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Entries tagged with “Moratorium”

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Race

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Federal Death Penalty

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Feb 25, 2021

Attorney General Nominee Merrick Garland Expresses Concerns About Death Penalty in Senate Confirmation Hearing

Expressing con­cerns about wrong­ful con­vic­tions, racial­ly dis­parate impact, and arbi­trari­ness, Attorney General nom­i­nee Merrick Garland (pic­tured) told the Senate Judiciary Committee dur­ing his con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing on February 22, 2021 that the death penal­ty has giv­en him ​“great pause.” Garland said that he ​“expect[s] that the President will be giv­ing direc­tion” on the fed­er­al death-penal­ty pol­i­cy, and that it was ​“not at all unlike­ly” that the Department of Justice would…

Executions

Executions Overview

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Sep 01, 2021

California Court Rejects Challenge to Execution Moratorium

A California tri­al court has dis­missed a law­suit filed by con­ser­v­a­tive media com­men­ta­tor John V. Lacy that had chal­lenged the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the March 2019 exec­u­tive order by Governor Gavin Newsom (pic­tured) declar­ing a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in the…

Executions

Executions Overview

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jul 06, 2021

Department of Justice Formally Pauses Federal Executions to Review Trump Death-Penalty Regulations

In a mem­o­ran­dum that left to Congress the task of address­ing sys­temic ques­tions of arbi­trari­ness, racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, and wrong­ful con­vic­tions affect­ing the admin­is­tra­tion of the fed­er­al death penal­ty, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (pic­tured) issued a direc­tive for­mal­ly paus­ing fed­er­al exe­cu­tions while the Department of Justice (DOJ) under­takes a review of exec­u­tive branch poli­cies adopt­ed in the last two years of the Trump…

Executions

Lethal Injection

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Federal Death Penalty

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Dec 21, 2021

House Committee Asks Justice Department Its Plans on Resuming Executions, Purchasing Execution Drugs

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has sent a let­ter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland seek­ing infor­ma­tion on the Department of Justice’s death penal­ty prac­tices and poli­cies, includ­ing whether DOJ plans to resume fed­er­al exe­cu­tions and to obtain new sup­plies of the drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal to car­ry out additional…

Facts & Research

Public Opinion

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Dec 06, 2022

Midterm Elections: Moratorium Supporters, Reform Prosecutors Post Gains Despite Massive Campaign Efforts to Tie Reformers to Surge in Violent Crime

In a year that fea­tured mas­sive cam­paign adver­tis­ing attempt­ing to por­tray legal reform­ers as respon­si­ble for increas­es in vio­lent crime, can­di­dates com­mit­ted to crim­i­nal legal reform or who promised to con­tin­ue statewide mora­to­ria on exe­cu­tions post­ed key elec­tion wins in the 2022 midterm elec­tions. Defying a pre-elec­tion nar­ra­tive fore­cast­ing a back­lash against pro­gres­sive pros­e­cu­tors and con­ven­tion­al wis­dom that fear of crime dri­ves polit­i­cal out­comes, reform pros­e­cu­tors were re-elect­ed to…

Facts & Research

Clemency

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Oct 15, 2020

New DPIC Podcast: Former Illinois Governor George Ryan on Commuting Death Row and His Journey from Death-Penalty Supporter to Abolitionist

In the October 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, for­mer Illinois Governor George Ryan speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about the events that per­suad­ed him to com­mute the death sen­tences of all 167 death-row pris­on­ers in Illinois in 2003. Ryan and Dunham delve into the Governor’s jour­ney from death-penal­ty sup­port­er as an Illinois state leg­is­la­tor to death-penal­ty oppo­nent as Illinois gov­er­nor, and dis­cuss his new…

Apr 01, 2021

Newsom Appoints Legislator Who Co-Authored Constitutional Amendment Against Death Penalty to be California’s Attorney General

California Governor Gavin Newsom has appoint­ed Rob Bonta (pic­tured), a state leg­is­la­tor who co-authored a pro­posed state con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment to ban cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as California’s attor­ney gen­er­al. Bonta fills the vacan­cy cre­at­ed by President Joe Biden’s appoint­ment of for­mer state attor­ney gen­er­al Xavier Becerra as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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Race

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Federal Death Penalty

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Aug 12, 2021

Senators, Members of Congress Urge Attorney General to Stop Seeking Death Sentences

Seventeen U.S. Senators and four Members of Congress who are lead­ing the effort to abol­ish the fed­er­al death penal­ty have called on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (pic­tured) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop seek­ing the death penal­ty in pend­ing and future fed­er­al murder…

Facts & Research

Clemency

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jun 16, 2021

White House Reasserts Opposition to Death Penalty, Stresses Independence of Justice Department as DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Death Sentence in Boston Marathon Bombing

As the Department of Justice filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court seek­ing rein­state­ment of the death sen­tence imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bomb­ing, the White House press office issued a state­ment stress­ing the inde­pen­dence of the Department over the cas­es it is pur­su­ing and assert­ing that President Joe Biden has not backed away from his cam­paign promise to work to end the fed­er­al death…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Sentencing Alternatives

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Recent Legislative Activity

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Jul 21, 2020

Wyoming Governor ​“Very Seriously” Considering Death Penalty Moratorium

Calling cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment a ​“lux­u­ry” that the state can no longer afford, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon (pic­tured) told leg­is­la­tors that he is ​“very seri­ous­ly” con­sid­er­ing impos­ing a mora­to­ri­um on the state’s rarely-used death…