News & Updates
Share:
Filter & Search
On Demand: Torture and the Death Penalty: in Recognition of World Day Against the Death Penalty
October 11, 2022
On Monday, October 10, 2022, at noon Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern, in recognition of World Day Against the Death Penalty, DPF presented “A Conversation with Death
Webinar On-Demand: District Attorneys & The Death Penalty
June 16, 2022
On Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at 12 p.m. (Pacific) / 3 p.m. (Eastern), Death Penalty Focus hosted a one-hour webinar on the role district attorneys
2022 Virtual Awards Event (On-Demand)
March 24, 2022
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
Melissa Lucio appeals to Texas governor and pardons board for clemency
March 23, 2022
Last week, lawyers for Melissa Lucio submitted a clemency application to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. And a
New Hampshire’s Abolition Architect Robert “Renny” Cushing Dies
March 8, 2022
The criminal justice community has lost a giant and Death Penalty Focus has lost a dear friend with Robert “Renny” Cushing’s passing. Cushing died Monday
57 prosecutors pledge to work to eliminate the death penalty
March 8, 2022
Fifty-seven elected prosecutors from around the country, holding “varied opinions surrounding the death penalty,” issued a joint statement last month, declaring that they have arrived
The death penalty doesn’t make police or public any safer, DPIC reports
March 1, 2022
Legislators anxious to reinstate the death penalty in their states hope their trump card will be police and public safety issues. But the facts stand
While we’re on the subject . . .
February 21, 2022
CBS News’ “48 Hours” reporter Erin Moriarty updates the Kevin Cooper case in an interview and article, noting that “It’s very difficult to believe that
50 Years Ago, California Abolished the Death Penalty
February 18, 2022
Fifty years ago this month, on February 18, 1972, California abolished the death penalty. But it didn’t stay abolished. The lesson for us is that
The Texas case of Melissa Lucio is a terrible miscarriage of justice
February 16, 2022
Texas has executed at least five men who were very likely innocent, according to a recent report by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death
California Gov. Gavin Newsom to Close Death Row
February 11, 2022
California’s death row, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, will be dismantled. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that a two-year-old pilot program will be
Arizona governor and state Supreme Court in a showdown over executions
March 22, 2023
(Update: Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Arizona Supreme Court ended a standoff over the execution of Aaron Gunches on Wednesday, after this story was
While we’re on the subject. . .
March 21, 2023
“It is not for nothing that some critics refer to it as the ‘criminal legal system.’ The word ‘justice’ must be earned, and too often,
Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain
March 21, 2023
“I was haunted by Russ before I even knew him. I tried to wrap my mind around what it was like to sit across from
In brief: March 2023
March 21, 2023
In Texas, corrections officials executed two men this month, Gary Green and Arthur Brown, Jr. Texas has killed five men this year. With last week’s
Texas withdraws Andre Thomas’s execution warrant
March 21, 2023
A state district judge withdrew the April 5 execution warrant for Andre Thomas earlier this month to give Thomas’s lawyers time to prepare for a
CA Gov. Newsom to turn San Quentin State Prison into “San Quentin Rehabilitation Center”
March 21, 2023
Declaring that he wants to “literally transform this place,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that San Quentin State Prison will convert from a
South Carolina and Florida want to expand their death penalty statutes
March 7, 2023
Bucking a trend of decreasing support for the death penalty in the United States, Republican-dominated legislatures in South Carolina and Florida are attempting to expand
Alabama to tinker with the machinery of death again
March 3, 2023
Three months after a series of botched executions caused Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to call for a pause in state killing to allow time for
The execution of Donald Dillbeck
February 27, 2023
Florida corrections officials killed Donald Dillbeck last Thursday. They did so despite the extensive evidence of his horrific sexual and physical abuse as a child,
