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Donald Spoto

Former Death Penalty Focus board member Donald Spoto died earlier this month. He was 81. His death from a brain hemorrhage was announced by his

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In brief: February 2023

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that the first state killing this year occurred on January 3, when Missouri executed Amber McLaughlin. Texas followed one

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While we’re on the subject…

“If you take away the arguments about cost, deterrence, and closure, what’s left other than a call for vengeance?” the Idaho Statesman asks in an editorial debunking common — erroneous  —arguments conservatives use to justify their support for state killing. The paper points to Idaho’s plan to spend $750,000 to build a facility for firing squads to kill people in the wake of a new state law authorizing that method

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Alabama resumed executions this month

The State of Alabama killed James Barber last Friday, its first execution since Gov. Kay Ivey called for a temporary halt in November after the state had botched three executions in a row. All three resulted from corrections officials’ inability to insert IV lines for the lethal drugs. On July 28, the execution team tried for three hours to insert IV lines into Joe Nathan James, Jr., and an independent

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OK Attorney General asks SCOTUS to vacate Glossip’s conviction

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate Richard Glossip’s 1997 capital murder conviction and return his case to a district court. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for Glossip two weeks before he was scheduled to be killed.  In a news release, Drummond said he filed a brief in support of Glossip’s petition for a writ of certiorari on

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Texas high court rejects Rodney Reed petition

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Rodney Reed’s petition for a new trial in the murder conviction that sent him to death row 25 years ago. The ruling surprised many as it came four years after the high court issued a stay of execution for Reed five days before he was scheduled to be killed.  In the 7-1 decision, the TCCA found that “Reed has failed to make an

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In brief: June 2023

In Oklahoma, Anthony Sanchez, on death row for 27 years, told CBS News in a telephone interview that he will reject his opportunity for a clemency hearing because of the unlikelihood it would be granted. CBS said Sanchez, now 44, pointed to the recent cases of Bigler Stouffer and James Coddington, both of whom received clemency recommendations from the Pardon and Parole Board only to have Gov. Kevin Stitt reject

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Florida kills Duane Owen, its fourth execution in four months

Not even pleas from the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops were enough to persuade Gov. Ron DeSantis to commute Duane Owen’s death sentence and spare his life. Continuing his zeal for state killing, DeSantis gave the go-ahead for Owen to be executed on June 15, despite credible evidence that Owen was not mentally competent. “Tonight’s execution was the fourth in an execution spree fueled solely by political ambition. Tonight we

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Two death row releases: an Arizona man freed after 29 years; Ohio man released after 16 years

Two men, Barry Jones in Arizona and Lamont Hunter in Ohio, walked off death row the same day earlier this month, each wrongly convicted of first-degree murder of a child in their care.  Barry Jones, sentenced to death in Arizona in 1995 for the murder of his girlfriend’s four-year-old daughter, Rachel, was released June 15 after Pima County Attorney Laura Conover issued a statement admitting that “medical re-examination of the

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While we’re on the subject. . .

“Black-led organizations are working to stop the spread of legislation reinstating the death penalty” in “a response to a resurgence of legislation in states controlled by Republicans that seek to step up the use” of capital punishment, The Hill reported. The paper cites states including Tennessee, Florida, which would make it easier to sentence defendants to death, and New Jersey and Illinois, that are considering reinstating the death penalty, as

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Kevin Cooper in court during his original criminal trial.

Rebuttal to Special Counsel’s Report on Kevin Cooper Case Submitted to Governor Newsom

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 Newsom Attorneys representing Kevin Cooper have recently submitted a detailed rebuttal to the Special Counsel’s report concerning Mr. Cooper’s capital murder conviction. This development follows the January 13, 2023, report by the Special Counsel, which was a response to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s May 2021

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