Publications & Testimony

Items: 71 — 80


Aug 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…

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Aug 29, 2024

Death Penalty Census Now Complete Through January 12024

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…

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Aug 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…

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Aug 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…

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Aug 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…

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Aug 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,…

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Aug 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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Aug 20, 2024

New Analysis from The Appeal Finds Anti-LGBTQ+ Bias Affects the Fate of Defendants in Death Penalty Cases

An analy­sis from The Appeal of more than two dozen cas­es in which LGBTQ+ defen­dants faced the death penal­ty found evi­dence that anti-LGBTQ+ bias affect­ed case out­comes. After an exam­i­na­tion of media reports, aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nals, and legal doc­u­ments, The Appeal deter­mined that these cas­es are like­ly a sig­nif­i­cant under­count of the num­ber of LGBTQ+ peo­ple sen­tenced to death. These cap­i­tal cas­es illus­trate the ingrained anti-LGBTQ+ bias endem­ic to the U.S. legal sys­tem — from sodomy…

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Aug 19, 2024

Kansas City Star Op-Ed Describes the Death Penalty as the Ultimate Failed Big-Government Program” and Calls for Abolition

In an August 14, 2024 op-ed in The Kansas City Star, Carolyn McGinn, a Kansas State Senate Republican rep­re­sent­ing District 31, and Kelson Bohnet, a cap­i­tal pub­lic defend­er and board mem­ber for the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, argue that the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem has failed, empha­siz­ing its cost­li­ness, lack of deter­rent effect, and inher­ent risk of irrepara­ble harm,” and call for abo­li­tion dur­ing the next legislative…

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