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| An Open Letter to Gov. Jerry Brown from the Former "Hanging Judge of Orange County"
by Donald A. McCartin, Guest Blogger
March 30th, 2011
After you were gutsy enough to appoint me, a right-wing Republican, to the Superior Court of Orange County, I served there from 1978 to 1993, after which I sat on assignment on death cases throughout California. In all, I presided over more trials than I can possibly recount. Among those I do remember, however, were ten murder trials in which I sentenced the convicted men to die in our state's execution chamber. As a result, I became known as "the hanging judge of Orange County," an appellation that, I will confess, I accepted with some pride. |
 | Illinois Says No to Capital Punishment
by James Brockway, Guest Blogger
March 9th, 2011
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill today which made his state the 16th to abolish its death penalty. |
| Texas Appeals Court Stops Death Penalty Hearing
by James Brockway, Guest Blogger
January 12th, 2011
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has decided to make permanent their stay December 7th stay on a hearing in Texas v. Green which examined the constitutionality of Texas's death penalty in light of the frequency of wrongful convictions. |
 | Progress Being Made for West Memphis Three
by James Brockway, Guest Blogger
January 12th, 2011
The new year has breathed fresh life into the cases of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., collectively known as the West Memphis Three. The three men were convicted in 1994 for the killing of three West Memphis children, though there has been persistent doubt about their guilt dating back to the original trial. A new evidentiary hearing may give them an opportunity to prove their innocence. |
| Stay in Texas case continues culture of silence around the death penalty
by James Brockway, Guest Blogger
December 8th, 2010
A hearing to determine the constitutionality of Texas' death penalty was stayed yesterday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The hearing, which began on Monday in Houston as a pre-trial proceeding in Texas v. Green, sought to determine whether or not a high probability of wrongful conviction meant that capital punishment violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. |
| Breaking News on Damion Echols and West Memphis Three
by Stefanie
November 4th, 2010
I was thrilled to learn this morning that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who were convicted in the 1993 deaths of 8-year-olds Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steven Branch, may have a chance to finally prove their innocence. |
| Human Error and the Death Penalty
by Sheila Michell, Guest Blogger from the UK
October 29th, 2010
Human beings are fallible, right? We're not perfect. Therefore we might deduce that human institutions are equally fallible and imperfect. This is the nature of the human condition. AND YET some people believe that the death penalty - a final and irreversible condemnation of one human being by others, can be immune from human error. An exemplar case of human imperfection and the dangers of the death penalty is that of Anthony Graves, who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. |
 | New Developments in the Troy Davis Case
by Jessica Lewis, Guest Blogger
September 7th, 2010
On August 24, U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. rejected Troy Davis’ claims of innocence, arguing that, although the new evidence presented casts some doubt on Davis’s guilt, it mostly lacks “probative value” and is not enough to prove innocence. He called it “largely smoke and mirrors.” |
 | A life you saved
by Stefanie
September 3rd, 2010
This is the face of man whose life you helped save. |
| Innocence Matters!
by Stefanie
July 13th, 2010
Check out my blog post about Damien Echols on Care2 today. Please add a comment and vote in the poll. |
 | NH Supreme Court Justice on the Death Penalty
by The Hon. Joseph P. Nadeau, Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire
June 25th, 2010
It has been my good fortune to serve as a judge in New Hampshire for thirty-seven years. For thirteen of those years I was presiding justice of the Durham District Court. I served as a justice of the Superior Court for eighteen years, nine of which I spent as chief justice. And I sat on the Supreme Court for six years before retiring in December of 2005. I am proud of our judicial system and the effort of judges in all our courts to treat people fairly and equally, and to protect their individual rights. |
| Justice Project Blog on Crime Labs
by Stefanie
April 13th, 2010
John F. Terzano of The Justice Project just posted this blog "Crime Labs Need Independence and Robust Oversight to Ensure Justice" which discusses the recent crime lab scandal in San Francisco. |
| Johnny Depp advocates for the West Memphis 3
by Stefanie
March 1st, 2010
On Saturday, 48 Hours Mystery featured a program on the West Memphis 3: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are serving prison terms in Arkansas for murders they most likely did not commit. Echols is on death row. |
 | Why stretch and manipulate the truth?
by Mike Farrell, DPF President
February 26th, 2010
Last Friday’s Opinion piece by Gary Lieberstein and John Poyner in the San Jose Mercury News contains so many factual inaccuracies and politically inspired half-truths that I’m surprised they attached their names. |
| An Exoneration Story
by Shana
November 9th, 2009
As the newest member of the Death Penalty Focus team, I am constantly discovering new reasons why I oppose the death penalty. I have always been morally opposed to capital punishment, but day in and day out, I read appalling statistics and |
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