While we’re on the subject . . .
July 11, 2019
In his chapter, “Capital Punishment,” in the American Bar Association’s The State of Criminal Justice 2019, Ronald J. Tabak reviews significant developments through the past
In his chapter, “Capital Punishment,” in the American Bar Association’s The State of Criminal Justice 2019, Ronald J. Tabak reviews significant developments through the past
A report published today by the ACLU, “A Closer Look at Los Angeles County’s Troubling Death-Penalty Track Record,” finds that under LA District Attorney Jackie
Early last month, a small group of California district attorneys organized what it called a “Victims of Murder Justice Tour” in a few cities around
“I have no reason to believe government officials are deliberately hiding the way they pay for capital trials, but I do believe taxpayers in death
Twenty-one years after New Hampshire legislator Renny Cushing introduced his first bill to repeal the death penalty, he was finally successful last month when the
The machinery of death was in high gear in the South in May. Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida each killed a man, and Alabama executed two.
Stating that, “After the Florida Supreme Court’s decision on the death penalty, it became abundantly clear to me that the death penalty law in the
“I can’t think of a more exciting time to be part of the movement to abolish the death penalty,” new DPF Executive Director Nancy Haydt
In Virginia, the Washington Post reports that progressive challengers defeated longtime incumbent prosecutors in Fairfax and Arlington counties on Tuesday. “The shift marks a stunning change:
In Georgia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit declined to hear an appeal by Keith Tharpe that he was sentenced to death because he is African-American, saying he must first present the issue to state courts. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court directed the appeals court to review his sentence after his lawyers presented a post-verdict interview with one of Tharpe’s jurors in which he referred to
A collection of the writings of the late Rabbi Leonard Beerman, edited by David N.. Myers, can be found in The Eternal Dissident: Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman and the Radical Imperative to Think and Act, which will be released on May 16. (A free ebook version will also be available through Luminos at publication.) Rabbi Beerman, who was one of the founders of Death Penalty Focus, was considered one of
One year ago, we wrote about the case of Walter Ogrod, a man whom many believe was wrongfully convicted of killing four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn in Philadelphia in 1988. He was sent to death row in 1996, in spite of the fact it took four years for police to arrest him, there was no physical evidence or eyewitness identification, and that Ogrod, who is on the autism spectrum disorder, signed
It’s no secret that there are some very talented men and women on death rows around the country. We’ve published some of their works here in the past and we have some new work we’d like to share. This poem was written by Steven Nelson, who is on death row in Texas. He has been corresponding with two lovely women in France for the past two years, and recently sent
This week, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill joining Oklahoma and Mississippi in allowing officials to execute prisoners using nitrogen gas, a new, untested, untried method of killing women and men – or, as Oklahoma State Representative Mike Christian refers to them, “these beasts.” Let that sink in for a moment, if you will. . . . Mr. Christian’s new law makes Oklahoma one of three states that may
A new poll conducted by Quinnipiac University finds that American voters choose life without parole over the death penalty 51-37 percent, the first time a majority chose life over death since the poll first asked the question in 2004. By a much wider margin, 71-21 percent, voters say they are opposed to the death penalty for opioid drug dealers, a proposal endorsed by Donald Trump. But while these poll numbers
Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row for a crime he didn’t commit. He was exonerated and freed in April 2015. The Equal Justice Initiative, which appealed his case for years, says that Ray, which is the name he goes by, was “One of the longest-serving death row prisoners in Alabama history and among the longest-serving condemned prisoners to be freed after presenting evidence of innocence.” He
Tomorrow, on the three-week anniversary of the botched execution of Doyle Lee Hamm, which left him bruised, bleeding and limping after a two-and-a-half hour attempt by corrections officials to kill him, Alabama will try to execute another prisoner. AL.com reports that Michael Wayne Eggers is scheduled to be executed Thursday for the December 2000 murder of Bennie Francis Murray during the course of a kidnapping and robbery. AL.com says his
On Thursday, February 22, three executions in three different states were scheduled, with three very different outcomes. Eric Branch was executed in Florida, dying with what eyewitnesses described as a “blood-curdling” scream. Doyle Lee Hamm was “tortured” for two-and-a-half hours in Alabama, his lawyer said, before officials gave up and left him “bruised, punctured, and limping from the attempted execution.” And Thomas Whitaker endured the full execution procedure right up