Sentencing Data
,Sep 14, 2022
The outcome of a capital prosecution can be predicted based upon the relative social status of the victim, the defendant, and the jurors, applying a sociology concept known as the geometrical theory of law, according to the authors of a new book, …
Innocence
,Victims' Families
,Dec 08, 2022
In Shattered Justice: Crime Victims’ Experiences with Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations, released in August 2022, University of North Carolina-Wilmington sociology and criminology professor Kimberly Cook explores how crime vic…
Mar 22, 2022
March 25, 2022 will mark the end of the only death penalty case in Wyoming — or at least the family of Lisa Marie Kimmell hopes it will. The family traveled from Colorado and Arizona to offer in-person victim-impact state…
Costs
,Victims' Families
,Aug 28, 2019
A more than $1.6 million price tag for prosecuting a Colorado death-penalty case that the victim’s family opposed and that resulted in a life sentence has caused some Coloradans to question whether capital prosecutions are worth t…
Arbitrariness
,Sentencing Alternatives
,Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Mar 03, 2006
Prosecutors in Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware have all chosen to seek life sentences in three high-profile murder cases. Among other concerns, they noted their wish to bring comfort to victims’ families and to secure the public’s longterm safe…
Mental Illness
,Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Dec 21, 2006
Following an announcement that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty for Naveed Haq, who is accused of killing one woman and wounding five others at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, two of Haq’s victims said they supported the deci…
Race
,Victims' Families
,Federal Death Penalty
,Sep 07, 2022
As federal prosecutors consider what punishment to seek against the accused gunman in the May 2022 mass shooting at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, survivors and family members of victims of the shooting are concerned that pursuing…
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
Prosecutorial Accountability
,Victims' Families
,Aug 22, 2022
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s office has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) to vacate Paul Storey’s death sentence, saying that his trial prosecutor “blatantly lied” to his …
Victims' Families
,Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 08, 2021
A Jewish congregation whose members were among the eleven people killed by a white supremacist in an attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018 has renewed its request for the Department of Justice to drop the d…
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Aug 20, 2019
Leaders from two of the three congregations affected by the October 27, 2018 shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue (pictured) in Pittsburgh are asking the federal government not to seek a death sentence for the …
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 24, 2016
Duval County, Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 2013 murder of Shelby Farah (pictured), over the objections of Ms. Farah’s family. After unsuccessful attempts to persuade prosecutors to non-capitally resolv…
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Jan 10, 2018
Family members of murder victims share no single, uniform response to the death penalty, but two recent publications illustrate that a growing number of these families are now advocating against capital punishment. In From Death Into Life…
New Voices
,Jan 24, 2007
“Living With the Death Penalty” is a new book that examines the impact of executions on correctional officers, offenders, chaplains, attorneys, and victims’ family members. In this book, author Courtney Vaughn, a rape victim and …
Race
,Clemency
,Oct 04, 2022
A study of more than 400 death-eligible murder cases in St. Louis County, Missouri over a 27-year period has found significant racial disparities in the county’s administration of the death penalty based upon the race of the victi…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Nov 28, 2007
In a recent op-ed in the New Jersey Daily Record, Jim O’Brien detailed his experiences with the legal system as the father of a murder victim. His daughter Deidre was murdered in 1982, and the capital trials and appeals for the man convicted of th…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Nov 07, 2006
Bonita Spikes’ husband was murdered 12 years ago. She now works to end the death penalty in Maryland. She recently wrote about her perspective on capital punishment in the Baltimore Sun. She stated, in part: I know that my la…
Innocence
,Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 25, 2008
Two recent articles in the Dallas Morning News detail the lives of those affected by the wrongful imprisonment of Christopher Ochoa and Richard Danziger in Texas. For some, their faith in the criminal justice syst…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 12, 2013
In a recent op-ed, the father of slain Colorado corrections officer Eric Autobee (pictured) explained why he no longer supported the death penalty and is working for its repeal. Writing in the
Sentencing Alternatives
,Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 29, 2008
Maryland Judge Joseph P. Manck sought to lessen the pain and frustration to the victims’ family by sentencing a defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty. In choosing a life sentenc…
Sentencing Alternatives
,Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Nov 14, 2006
Prosecutors in Utah have stated that the sentencing option of life without parole has been very helpful in giving jurors and family members of victims a viable alternative to the death penalty. Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom noted…
Aug 10, 2004
Expressing their desire to end emotionally straining court proceedings, the families of Maryland murder victims Betina “Kristi” Gentry and Cynthia V. Allen recently urged Anne Arundel County’s top prosecutor to end his 3rd attempt to get a death s…
Victims' Families
,Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Feb 22, 2008
At a hearing of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice held in Los Angeles, the mother of a murder victim testified about why she believed the death penalty does not serve victims’ needs. Aba Gayle’s daugh…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Federal Death Penalty
,Apr 10, 2006
Alice Hoagland’s son, Mark Bingham (pictured), was killed on September 11 as he joined with fellow United Airlines passengers to ground a plane that may have been headed toward the White House. Hoagland is urging a life sentence for Zacarias Mouss…
Jul 07, 2004
In a letter to the North Carolina House of Representatives, 21 family members of murder victims voiced their concerns about the state’s error-ridden death penalty system and urged members to pass legislation that would impose a two-year moratorium…
Costs
,Victims' Families
,Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Mar 13, 2008
