Publications & Testimony

Items: 51 — 60


Jan 05, 2024

2023 Legislation Activity

2023 — Proposed leg­is­la­tionStates with bills to abol­ish death penal­ty indi­cat­ed with *Session dates via StateScapeState names link to state leg­isla­tive homepage

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Jan 04, 2024

Utah Judge Clears the Way for Use of the Firing Squad

On December 22, 2023, Judge Coral Sanchez of Utah’s Third Circuit Court dis­missed a law­suit brought by five men on the state’s death row that chal­lenged Utah’s two exe­cu­tion meth­ods and pro­to­cols. Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta, Douglas Carter, and Taberon Honie sought an order vacat­ing Utah’s cur­rent exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols for lethal injec­tion and fir­ing squad and enjoin­ing their future use. The pris­on­ers argue that both meth­ods con­sti­tute cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment under the Eighth Amendment. In her deci­sion to dis­miss their law­suit, Judge Sanchez wrote that the plain­tiffs…

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Jan 03, 2024

Overwhelming Percentage of Florida’s Hurst Resentencing Hearings End in Life Sentences

According to new research by the Death Penalty Information Center, 82% of Florida death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers who com­plet­ed new sen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings under Hurst v. Florida (2016) have been resen­tenced to life in prison with­out parole. Hurst found Florida’s death penal­ty scheme uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, and the Florida Supreme Court sub­se­quent­ly held that new death sen­tences must be unan­i­mous, neces­si­tat­ing new sen­tenc­ing hear­ings. Of the 157 cas­es DPIC pre­vi­ous­ly iden­ti­fied as Hurst-eli­gi­ble — any­one sen­tenced to death by a non-unan­i­mous jury since 2002 — about two-thirds have been resolved and one-third remain. However, in April 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed…

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Jan 02, 2024

NEW STUDY: Research Suggests the Arbitrariness of Facial Features Affects Jurors’ Sentencing Decisions in Death Penalty Cases

A new study from Columbia University researchers indi­cates that jurors’ per­cep­tion of facial fea­tures in white defen­dants affects their sen­tenc­ing deci­sions, much like the bias­es that affect every day social inter­ac­tions and deci­sion mak­ing. Through four exper­i­ments with 1,400 vol­un­teers, the researchers found that when real-world defen­dants have facial fea­tures that appear untrust­wor­thy, they are more like­ly to be sen­tenced to death than life in prison.” Particular facial fea­tures, such as a heavy brow or down-turned lips, are known to cause oth­ers to view an indi­vid­ual as untrust­wor­thy, despite these…

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Dec 21, 2023

Former Death Row Prisoner Craigen Armstrong Pioneers Vital” Mental Illness Treatment Program in L.A. Jail

A new sto­ry by the L.A. Times high­lights for­mer California death row pris­on­er Craigen Armstrong’s instru­men­tal role in build­ing a peer-pris­on­er men­tal health treat­ment pro­gram in the Los Angeles Twin Towers Correctional Facility, an effort which has helped hun­dreds of pris­on­ers with severe men­tal ill­ness. While await­ing retri­al, Mr. Armstrong estab­lished the men­tal health assis­tant” role to sup­port and treat fel­low pris­on­ers, and has devel­oped train­ing mate­ri­als for jails and pris­ons across the coun­try to repli­cate his program’s success. 

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Dec 20, 2023

Batson Relief for Another Mississippi Prisoner Prosecuted by Doug Evans

On December 12, 2023 U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills over­turned Terry Pitchford’s death sen­tence and ordered Mississippi to retry him in 6 months or release him from cus­tody. Judge Mills found that the orig­i­nal tri­al judge failed to allow the defense to prop­er­ly chal­lenge the exclu­sion of Black jurors by now-retired District Attorney Doug Evans, the same pros­e­cu­tor who pros­e­cut­ed Curtis Flowers. This court can­not ignore the notion that Pitchford was seem­ing­ly giv­en no chance to rebut the state’s expla­na­tions and prove pur­pose­ful dis­crim­i­na­tion,” Judge Mills wrote.

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Dec 19, 2023

Noel Montalvo Exonerated Twenty Years After Pennsylvania Sent Him to Death Row

On December 18, Pennsylvania dropped all homi­cide charges against Noel Montalvo, twen­ty years after he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in York County. Mr. Montalvo (pic­tured) pled guilty to one count of tam­per­ing with evi­dence in exchange for release and one year on pro­ba­tion. The Death Penalty Information Center has deter­mined that Mr. Montalvo meets the cri­te­ria for inclu­sion on our exon­er­a­tion list because the charges that placed him on death row have been dismissed. 

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Dec 18, 2023

Florida Prosecutors Seek First Death Sentence Under New Child Sex Abuse Law

On December 14, 2023, Lake County, Florida pros­e­cu­tors announced they are seek­ing the death penal­ty for a man accused of com­mit­ting the sex­u­al bat­tery of a minor under the age of twelve. A state­ment from the office of State Attorney William Gladson said the deci­sion reflects the sever­i­ty of the crime and its impact on the com­mu­ni­ty.” Earlier this year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed leg­is­la­tion that expands death penal­ty eli­gi­bil­i­ty to those con­vict­ed of sex crimes against chil­dren. This is the first case in which Florida pros­e­cu­tors have sought a…

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Dec 15, 2023

Supreme Court Agrees to Second Review of Arizona Death Penalty Case on Arizona’s Request

On Wednesday, December 13, the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed cer­tio­rari in Thornell v. Jones, its first death penal­ty case to be heard at oral argu­ment in the 2023 term. Unlike most death penal­ty cas­es that seek Supreme Court review, the peti­tion­er here is the state of Arizona, which asks the Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s grant of relief for death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Danny Lee Jones (pic­tured). The Ninth Circuit held that Mr. Jones demon­strat­ed inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel at his sen­tenc­ing phase under Strickland v. Washington (1984). So far this…

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Dec 14, 2023

Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Releases its 2023 Year in Review Report

A new report released by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty high­lights Texas’ con­tin­u­ing out­lier prac­tices in the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty. As one of just five states car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions this year, Texas is respon­si­ble for a third of the 24 exe­cu­tions in 2023. Of the eight men exe­cut­ed, six dis­played sig­nif­i­cant intel­lec­tu­al or men­tal health impair­ments, includ­ing brain dam­age, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, and a range of men­tal ill­ness­es. The vast major­i­ty of indi­vid­u­als exe­cut­ed by Texas in 2023 had sig­nif­i­cant men­tal impair­ments. What is even more appalling…

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