Furman v. Georgia
June 29, 2022
Fifty years ago this week, the United States took a historic step toward a more fair, humane, less racist criminal justice system. On June 29,
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Fifty years ago this week, the United States took a historic step toward a more fair, humane, less racist criminal justice system. On June 29,
The Oklahoma City law firm that conducted a pro bono independent investigation into the case of Richard Glossip, the second in line of the 25
Three California district attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that denied their right to intervene
The death penalty is off the table for Cleamon Johnson, an alleged Los Angeles gang leader accused of killing five people during the 1990s. Now,
In Texas, a state district judge rejected a request by Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez to cancel a death warrant for a man scheduled
In her piece, “How the Supreme Court Stopped Fighting the “Machinery of Death,” in Balls and Strikes, Yvette Borja looks at how far the U.S.
Arizona killed Frank Atwood by lethal injection on Wednesday morning, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. The 66-year-old Atwood was sentenced
In a decision that dissenting Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor called “perverse” and “illogical,” the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 late last month that death
Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach, who led a bipartisan effort in the legislature to commute Melissa Lucio’s death sentence last month, told the host of
Death Penalty Focus is marking the 20th World Day Against the Death Penalty with a webinar featuring a discussion on “Torture and the Death Penalty” with DPF President Mike Farrell and Professor Juan E. Méndez, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. The discussion will air on Monday, October 10, 2022, at noon Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern and is free of charge. “The most frequent setting where torture and coercion take
“His story, of a young boy victimized by addiction, poverty, violence, the foster care system and later the justice system, profoundly touched me then, and still does today,” Oprah Winfrey said in explaining why she chose Jarvis Jay Masters’ 1997 memoir, That Bird Has My Wings, as her latest selection for Oprah’s Book Club. Masters was first incarcerated at California’s San Quentin Prison in 1981 for armed robbery and was
Alabama may not kill Alan Eugene Miller on Thursday, AL.com reports. A federal judge issued a stay for Miller yesterday after Miller argued he had officially chosen nitrogen hypoxia as his method of execution, a protocol the Alabama Department of Corrections has admitted it is not ready to carry out. The 57-year-old Miller was scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Eastern on Thursday for shooting three men in August 1999
Toforest Johnson, who has been on Alabama’s death row since 1998 for a crime he likely didn’t commit, is asking the state Supreme Court for a new trial. His lawyers asked the Court to review a lower court decision denying Johnson a new trial in a filing last Friday, the Washington Post reports. Johnson was sentenced to death for killing Birmingham deputy sheriff William G. Hardy, who was working as
Conservatives love to blame high violent crime rates on progressives and their criminal justice reform efforts, especially in California, which is why the recently-released state report, “2021 Homicide in California,” from Attorney General Rob Bonta was such an eye-opening counter-narrative. According to the report, among counties with populations of 100,000 or more, the three with the highest murder rates were Kern, Merced, and Tulare. The three with the lowest rates
South Carolina’s plan to execute men and women by electrocution or firing squad constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state Constitution, a state judge ruled today, the State reports. The legislature “ignored advances in scientific research and evolving standards of humanity and decency” when it voted last year to force people to be killed by electric chair or firing squad if they refuse to choose a method
Albert Woodfox, who spent 42 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as Angola Prison) for a crime he didn’t commit before being freed in 2016, died earlier this month of complications from Covid. He was 75. Known as one of the “Angola Three,” Woodfox was arrested often as a teenager in New Orleans and later, in New York, where he joined the Black Panthers. In 1972,
The American Psychological Association called on the courts, Congress, and state legislatures to ban the death penalty for people younger than 21, “based on scientific research indicating that adolescent brains continue to develop well beyond age 18.” While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons (2005) that it was unconstitutional to impose the death penalty on a child under the age of 18, the APA said the law
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has issued a 60-day stay of execution for Richard Glossip. The stay is effective September 22, the day Glossip was scheduled to be executed. It is in effect until December 8, 2022. “This stay is granted to allow time for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to address a pending legal proceeding,” the order states. Stitt is referring to a recent request by 61 Oklahoma lawmakers
