Publications & Testimony
Items: 21 — 30
Sep 04, 2024
Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Somalia
The Aprajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, which outlines the death penalty for rape resulting in the victim’s death or “vegetative state,” was adopted by the West Bengal government in eastern India on September 3, 2024. Under international law, it is unlawful to prescribe the death penalty for a crime not meeting the “most serious” crime (e.g., intentional murder)…
Read MoreSep 03, 2024
Articles of Interest: The New York Times Editorial Board Argues United States “Does Not Need the Death Penalty”
In an August 31, 2024, editorial from The New York Times, the newspaper’s editorial board writes that capital punishment is “immoral, unconstitutional and useless as a deterrent to crime,” and asserts that President Joseph Biden should follow through with his campaign pledge to end the federal death penalty. The Times believes “it would be an appropriate and humane finale to his presidency for Mr. Biden to fulfill that pledge and try to eliminate the death penalty for federal…
Read MoreAug 30, 2024
Articles of Interest: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board Argues that Death Penalty Will Not Bring Justice for Leon Katz
In a new editorial, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues that the death penalty is “never the justice that is called for” and achieves “nothing of value except the satisfaction of vengeance.” The Post-Gazette describes the death of 6‑week-old Leon Katz in June as an “almost unfathomable” crime and a “violation of primordial innocence” — but argues that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s decision to seek the death penalty against Nicole Virzi, Leon’s alleged…
Read MoreAug 29, 2024
Death Penalty Census Now Complete Through January 1, 2024
The Death Penalty Information Center has updated its Death Penalty Census database to include new death sentences, exonerations, resentences, removals from death row, and other status changes up to January 1, 2024. DPI’s Census is a unique, comprehensive collection of every death sentence imposed since 1972, with information on the county and state of prosecution; the year and outcome of each sentence; and the name, race, and gender of the defendant. It contains information on 9,857 death…
Read MoreAug 28, 2024
Closing Arguments in Hasson Bacote’s North Carolina Racial Justice Act Hearing Conclude; Results Could Impact More than 100 People on State’s Death Row
On August 21, 2024, attorneys presented closing arguments in the case of North Carolina v. Hasson Bacote, a landmark lawsuit brought under the state’s Racial Justice Act (RJA), the findings of which could impact the sentences of more than 100 individuals on North Carolina’s death row. Hasson Bacote, a Black man sentenced to death in 2009, first filed a lawsuit in 2010, arguing that racial bias influenced the jury selection in his case and all other death penalty cases throughout North…
Read MoreAug 27, 2024
68 Human Rights Organizations Express Support for Iranian Prisoners’ “No Death Penalty Tuesdays” Abolition Movement Entering Its 31st Week
Amidst a continued post-election execution surge and increased suppression of peaceful prison protests, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and 67 human rights organizations across four continents expressed their support for the ongoing “No Death Penalty Tuesdays” weekly hunger strike movement currently spanning 17 Iranian prisons across the country. The August 27, 2024 statement, published a day after the first public hanging of the year, “call[ed] for an immediate halt on all executions…
Read MoreAug 26, 2024
South Carolina Supreme Court Sets First Execution Date in More Than 13 Years
On August 23, 2024, the South Carolina Department of Corrections announced that the state supreme court has set a September 20, 2024, execution date for Freddie Owens, which would be the first execution in South Carolina since 2011. Mr. Owens was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for the killing of a convenience store clerk in Greenville, South Carolina and he was later convicted in the murder of a cellmate. In a July 31st ruling, the South Carolina Supreme Court decided that the…
Read MoreAug 23, 2024
Student Scholars: Moral Disengagement Theory and Support for Capital Punishment
In this new series, the Death Penalty Information Center will occasionally highlight student works on capital punishment, including master’s and PhD theses, and law review…
Read MoreAug 22, 2024
Missouri Supreme Court Blocks Marcellus Williams from Entering Plea to Avoid Execution After State Reveals Mishandled Evidence
On August 21, 2024, Marcellus Williams (pictured), who is scheduled to be executed on September 24, 2024, agreed to enter an Alford plea in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. This agreement would have ensured that Mr. Williams, who has always maintained his innocence in the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, would not be executed. But hours after Judge Bruce F. Hilton accepted the plea agreement, Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the Missouri Supreme Court to block the deal,…
Read MoreAug 21, 2024
City in Oklahoma Agrees to Pay $7.15 Million to Glynn Simmons, Exonerated After 48 Years in Prison
On August 14, the Associated Press reported that the city of Edmond, Oklahoma agreed to pay $7.15 million to Glynn Simmons, the longest-incarcerated innocent person in the United States. Mr. Simmons spent 48 years in prison, including two years on death row, before he was released last July. Mr. Simmons was officially exonerated by a judge in December 2023 and received $175,000 from the state of Oklahoma, the maximum amount allowed for wrongful convictions under state law. Officials…
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