Father Chris Ponnet (1957–2025)
October 11, 2025
Death Penalty Focus is mourning the loss of our Board Member, Father Chris Ponnet, who died on October 7 in Los Angeles. He was 68.
Death Penalty Focus is mourning the loss of our Board Member, Father Chris Ponnet, who died on October 7 in Los Angeles. He was 68.
Texas, Indiana, and Tennessee will each execute a person this week: two men will be killed on Tuesday and one man on Thursday. Texas, which
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday signed into law a bill that will allow a person to be sentenced to death for the rape of
“In states where the death penalty does exist, it shouldn’t be cruel, it shouldn’t be unusual (and) it definitely shouldn’t be experimental, like nitrogen hypoxia
In this powerful and poignant update, Sister Helen Prejean, fueled by her outrage at the barbarism of capital punishment and her unwavering commitment to its
Idaho corrections officials attempted to kill 73-year-old Thomas Creech today, but after an hour of repeated attempts to find a vein for its lethal injection
In her essay in Politico Magazine, USF School of Law Professor Lara Bazelon says the downward trend in death sentences that began after hitting a
The American Bar Association (ABA) has sent a compelling letter to Governor Gavin Newsom concerning the case of death-row inmate Kevin Cooper. In this letter,
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Mary Kate DeLucco415-243-0143mary@deathpenalty.org– Sacramento, CA – Jun 21, 2023 – Rebuttal to Special Counsel’s Report on Kevin Cooper Case Submitted to Governor
Death Penalty Focus is hiring a new Executive Director. We’re looking for a dynamic and thoughtful person to support our mission to end California’s death
Two days before Lucio was scheduled to be executed, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the equivalent of a state supreme court) issued a stay.
Our Annual Awards Event last Thursday was a powerful reminder of how far we’ve come since we held our first event 30 years ago. And
Death Penalty Focus Presents: 30th Awards Event (Virtual) Originally Aired: March 24, 2022 Watch On-Demand Tribute Journal Donate About While 2021 was difficult in many
You are going to want to meet Mamie Lang Kirkland.
“After the execution of 13 federal prisoners by the Trump administration last year, we knew we had to redouble our efforts to abolish the death
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:Mary Kate DeLucco415-243-0143mary@deathpenalty.org US Attorney General Merrick Garland Calls for a Moratorium on Federal Death Penalty Sacramento (July 2, 2021) — Stating
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mary Kate DeLucco 415-243-0143 mary@deathpenalty.org — Sacramento (June 1, 2021) — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered an independent investigation of
Please join Sister Helen Prejean, DPF President Mike Farrell, and TCADP in urging Collin County DA Greg Willis, Gov. Greg Abbott, and the Texas Ct of Criminal Appeals not to kill Ivan Cantu this Wednesday, February 28. [Unfortunately, his execution was carried out.] Ivan was convicted of the 2001 killing of his cousin, James Mosqueda, and Mosqueda’s fiancée, Amy Kitchen. But there is so much wrong with the case against
Robert Badinter, the former French Minister of Justice and the man who, in 1981, in one of his first acts as justice minister in the government of President François Mitterrand, wrote the law that abolished capital punishment in France, died early on Friday. He was 95. At a commemoration ceremony on the 40th anniversary of that historic achievement last September, with French President Macron at his side, Badinter declared, “I
In California’s Riverside County, two Black men challenging their separate death penalty prosecutions under the California Racial Justice Act (AB 256) were granted evidentiary hearings by a California Court of Appeals late last month. Russell Austin and Michael Mosby argued that “the death penalty in Riverside County is tainted with racial inequality — and offered statistical studies, along with other evidence, reaching that conclusion,” the ACLU Southern California announced in
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Department of Corrections Executive Director Steven Harpe are asking the state Court of Criminal Appeals to set the execution dates for the next six people it plans to kill at 90-day intervals. The state had scheduled 12 executions for 2024. “The present pace of executions, every 60 days, is too onerous and not sustainable,” DOC ED Harpe stated in the joint motion https://www.oag.ok.gov/sites/g/files/gmc766/f/documents/2024/in_re_execution_dates_1.30.24.pdf to
In her essay in Politico Magazine, USF School of Law Professor Lara Bazelon says the downward trend in death sentences that began after hitting a peak in the mid-1990s, “is beginning to reverse.” She notes that in 2021, there were 11 executions in the U.S. and one year later, in 2022, there were 18. In 2023, there were 24 people executed, the highest in five years. The reason for the
The American Bar Association (ABA) has sent a compelling letter to Governor Gavin Newsom concerning the case of death-row inmate Kevin Cooper. In this letter, the ABA expressed ongoing concerns about Cooper’s conviction and the transparency of the investigation process. The ABA highlighted that all law enforcement files were not disclosed during the investigation, urging the Governor to ensure full disclosure of relevant evidence. They emphasized the importance of due
U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected Kenneth Smith’s request for an injunction to stop Alabama from executing him with nitrogen gas late last month, making his execution, scheduled for January 25, more likely, although the constitutionality of using nitrogen gas in state killing could be raised in the U.S. Supreme Court. No other state has ever attempted to kill a person using nitrogen gas, although Oklahoma and Mississippi have
Florida prosecutor seeks death penalty in sex abuse case in a test of a new state law A Florida prosecutor announced late last month that he will seek the death penalty in a child sexual assault case. The indictment is a test of a new state law that allows a person convicted of the rape of a minor to be sentenced to death. In a statement on his website, State
“Texas remained an unfortunate outlier as just one of five states to carry out executions in 2023, leading the nation with eight people put to death this year,” the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty stated in its annual report, “Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2023: The Year in Review.” The report noted that the majority of the eight men killed by the state in 2023 had “significant intellectual