Entries tagged with “Larry Roberts”
Death Row
Feb 11, 2025
State Spotlight: California Death Row Shrinks Sharply in 2024, Driven by the Resentencing of At Least 45 People to Life Sentences or Less
When California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on executions in 2019, he said that the state’s“death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure.” He explained that the death penalty“has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, Black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation…[while providing] no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent.” In 2024, California courts agreed that execution was not the…
Issues
Aug 13, 2024
New Analysis: Innocent Death-Sentenced Prisoners Wait Longer than Ever for Exoneration
On July 1, after waiting 41 years for his name to be cleared, Larry Roberts became the 200th person exonerated from death row. A new Death Penalty Information Center analysis finds that Mr. Roberts’ experience illustrates a troubling trend: for innocent death-sentenced prisoners, the length of time between wrongful conviction and exoneration is increasing. In the past twenty years, the average length of time before exoneration has roughly tripled, and 2024 has the…
Research
Jul 26, 2024
Analysis: Why Executive Officials Grant Clemency
In a new analysis, the Death Penalty Information Center has found that executive officials most often cite disproportionate sentencing, possible innocence, and mitigation factors such as intellectual disability or mental illness as reasons to grant clemency in capital cases. Ineffective defense lawyering and official misconduct are also common factors in clemency grants. While present in fewer cases, support for clemency from the victim’s family or…
Issues
Jul 03, 2024
The 200th Exoneration Underscores Critical Flaws in the U.S. Criminal Legal System; Other Innocent Prisoners Remain on Death Row
Left to Right: Assistant Federal Public Defender Brian Abbington, Larry Roberts, and CHU Investigator…
Issues
Jul 02, 2024
Larry Roberts Becomes the 200th Person Exonerated from Death Row
Larry Roberts, the 200th exoneree, was wrongfully convicted in 1983 for the murder of a fellow prisoner and prison guard at the California Medical Center in Vacaville, California. The only witnesses to these stabbings were fellow prisoners who testified against Mr. Roberts; he was sentenced to death for both killings. Years later, the California Supreme Court overturned Mr. Roberts’ conviction for the death of the prison guard but left his death sentence in place. After…