Family members of murder victims testified before the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6 about the painful toll the death penalty has taken on their lives, stating that the resources spent on seeking death sentences could be better use…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Sep 25, 2006
State Assemblyman Nelson T. Albano of Cape May, New Jersey, announced at a forum on the death penalty that he has changed his mind and now opposes capital punishment. Albano said that his change of heart came aft…
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Dec 31, 2016
When Missouri executed Jeff Ferguson in 2014 for the rape and murder of Kelli Hall, her father said the Hall family “believed the myth that Ferguson’s execution would close our emotional wounds.” …
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Aug 26, 2008
Ronald Carlson wanted vengeance when his sister was murdered in 1983 in Texas. But when he witnessed the execution in 1998 of the person who committed the murder he changed his mind. In a recent op-ed in the F…
Feb 09, 2004
After consulting with the family of the murder victim, Maryland prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty against Kenneth Collins during a recent resentencing hearing. Collins’ death sentence was overturned because of an inadequate defense…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 25, 2006
After more than two decades of working to spare the life of Florida death row inmate James Floyd, the family of the woman he murdered has succeeded in getting prosecutors to reduce Floyd’s sentence to life in prison for the murder of Annie Bar And…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Mar 27, 2006
Victims of violence and terror are not necessarily well served by a system that promises “closure” in the form of the death penalty, according to a recent Washington Post column by Dahlia Lithwick. Among other cases, the author questions the assum…
Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Jan 08, 2007
Victims’ advocates and prosecutors are urging Texas legislators to exclude the death penalty from new legislation designed to toughen penalties for repeat child molesters. Those opposed to the measure fear that threatening death sentences for sex …
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 29, 2012
A recent op-ed in the Litchfield (Connecticut) News highlights concerns about the death penalty as expressed by murder victims’ families. Mary Healy and Jane Caron are social work professionals who also experienced a murd…
Victims' Families
,Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Jan 17, 2006
Two Virginia lawmakers who have had a family member murdered recently spoke in opposition to the death penalty. During a senate committee hearing on a bill to impose a moratorium on executions, Senators Henry L. Marsh III and Janet D. Howell noted…
Innocence
,Race
,New Voices
,Apr 25, 2018
Three powerful new documentaries that explore the modern death penalty in the United States are set to premiere this April. Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis and Julius Tennon are executive producers of The Last Defense…
Arbitrariness
,Race
,Sep 21, 2020
A study of 40 years of Texas death sentences has found that the likelihood that a defendant accused of a death-eligible murder will be sentenced to death is three times greater if the case involves a white female victim. The study,
Race
,Oct 30, 2017
A new study of more than two decades of murders in Oklahoma has found that defendants charged with killing a white woman have odds of being sentenced to death in the Sooner State that are nearly ten times greater than if they had …
Prosecutorial Accountability
,Victims' Families
,Oct 07, 2019
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has reinstated the death sentence of Paul Storey (pictured), after a Tarrant County judge had reduced his sentence …
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Mar 24, 2017
Judy and Glenn Cherry (pictured), the parents of Jonas Cherry, have asked Texas state and local officials not to execute Paul Storey, the man convicted of killing their son. The state has schedule…
Victims' Families
,Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Oct 27, 2021
Three years after the religiously-motivated attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, the status of the state and federal prosecutions in the case remains unsettled. As the three Jewish congregations who wors…
Innocence
,Victims' Families
,Apr 05, 2016
After Debbie Carter was raped and murdered in Ada, Oklahoma in 1982, police and prosecutors told her cousin, Christy Sheppard (pictured) that Ron Williamson
Sentencing Alternatives
,Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Aug 15, 2007
Nearly two decades after the 1988 robbery and murder of James Scanlon, his family now says that a sentence of life without parole for his killer — Ronald Rompilla — will end years of emotional strain resulting from the death penalty and will help …
Victims' Families
,Recent Legislative Activity
,New Voices
,Mar 16, 2007
Legislation to establish a commission to examine Kentucky’s death penalty and report its findings to the General Assembly has gained support from former law enforcement officials and victims’ family members. The bill, proposed by Rep. Tom Burch, w…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 25, 2016
Dawn Mancarella, whose mother, Joyce Masury, was murdered 20 years ago, called the death penalty “a waste of energy and money [that] doesn’t bring justice or closure.” Sharing her views on the death penalty in a column for Connecticut’s Regist…
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 11, 2008
National Public Radio (NPR) recently featured a segment in its StoryCorps series in which a father describes how he came to forgive the man who murdered his daughter. Patricia Nuckles was murdered by Ivan Simpson…
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Federal Death Penalty
,May 30, 2023
On May 25, 2023, 12 death-qualified jurors and six alternates were selected in the federal capital trial of Robert Bowers, who is charged with killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. Prosecutors struck all the Black, Hispanic, an…
Innocence
,Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Apr 09, 2020
Saying she wanted justice for her murdered four-year-old daughter, not “a closed case with an innocent person in jail,” Sharon Fahy has joined with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and defense lawyers in the fight to im…
Arbitrariness
,Innocence
,Oct 27, 2022
With a federal court ruling on his innocence claims considered imminent, Oprah Winfrey has designated the autobiography of California death-row prisoner Jarvis Jay Masters, That Bird Has Wings…
Mental Illness
,Representation
,Victims' Families
,Upcoming Executions
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jun 16, 2020
With a petition for review pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the legality and constitutionality of the federal execution protocol, U.S. Attorney General William Barr on June 15, 2020 set execution dates for four federal dea…
