While we’re on the subject . . . .
November 9, 2017
In an op-ed in AZ Central, Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice president Amy Kalman explains why she and more than 20 former Arizona judges, former
In an op-ed in AZ Central, Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice president Amy Kalman explains why she and more than 20 former Arizona judges, former
Jack Greene was granted an emergency stay by the Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday, two days before he was scheduled to be executed. Greene’s attorneys
“Plagued by wrongful convictions, high costs, and delays, the death penalty has proven to be ineffective and incompatible with a number of core conservative principles.
Americans’ support for the death penalty is now at 55 percent, the lowest number since 1972, according to a poll released by Gallup late last
Death Penalty Focus is partnering with CharityBuzz to bring you two new charity auctions–your chance to meet Ed Asner and Ed Begley, Jr.–all while supporting our
Last night, members of the Bay Area death penalty community gathered to honor the late Scharlette Holdman, a woman who, as SF attorney Andy Love
Americans’ support for the death penalty is now at 55 percent, the lowest number since 1972, according to a poll released by Gallup today. The
In August, two of our longest-serving and most dedicated board members left to travel, spend time with family and friends, and simply relax and enjoy
Death Penalty Focus is partnering with CharityBuzz to bring you two new charity auctions–your chance to meet Mike Farreell and Noah Wyle, all while supporting
Washington’s state Senate voted to end the death penalty by a vote of 26-22 yesterday. The bill, which would repeal the death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life without parole, now goes to the House where legislators will have 22 days to vote on it. The Seattle Times reports that the Senate vote was bipartisan, “with a handful of Democrats crossing over to vote no, and five
Tennessee, which hasn’t put anyone to death since 2009, is now hoping to execute eight people before June 1. That means eight executions in four months. The reason? State Attorney General Herbert Slatery says the state needs to act soon because lethal injection drugs may not be available after that date. The Nashville Scene reports that the plan was announced even though corrections officials were warned in January, in emails
Thirty-five years ago, the American Bar Association was one of the first organizations to call for abolition of the death penalty for those under the age of 18. This week, stating that “it is now time to revise its dated position,” the ABA is calling on death penalty states to rule out sentencing or executing any individuals who were 21 years or younger when they committed the crime. The ABA’s
Four U.S. Senators introduced a bill this week that would allow federal prosecutors in death penalty cases to impanel a second jury for sentencing if the first jury fails to reach a unanimous vote for death. The senators, all Republicans, named the bill, “Eric’s Law,” for Eric Williams, a federal correctional officer in a Pennsylvania penitentiary, who was killed by a prisoner. The prisoner, who was already serving a life
Texas executed John Battaglia last week, the third person executed this year, and the second of the week. The 62-year-old was sentenced to die in 2002 for the murders of his two daughters, whom he shot in 2001 while their mother listened on the phone. The Texas Tribune reported that Battaglia’s lawyers filed a last-minute appeal on the grounds that the lethal injection drugs officials planned to use had expired,
Two years ago, we reported on the use of “ethnic adjustment” by prosecutors in death penalty cases, which artificially raises minority defendants’ IQ scores. In an interview with DFP at the time, death penalty attorney (and DPF board member) Robert M. Sanger described the practice as “a symptom of a dysfunctional death penalty system where prosecutors seek to ‘win’ by executing the mentally disabled and people of color at all
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation released its revised lethal drug protocol late last month, and it doesn’t address the problems that plagued its previous versions. “It’s unfortunate the CDCR released a new lethal drug protocol that still contains so many flaws, and completely ignores the fact that these drugs are either banned or unavailable,” says Death Penalty Focus Community Outreach & Education Director David Crawford. The revised single-drug
In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich granted a reprieve to Raymond Tibbetts, who was scheduled to be executed next Tuesday for the 1997 murder of his wife, Judith Sue Crawford, and their landlord, Fred Hicks, in Cincinnati. Kasich’s action came in the wake of a letter sent by a juror in TIbbetts’ trial asking Gov. Kasich to commute his sentence to life without parole. Ross Allen Geiger says that during the
In the March issue of Reason, reporter C.J. Ciaramella writes of how state officials have decided the “black hood of anonymity also covers the pharmacies that mix the deadly compounds used to kill prisoners.” Thanks to the “dogged work of investigative journalists,” Ciaramella says we know that the states “have turned to untraceable cash transactions, unregulated pharmacies, and overseas scammers to buy drugs to fill the veins of condemned inmates.