition of the death penalty. In her…

NEWS (4/​14/​20) — Ohio: Citing the continuing unavailability of lethal-injection drugs to carry out executions in the state, Governor Mike DeWine has issued reprieves postponing the executions of three more Ohio death-row prisoners. Romell Broom, John Hanna, and Douglas Coley had been scheduled for execution on June 17, July 16, and August 12, 2020, respectively. Their executions were rescheduled for March 16, May 18, and July 20, 2022. In a news release, the Governor’s office said DeWine…

NEWS (4/​14/​20) — Saudi Arabia: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has carried out its 800^th execution under the five-year reign of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, according to reports by the human rights groups European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) and Reprieve. The groups say the execution rate is nearly double the rate in the five years preceding Salman’s assumption of leadership in the Kingdom in 2015. From 2009 to 2014, Saudi Arabia carried out a total of 423 executions. The 185…

NEWS (4/​13/​20) — Colorado: Prosecutors in Colorado Springs have dropped the death penalty in their murder case against Marco Garcia-Bravo in the shooting death of two high school students, the last remaining capital prosecution in Colorado since the state abolished the death penalty on March 23. Parroting language used by Adams County prosecutors when they dropped the death penalty against Dreion Dearing on March 30 in the state’s other pending capital prosecution, 4^th Judicial District…

As hospitals throughout the country face shortages of crucial medications needed to treat patients with COVID-19, a group of leading anesthesiologists, pharmacists and medical academics is asking corrections officials in death-penalty states to turn over stockpiles of their execution drugs to hospitals so they can be used for therapeutic purposes. In an open letter from nine prominent public health experts released April 10, 2020, the medical experts explain that the sedatives and paralytics…