Publications & Testimony

Items: 2151 — 2160


May 01, 2017

BOOKS: The Trials of Walter Ogrod” Chronicles Pennsylvania Possible Innocence Case

Walter Ogrod was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Philadelphia in 1996 for the 1988 mur­der of a 4‑year-old girl, whose body was found in a dis­card­ed tele­vi­sion box. Ogrod, who is devel­op­men­tal­ly dis­abled, has long main­tained his inno­cence, but despite sig­nif­i­cant irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the case and amidst alle­ga­tions of offi­cial mis­con­duct, local pros­e­cu­tors have fought efforts to obtain DNA test­ing of the phys­i­cal evi­dence and to inves­ti­gate the role a dis­cred­it­ed prison infor­mant played in…

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Apr 26, 2017

Bipartisan Oklahoma Report Recommends Moratorium on Executions Pending Significant Reforms’

After spend­ing more than a year study­ing Oklahomas cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment prac­tices, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission has unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed that the state extend its cur­rent mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions until sig­nif­i­cant reforms are accom­plished.” The bipar­ti­san com­mis­sion issued its report on April 25, 2017, reach­ing what it char­ac­ter­ized as dis­turb­ing” find­ings that led Commission mem­bers to ques­tion whether the death penal­ty can be…

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Apr 21, 2017

Virginia Governor Commutes Death Sentence of Ivan Teleguz

On April 20, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Ivan Teleguz (pic­tured), whom the Commonwealth had sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 25. Teleguz will now serve a sen­tence of life with­out parole. It was the first death-penal­ty clemen­cy ever issued by Gov. McAuliffe. The offi­cial state­ment released to the media in con­junc­tion with the com­mu­ta­tion out­lined sev­er­al of the fac­tors that influ­enced the Governor’s deci­sion, including the…

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Apr 20, 2017

Florida House Issues Apology for 1949 Lynchings and Wrongful Convictions

In 1949, Norma Padgett, a white 17-year-old, false­ly accused four young black men in Groveland, Florida of kid­nap­ping and rap­ing her. Nearly 70 years lat­er, the state of Florida is apol­o­giz­ing to the fam­i­lies of the Groveland Four,” two of whom were mur­dered and two of whom were wrong­ly sentenced to…

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Apr 19, 2017

Arkansas Prisoners, Asserting Their Innocence, File Requests for DNA Testing

Two Arkansas death-row pris­on­ers who are sched­uled be exe­cut­ed on April 20 have asked the Arkansas courts to stay their exe­cu­tions to per­mit DNA test­ing in their cas­es. Stacey Johnson (pic­tured, l.) and Ledell Lee (pic­tured, r.) both say they did not com­mit the crimes for which they were sen­tenced to death, and both say that DNA test­ing meth­ods not avail­able at the time of their trials could…

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Apr 18, 2017

Rodricus Crawford Becomes 158th Death-Row Exoneree

Caddo Parish, Louisiana pros­e­cu­tors for­mal­ly dropped charges against Rodricus Crawford (pic­tured) on April 17, exon­er­at­ing him in a con­tro­ver­sial death penal­ty case that had attract­ed nation­al atten­tion amid evi­dence of race dis­crim­i­na­tion, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al excess, and actu­al inno­cence. He is the 158th per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row in the United States since…

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