News & Developments
News
Mar 27, 2024
Federal Appellate Court Ruling Requires Investigation into Jury Bias in Boston Marathon Case
On March 21, 2024, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the judge who presided over Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s (pictured) trial to investigate his defense attorneys’ claims of juror bias and determine whether Mr. Tsarnaev’s death sentence should be overturned because of this bias. In a 2 – 1 decision, the 1st Circuit declined defense attorney requests to overturn Mr. Tsarnaev’s death sentence for his participation in the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing but found that the trial judge “fell short of what was constitutionally required” in his investigation of potential jury…
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Mar 19, 2024
The 15th Anniversary of Death Penalty Repeal in New Mexico: Conversation with Cathy Ansheles and Viki Harrison
This week marks the 15th anniversary of the repeal of the death penalty in New Mexico. On March 18th, 2009, Governor Bill Richardson signed the repeal act (HB2085), ending the death penalty in the state. The bill came into force on July 1st, 2009. New Mexico followed New Jersey to become the second state in the 21st Century to end capital punishment through legislative means.
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Jan 16, 2024
U.S. Department of Justice Authorizes First Federal Death Penalty Case for Payton Gendron, Teen Who Killed Ten Black People in 2022
On January 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will seek a death sentence for Payton Gendron, the then-18-year-old who killed 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York in 2022. This is the first capital case authorized by Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Biden Administration’s DOJ. The announcement came twenty months after the mass shooting and eleven months after Mr. Gendron pled guilty to state first degree murder charges and was sentenced to multiple sentences of life without parole. Although New…
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Jan 09, 2024
Federally Death-Sentenced Prisoners Allege that New Conditions of Confinement Contributed to Recent Prisoner Death
According to statements from several federal death row prisoners, the new “adverse conditions” on death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, contributed to the December 1, 2023 death of Nasih Khalil Ra’id. Fellow prisoners say Mr. Ra’id, whose given name at birth was Odell Corley, died by suicide. Prison officials have not released the report from Mr. Ra’id’s autopsy or commented on the cause of his death.
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Nov 20, 2023
U.S. Army Overturns the Convictions of 110 Black Soldiers in the 1917 Camp Logan Rebellion to Redress the Unfair Trials that Resulted in the Execution of 19
On November 13, 2023, officials announced that the U.S. Army had overturned the convictions of 110 Black soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, who were charged with mutiny in connection with the racial violence that occurred during the 1917 Camp Logan rebellion. Nineteen Black soldiers were hanged following the court-martial ruling on December 11, 1917, which was the largest execution of military soldiers in history. In her statement, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth stated, “…these soldiers were wrongly treated because of their race and were not given…
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Nov 10, 2023
A Veterans Day Review: Uneven Progress Understanding the Role of Military Service in Capital Crimes
In 2015, DPIC’s Battle Scars report brought worldwide attention to the issue of military veterans on death row. DPIC found approximately 300 veterans incarcerated under a sentence of death, representing at least 10% of death row, and many more who had been executed. Since that report, research and understanding about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), substance use disorders, and mental illness among veterans has only grown. A 2023 survey of members of the Wounded Warrior Project found that 76% of servicemembers who incurred a mental or physical…
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Oct 23, 2023
In New Podcast, Rush to Kill Documents 6‑Month Federal Execution Spree Under President Donald Trump’s Administration
In July 2020, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, under the direction of Attorney General Bill Barr, resumed federal executions for the first time in 17 years. Over the course of the following six months, 13 federal death row prisoners were executed. During those six months, the WFIU News team was granted the opportunity to report on and witness all 13 executions at United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute in Indiana. In the time since these executions, the WFIU News team collected documents and interviewed those connected to every federal execution…
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Oct 06, 2023
New Details Emerge Surrounding Federal Executions Under Trump Administration
A recent article by Associated Press journalist Michael Tarm reports new details about the thirteen federal executions that took place in 2019 – 2020, including last-minute clemency appeals for death-sentenced prisoners like Brandon Bernard. Mr. Tarm witnessed ten of the executions and spoke with a number of individuals who were involved in the process for his story. As a result of these interviews, he says that the fuller picture that has emerged shows that “officials cut corners and relied on a pliant Supreme Court to get the executions done, even…
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Oct 03, 2023
Analysis Shows Supreme Court’s Changing View of Death Penalty Cases
A recent analysis by Bloomberg Law concluded that death-sentenced prisoners have fewer avenues to relief at the Supreme Court than ever before. Bloomberg identified 270 emergency requests to stay executions since 2013 and found that the Court agreed to block an execution just 11 times. Since 2020, when the Court shifted to a 6 – 3 conservative majority following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Court has granted just two stays of execution. One, for John Henry Ramirez, challenged not the execution…
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Sep 28, 2023
Guantanamo Bay Judge Rules 9/11 Capital Defendant Mentally Incompetent to Stand Trial
On September 21, 2023, a military judge in Guantanamo Bay ruled that Ramzi Bin al Shibh, one of five defendants in the 9/11 case for whom the death penalty is being sought, is mentally incompetent to stand trial. Mr. Bin al Shibh, who has been detained for 21 years, will remain in custody at Guantanamo as authorities attempt to treat the post-traumatic stress disorder caused when he was forced to undergo “enhanced interrogations” by the U.S. government.
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Sep 07, 2023
9/11 Victims’ Family Members, Members of Congress Urge Biden Administration to Abandon Plea Negotiations with Guantanamo Detainees
Family members of some of the victims of 9/11 have asked the Biden Administration to abandon current plea negotiations with Guantánamo detainees that would remove the possibility of death sentences for the men accused of planning the 9/11 terror attacks. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants have been held for more than twenty years, first at CIA black sites where they were subject to “enhanced interrogation techniques” and then at Guantánamo, but none has proceeded to trial. The request came after family members were notified by the Pentagon on August…
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