Entries tagged with “NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund”

Jan 28, 2026

LDF Amicus Brief Challenges Racialized ​“Warrior Gene” in Capital Case

On January 20, 2026, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) filed an ami­cus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in sup­port of Amos Wells, a Black man in Texas who was sen­tenced to death in 2016 after a tri­al marked by racial bias and harm­ful stereo­types. The brief urges the Court to grant cer­tio­rari to address the con­tin­u­ing harm caused by the false stereo­type that Black men are inher­ent­ly vio­lent. Central to Mr. Wells’ death sen­tence at tri­al was tes­ti­mo­ny about *monoamine oxidase…

Death Row

Death Row Overview

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May 22, 2023

Death Row USA Summer 2022 Report: Death-Row Population Continues Long-Term Decline

The num­ber of peo­ple sen­tenced to death or fac­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a death sen­tence in pend­ing cap­i­tal retri­al or resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings con­tin­ued its more than two-decade decline in the third quar­ter of last year, accord­ing to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) Summer 2022 quar­ter­ly cen­sus of death rows across the…

Death Row

Death Row Overview

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Mar 14, 2022

Winter 2022 Death Row USA: State Death Rows Drop Below 2,400 For First Time Since 1990

The num­ber of peo­ple sen­tenced to death or fac­ing con­tin­u­ing jeop­ardy of exe­cu­tion in pend­ing cap­i­tal retri­al or resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings in U.S. states has dropped below 2,400 for the first time since 1990, a Death Penalty Information Center analy­sis of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF)…

Death Row

Death Row Overview

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Feb 09, 2022

Death Row USA Fall 2021 Report: Death-Row Population Continues Long-Term Decline

The num­ber of peo­ple sen­tenced to death or fac­ing con­tin­u­ing jeop­ardy of exe­cu­tion in pend­ing cap­i­tal retri­al or resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings con­tin­ued its more than two-decade decline in the third quar­ter of 2021, accord­ing to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) Fall 2021 quar­ter­ly cen­sus of death rows across the…

Death Row

Death Row Overview

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Dec 29, 2021

Death Row USA Summer 2021 Report: Fewest Death-Sentenced Prisoners in Three Decades Face Continuing Jeopardy of Execution

Fewer peo­ple were on death rows across the United States as of July 1, 2021 or faced con­tin­u­ing jeop­ardy of exe­cu­tion in pend­ing cap­i­tal retri­al or resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings than at any oth­er time in more than three decades, accord­ing to data com­piled by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and ana­lyzed by the Death Penalty Information…

Death Row

Death Row Overview

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Sep 01, 2021

NAACP Legal Defense Fund: U.S. Death Row Falls to Lowest Level in Nearly Three Decades

The num­ber of peo­ple on death row or fac­ing pos­si­ble cap­i­tal resen­tenc­ing in the United States has fall­en to its low­est lev­el in near­ly three decades, accord­ing to a DPIC analy­sis of the lat­est death-row data com­piled by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund…

State & Federal Info

Federal Death Penalty

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Feb 09, 2021

More Than 80 Civil Rights and Advocacy Organizations Urge President Biden to End Federal Executions

A coali­tion of 82 civ­il rights and advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions have called on President Joe Biden to hon­or his cam­paign promise of​“ensur­ing equal­i­ty, equi­ty, and jus­tice in our crim­i­nal legal sys­tem” by tak­ing exec­u­tive action to end fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. The groups, led by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, asked Biden to com­mute the sen­tences of every­one on fed­er­al death row, dis­man­tle the federal death…

Death Row

Dec 23, 2020

COVID-19’s Impact on Death-Row Population Reflected in Fall 2020 Death Row USA Report

Fueled by at least 16 COVID-19 deaths and a record-low num­ber of new death sen­tences caused by the can­ce­la­tion or post­pone­ment of cap­i­tal tri­als, the pop­u­la­tion of U.S. death row dipped 3.4% in the year span­ning October 2019 through September 2020, accord­ing to the lat­est quar­ter­ly death-row cen­sus by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund…

Death Row

Death Row Overview

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Aug 11, 2020

Spring 2020 Death Row Report Documents Continuing Erosion of Death Row

The slow but steady ero­sion of U.S. death row con­tin­ued in the first quar­ter of 2020, data from the lat­est quar­ter­ly death-row cen­sus by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) has revealed. The Spring 2020 edi­tion of Death Row USA (DRUSA), released August 10, reports that 2,603 peo­ple were on death row or fac­ing resen­tenc­ing as of April 1, 2020. That marked a decline of 17 since the January 1, 2020 report and a 2.6% drop from the 2,673 LDF…

Issues

Religion

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jul 10, 2020

Op-Eds Highlight Disparities in Federal Death Penalty, as 1,000 Faith Leaders and the European Union Urge Justice Department to Halt Executions

As the sched­uled July 13, 2020 date for the first fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in 17 years approach­es, faith lead­ers, diplo­mats, and legal experts have asked the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to call them off. 1,000 faith lead­ers from across the coun­try have urged President Trump and Attorney General Barr to halt the exe­cu­tions. They are joined by the European Union, which on July 10 also issued a state­ment strong­ly oppos­ing the resump­tion of federal executions.