Arbitrariness
,Costs
,Deterrence
,Innocence
,Intellectual Disability
,Mental Illness
,Race
,Representation
,Feb 21, 2022
Calling capital punishment in the U.S. “broken,” 56 elected prosecutors from across the country have issued a joint statement urging systemic changes to end the death penalty nationwide. As an initial step, the prosecutors pledged to not seek the …
Arbitrariness
,Costs
,Race
,New Voices
,Nov 09, 2017
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — the nation’s third largest death-penalty county — has elected as its new district attorney a cand…
Jun 03, 2020
Atlanta is poised to become the latest in a growing number of U.S. cities in which prosecutors have pledged not to seek the death penalty or to use it more sparingly. On May 26, 2020, at a candidate forum hosted by the Georgia Justice Ref…
Innocence
,Jun 15, 2020
Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr has filed an amicus brief supporting the grant of a new trial to Toforest Johnson (pictured, center, with family members), sentenced to death for the murder of an
Arbitrariness
,Race
,Oct 28, 2020
Calling California capital sentencing proceedings “infected by racism,” Governor Gavin Newsom (pictured) has filed a brief in the California Supreme Court supporting a death-row prisoner’s claim that capital punis…
Arbitrariness
,Sep 10, 2021
The California Supreme Court has upheld the state’s death-penalty statute against a constitutional challenge that had the potential to overturn the sentences of hundreds of people on California’s death row. In a unanimous ruling i…
New Voices
,May 31, 2019
Aramis Ayala (pictured), the first African American elected as a state attorney in Florida, will not seek re-election as Orange-Osceola County State Attorney. Citing conflicts with the Florida Sup…
Intellectual Disability
,Upcoming Executions
,May 27, 2022
The fates of two men subject to potentially imminent execution in Texas hang in the balance, as the state’s attorney general and one local prosecutor challenge the discretion of other key officials not to move forward with executi…
New Voices
,Jan 10, 2017
Newly-elected Denver, Colorado District Attorney Beth McCann (pictured), sworn into office on January 10, 2017, has said that her administration will not seek the death penalty. Asked by 9News, Denver’s NBC affili…
Costs
,Deterrence
,Race
,New Voices
,Jan 12, 2022
In the January 2022 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Contra Costa County, California District Attorney Diana Becton (pictured), speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about the rise…
Race
,New Voices
,Mar 23, 2017
The Florida Legislative Black Caucus has joined more than 100 lawyers and legal experts and the parents of murder victim Sade Dixon in urging Governor Rick Scott to rescind his order removing Orange-Osceola County
New Voices
,Mar 17, 2017
Saying that pursuing the death penalty “is not in the best interests of this community or in the best interests of justice,” Orange-Osceola County, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala (pictured) announced on March…
Innocence
,Feb 12, 2021
Pennsylvania death-row exoneree Christopher Williams (pictured) was released from prison on February 9, 2021, after being exonerated in a second murder case. The second wrongful murder conviction had kept Williams incarcerated aft…
Costs
,Deterrence
,Innocence
,Race
,Recent Legislative Activity
,Sep 15, 2021
Four Utah district attorneys, representing counties that comprise 57.5% of the state’s population, have urged the state legislature and Utah Governor Spencer Cox to enact legislation to repeal and replace Utah’s d…
Mental Illness
,Time on Death Row
,Feb 08, 2021
The Harris County District Attorney’s office has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the death sentence imposed on Raymond Riles (pictured), the nation’s longest-serving death-ro…
Public Opinion
,May 20, 2021
In a primary election widely considered a referendum on reform prosecutors, incumbent Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner easily secured a victory against former Philadelphia homicide prosecutor Carlos Vega
Public Opinion
,New Voices
,Aug 08, 2018
In an election viewed as a referendum on racial justice and criminal justice reform, death-penalty opponent Wesley Bell (pictured, left) soundly defeated seven-term incumbent, Robert McCulloch (pictured, right) fo…
Recent Legislative Activity
,Aug 19, 2020
In a political maneuver that further injected issues of race, gender, and political disenfranchisement into local law enforcement policy, Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson has asked state lawmakers to grant Republican sta…
Innocence
,Race
,Clemency
,Nov 24, 2021
More than 42 years after his wrongful capital murder conviction in June 1979, a Missouri judge has set Kevin Strickland (pictured) free. On November 23, 2021, Judge James Welsh granted a…
Deterrence
,Innocence
,Victims' Families
,Recent Legislative Activity
,Sep 08, 2021
