“Kevin Cooper Case: Was the Wrong Man Convicted in the 1983 Chino Hills Massacre?” was the title of a two-hour episode on a “48 Hours”
In California, the state Supreme Court unanimously overturned the death sentence of Jamelle Edward Armstrong, convicted of killing a Southern California woman in 1998. The
In her op-ed, “Want to Keep Ohio’s Death Penalty? Fix it First,” in the Columbus Dispatch, Phyllis L. Crocker commends Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s order
“I just couldn’t believe they could do this to me. I came out broke and homeless.” William (Bill) Richards is referring to the San Bernardino
When Domineque Ray was executed by the state of Alabama last night his spiritual advisor was not in the death chamber with him. The reason?
Friends, we have work to do. Today we have to start over because in the end, Jerry Brown walked away. In spite of pleas from
Governor Jerry Brown left office on Monday after weeks of discussion regarding the extension of clemency to the 740 condemned prisoners in California. Among all
Proposition 66, titled the Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act, which passed by a slim majority in California in 2016, is a deeply flawed initiative
When Jerry Brown announced on Christmas Eve that he was granting 143 pardons and 131 commutations, he also announced that he was granting Kevin Cooper’s
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 expanded, resulting in the transfer of most if not all, of the 694 men and women currently on death row to lower-level security prisons throughout the state. The goal, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told the Associated Press, is to
In Alabama, Matthew Reeves was executed January 27, despite having an intellectual disability. Reeves was killed by lethal injection because he failed to choose a new method, nitrogen hypoxia, within the 30-day period required by corrections officials. Reeves’ lawyers had argued that his intellectual disabilities prevented him from understanding the form giving him the option of choosing nitrogen hypoxia over lethal injection. Reeves was sentenced to death for the killing
Alabama executed Matthew Reeves last night despite the fact he had an intellectual disability. His execution was the second state killing yesterday after Oklahoma executed Donald Grant in the morning. State officials killed Reeves after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court order staying his execution. Reeves was killed by lethal injection because he failed to choose a new method, nitrogen hypoxia, within the 30-day period required by corrections
Oklahoma executed Donald Grant this morning, less than 24 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay on Wednesday afternoon. He was killed by lethal injection. Grant was sentenced to death for killing two hotel workers during a robbery in 2001. Although Oklahoma has a history of botched executions, initial reports indicate there were no serious physical problems with Donald Grant’s. AP reporter Sean Murphy said Grant spoke for
“In his Defense,” a documentary on the Kevin Cooper case, is in the works right now, and California filmmaker Kenneth Carlson has released a teaser for it on CarlsonFilms.com Just over seven months ago, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered an independent investigation of Cooper’s death penalty case. At the time, he explained that,“In cases where the government seeks to impose the ultimate punishment of death, I need to be satisfied
In his editorial in Verdict, Austin Sarat says there is such significant “new progress in the effort to abolish America’s death penalty,” that it’s “not too early to begin thinking about what it will be like to live in a country without [it} and to anticipate and plan for the battles that may ensue when it is ended.” Acknowledging that it’s unlikely the U.S. Supreme Court will abolish capital punishment,
In Texas, the oldest person imprisoned on death row is scheduled to be executed on April 21. Carl Wayne Buntion, who is 77, has been on death row since 1991 when he was convicted of the 1990 killing of Houston police officer James Irby during a traffic stop. Buntion has spent 20 of his 30 years on death row in solitary confinement. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Buntion’s appeal in
“The death penalty in 2021 was defined by two competing forces: the continuing long-term erosion of capital punishment across most of the country, and extreme conduct by a dwindling number of outlier jurisdictions to continue to pursue death sentences and executions,” the Death Penalty Information Center stated in its annual report, released last month. Highlights of the report, considered the definitive assessment of developments in capital punishment in the United
Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. is 65 years old, dependent on a wheelchair, diabetic, and on hospice care because of advanced bladder cancer. He suffers from the effects of repeated brain injuries and endured horrific sexual and physical abuse from the time he was a young child. He is also imprisoned on Idaho’s death row since his conviction in the 1985 murder of 58-year-old Berta Herndon and her 37-year-old nephew, Del Herndon.
