Publications & Testimony
Items: 931 — 940
Apr 29, 2021
DPIC’s New Podcast Series, Rethinking Public Safety, Debuts with a Discussion with Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro
As a state legislator in 1981, Jim Petro (pictured) supported a bill to reinstate Ohio’s death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s previous capital punishment statute. Later, as Ohio Attorney General, he supervised 19 executions in the state. Since then, his views have changed and he recently co-authored an op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch urging the legislature to repeal the state’s death…
Read MoreApr 28, 2021
Supreme Court Declines to Review Death Penalty Case in Which Georgia Defendant was Forced to Reenact the Murder While in Shackles
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a Georgia death-penalty case in which the prosecution was permitted to make a visibly shackled defendant reenact the murder in front of the jury, while his defense counsel raised no…
Read MoreApr 27, 2021
Tennessee Legislature Passes Bill to Provide Death-Row Prisoners Court Review of Intellectual Disability Claims
The Tennessee state legislature has overwhelmingly approved and sent to the governor a bill that creates a procedure by which death-row prisoners can obtain judicial review of claims that they are ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual disability. On April 26, 2021, HB 1062 passed the Tennessee House by a vote of 89 – 4 and the Senate by a vote of…
Read MoreApr 26, 2021
Texas Revises Execution Protocol to Permit Spiritual Advisers in Death Chamber
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has amended its execution protocol to permit a condemned prisoner to be accompanied in the execution chamber by a spiritual adviser of his or her own…
Read MoreApr 26, 2021
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of April 19, 2021
NEWS (4/21 – 4/23/21) — Texas: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled against Texas death-row prisoners in three separate capital appeals.
Read MoreApr 23, 2021
Alabama Suspends African American Judge Who Declared Death Penalty Unconstitutional, Alleging Abuse of Power and Anti-Death Penalty Bias
The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission has suspended an African-American judge who declared the state’s death penalty statute unconstitutional, accusing her of unprofessional conduct and anti-death penalty…
Read MoreApr 22, 2021
Commentary: Ending Capital Punishment is a Core Component of Reconceptualizing ‘Public Safety’ in an Era of Punitive Excess
As the United States undergoes an awakening on racial injustices in policing and the judicial process, commentators and public policy advocates are calling for a reimagining of public safety and criminal punishment that rejects the reflexive imposition of harsh punishment as an instrument of social…
Read MoreApr 21, 2021
Amnesty International Global Report: Executions Worldwide Fewest in a Decade, Death Sentences Fall More Than One Third in 2020
Fewer executions were carried out across the world in 2020 than at any time in a decade and new death sentences fell by more than a third, according to a new report by Amnesty International. It was the third consecutive year in which confirmed executions reached a 10-year low, and the sixth year in a row in which confirmed executions declined, Amnesty…
Read MoreApr 20, 2021
Florida Bars From Medical Practice Psychiatrist Who Repeatedly Testified that Severely Mentally Ill Death-Row Prisoners Were ‘Malingering’
A controversial psychiatrist who repeatedly testified that severely mentally ill death-row prisoners were faking their symptoms and were competent to be executed has been barred from medical practice in…
Read MoreApr 19, 2021
Texas Appeals Court Overturns Death Sentence of Nation’s Longest Serving Death-Row Prisoner
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has overturned the death sentence of the nation’s longest-serving death-row prisoner, 45 years after he was first sent to death…
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