Publications & Testimony

Items: 2241 — 2250


Dec 31, 2016

NEW VOICES: Regretting Execution, Murder Victim’s Family Urges Governor to Commute Missouri’s Death Row

When Missouri exe­cut­ed Jeff Ferguson in 2014 for the rape and mur­der of Kelli Hall, her father said the Hall fam­i­ly believed the myth that Ferguson’s exe­cu­tion would close our emo­tion­al wounds.” At that time, Jim Hall told reporters It’s over, thank God.” But, he now says, it was­n’t. In an op-ed in the Columbia Daily Tribune, Mr. Hall writes that his fam­i­ly has come to deeply regret [Ferguson’s] exe­cu­tion” and…

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Dec 29, 2016

First-Degree Murder Charges Dropped Against Two Former Pennsylvania Death Row Prisoners With Innocence Claims

On December 22, 2016, Pennsylvania pros­e­cu­tors dropped first-degree mur­der charges against two for­mer Pennsylvania death row pris­on­ers who have assert­ed their inno­cence for decades. In court­rooms 100 miles apart, Tyrone Moore and James Dennis entered no-con­test pleas to charges of third-degree mur­der, avoid­ing retri­als on the charges that had ini­tial­ly sent the men to death row and paving the way for their…

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Dec 27, 2016

United Nations Overwhelmingly Adopts Resolution Calling for Global Moratorium on the Death Penalty

The United Nations General Assembly vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly on December 20 to adopt a res­o­lu­tion co-spon­sored by 89 coun­tries urg­ing a world­wide mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. 117 nations vot­ed in sup­port of the world body’s sixth res­o­lu­tion on the sub­ject, equal­ing the record num­ber of coun­tries who sup­port­ed a UN mora­to­ri­um res­o­lu­tion in 2014. 40 mem­ber nations, includ­ing the United States, vot­ed against the mea­sure, while 31 abstained. The res­o­lu­tion also called upon all…

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Dec 23, 2016

REPORT: Two-Thirds of Oregon’s Death Row Have Mental Impairments, History of Severe Trauma, or Were Under 21 at Offense

Most of the pris­on­ers on Oregons death row suf­fer from sig­nif­i­cant men­tal impair­ments, accord­ing a study released on December 20, 2016 by the Fair Punishment Project at Harvard University. The Project’s analy­sis of case records, media reports, and opin­ions of Oregon legal experts found that two-thirds of the 35 peo­ple on the state’s death row pos­sess signs of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness or intel­lec­tu­al impair­ment, endured dev­as­tat­ing­ly severe childhood trauma,…

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Dec 22, 2016

Florida Supreme Court: More Than 200 Prisoners Unconstitutionally Sentenced to Death May Get New Sentencing Hearing

More than 200 Florida death row pris­on­ers may have their death sen­tences over­turned, while more than 150 oth­ers who may have been uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly sen­tenced to death will not, as a result of two lengthy opin­ions issued by the Florida Supreme Court on December 22. The rul­ings in the cas­es of Asay v. State and Mosley v. State would enti­tle death row pris­on­ers whose uncon­sti­tu­tion­al death sen­tences became final” in or after 2002 to have…

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Dec 21, 2016

DPIC Releases Year End Report: Historic Declines in Death Penalty Use Continue

Death sen­tences, exe­cu­tions, and pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty con­tin­ued their his­toric declines in 2016, accord­ing to DPIC’s annu­al report, The Death Penalty in 2016: Year End Report,” released on December 21. The 30 death sen­tences imposed this year are the fewest in the mod­ern era of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the U.S. — since the Supreme Court declared all exist­ing death penal­ty statutes uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1972 — and declined 39% from 2015’s already 40-year low. Just 20

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Dec 20, 2016

Federal Jury Awards Illinois Death Row Exoneree $22 Million in Damages

A fed­er­al jury award­ed $22 mil­lion in dam­ages to Nathson Fields (pic­tured), who was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed of a gang-relat­ed mur­der and sen­tenced to death in 1986. Fields was exon­er­at­ed in 2009. The jury found that two Chicago police detec­tives vio­lat­ed Fields’ civ­il rights by hid­ing crit­i­cal evi­dence that sug­gest­ed he did not com­mit the crime of which he was con­vict­ed. For many years, the Chicago police depart­ment main­tained a prac­tice of keep­ing secret street files” on…

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Dec 19, 2016

Directed to Reconsider its Death Penalty Statute, Alabama Appeals Court Upholds Constitutionality of 3 Death Sentences

Directed by the U.S. Supreme Court to recon­sid­er its rul­ings uphold­ing the death sen­tences imposed upon four Alabama defen­dants, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed three of the death sen­tences on December 16. The state court ruled that the death sen­tences imposed upon Ronnie Kirksey, Corey Wimbley, and Ryan Gerald Russell do not vio­late the Supreme Court’s January 16, 2016 decision in…

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Dec 16, 2016

Delaware Supreme Court Decision Paves Way to Clear State’s Death Row

On December 15, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in Powell v. State that death-row pris­on­er Derrick Powell will get the ben­e­fit of its August 2016 deci­sion in Rauf v. State declar­ing Delaware’s death sen­tenc­ing statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The court direct­ed that Powell be resen­tenced to life with­out parole, in a rul­ing that also paves the way for resen­tenc­ing Delaware’s twelve oth­er death row prisoners to…

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