Efforts to end the death penalty in Utah edged forward on September 8, 2021 as two Republican legislators revealed plans to introduce legislation to “repeal and replace” the state’s capital punishment law and the prosecuting attor…
Public Opinion
,Nov 04, 2020
Reform prosecutors made further inroads in the American legal system in the November 2020 general election, unseating prosecutors in several of the most prolific death-sentencing counties in the United States and capturing open seats in major Texa…
Public Opinion
,Dec 06, 2022
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 p…
Oct 21, 2021
A St. Louis Circuit Court judge has denied St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner’s (pictured) July 2021 request for special prosecutors to handle three death-eligible homicide cases in her jurisdiction. On October 15, 2…
New Voices
,Jul 19, 2017
A new generation of prosecutors, elected across the country on a platform of criminal justice reform, are taking a different approach to criminal justice policies than their predecessors, including a reduction in the use of capital punishment. A
Public Opinion
,Dec 14, 2020
Just hours after taking office, newly elected Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón issued a series of sweeping changes that ended new death-penalty prosecutions and moved towards reconsidering existing deat…
Deterrence
,Race
,Aug 31, 2021
In the third episode of the Discussions with DPIC podcast’s Rethinking Public Safety series, Miriam Krinsky (pictured) speaks with DPIC Senior Director of Research and Special Projects Ngozi Ndul…
New Voices
,Nov 14, 2019
Reform prosecutors made further inroads into the administration of American law enforcement, sweeping county elections in Northern Virginia and gaining control of prosecutor’s offices in Pennsylvania and California. Progressive prosecutors rode a …
Innocence
,New Voices
,Nov 15, 2016
Jefferson County, Alabama is among both the 2% of counties that account for more than half of all executions in the U.S. and are responsible for more tha…
Clemency
,Upcoming Executions
,Federal Death Penalty
,Dec 07, 2020
Saying “our nation’s long experiment with the death penalty has failed,” a coalition of nearly 100 criminal justice officials is calling on the federal government to halt the five executions currently scheduled for December 2020 and January 2021 a…
Public Opinion
,Aug 05, 2020
In a primary election that was regarded by many as a referendum on reform prosecutors, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner (pictured) beat back a challenge by the circuit’s former chief homicide prose…
Sentencing Data
,New Voices
,Dec 13, 2018
A group of justice-reform organizations has issued a new report, 21 Principles for the 21st Century Prosecutor, that calls on prosecutors to “work to end the death penalty” as part of its recommended reforms in prosecutorial practices. Th…
Costs
,Race
,Sentencing Alternatives
,Jul 23, 2020
After four unsuccessful attempts to impose the death penalty over the past decade and what he described as a transformative visit to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, Santa Clara County, California Distric…
Deterrence
,Innocence
,Race
,Victims' Families
,Jan 07, 2021
Calling the death penalty “ineffective, racially based, hypocritical and inhumane,” St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell (pictured) has renewed his pledge to never authorize a capital prosecution. In a December 23, 20…
Intellectual Disability
,Nov 17, 2022
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office attempted to preserve a trial court ruling denying Byron Black’s intellectual disability claim, arguing before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) on November 8. …
Upcoming Executions
,Sep 27, 2022
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has denied a stay of execution to a Texas man facing an October 5, 2022 execution date that was scheduled as a result of a death-warrant motion the local district attorney says was agains…
Intellectual Disability
,Foreign Nationals
,Oct 02, 2020
For second time in eight days, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has reversed course after initially rejecting a death-row prisoner’s claim of intellectual disability and has resentenced the prisoner to life. The decision…
Sentencing Alternatives
,Mar 18, 2020
Virginia’s death row shrank to just two prisoners on March 12 as recently elected Fairfax County, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve T. Descano agree…
Race
,Recent Legislative Activity
,Religion
,Jan 15, 2021
Legislators in the Virginia House and Senate are poised to attempt a repeal of its capital punishment statute, as Governor Ralph Northam (pictured) announced that he would sponsor a bill to end the commonwealth’s …
Public Opinion
,New Voices
,May 10, 2018
Voters in North Carolina added their voices to an expanding movement for local criminal justice reform, ousting sheriffs who closely cooperated with federal aut…
