When California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Racial Justice Act into law in 2020, its author, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, hailed it as “an historic foundational
A Sacramento jury deadlocked 11-1 earlier this month on whether to sentence Adel Ramos, who pleaded guilty to killing Sacramento police Officer Tara O’Sullivan in
Support for the death penalty in the U.S. is at its lowest level — 53% — since the early 1970s, Gallup reported this week. The
In his paper, “No Need to Wait: Congress has the Power Under Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment to Abolish the Death Penalty in the
In Florida, a jury recommended a life without parole sentence for Corey Binderim for the murder of 65-year-old Susan Mauldin in a 7-5 vote, one
When Gov. John Carney signed Delaware House Bill 70 late last month, he officially repealed Delaware’s death penalty, the final act in a process that
Eight states have killed 20 people so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/outcomes-of-death-warrants-in-2024 .* Seven more people are scheduled to
Robert Roberson was sentenced to death in 2003, convicted by a jury that believed his daughter, Nikki, had died from shaken baby syndrome. That diagnosis
Joseph Giarratano, who spent 38 years in a Virginia prison, 13 of them on death row, for a crime he didn’t commit, died on October
In South Carolina, executions are on hold until at least February, when the supreme court will hold a hearing over a lawsuit filed by four people on death row who argue that electrocution and firing squad are unconstitutional methods of execution, WIS10 reports. The state’s default method of execution is the electric chair but offers the option of a firing squad or lethal injection if the drugs are available, according
Late last month, Pennsylvania House Bill 999 to repeal the death penalty passed out of the Judiciary Committee on a vote of 15-10. It was supported by all the Democrats and one of the Republicans on the committee. Democratic state Rep. Chris Rabb sponsored the bill, arguing that the repeal is imperative for many reasons, including its astronomical cost and the high risk of executing an innocent person. City &
Texas killed 53-year-old Brent Ray Brewer by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on November 9. And one week later, on November 16, the state executed David Renteria. The state killed a total of eight men this year. It has executed 579 individuals since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Brewer was executed for the April 1990 death
Texas killed 53-year-old Brent Ray Brewer by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville last week. Brewer was executed for the April 1990 death of 66-year-old Robert Laminack during a robbery. He was 19 at the time. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Brewer’s 1991 death sentence, finding that finding that the court failed to give his jurors the instructions that they could consider mitigating factors in his
Gallup released a poll this week that found that for the first time since 2000 when it began asking whether respondents believed the death penalty was fairly applied, 50% said it was not fairly imposed, while 47% believe it is. “This represents a five-point increase in the percentage who think it is applied unfairly since the prior measurement in 2018,” Gallup stated. The pollsters noted that the number of those
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that the state attorney general can proceed with his plan to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas, CBS News reports. It was a 6-2 decision by the all-Republican court. No other state has ever attempted to kill a person using nitrogen gas, although Oklahoma and Mississippi have also included the method in their execution protocols. Smith, who is one of two men
In Florida, a new law that would allow a person convicted of the rape of a minor to be sentenced to death went into effect earlier this month. The bill, which establishes a minimum sentence of life without parole, was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May. The law defies the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), which found that “the Eighth Amendment categorically rules
University of San Francisco School of Law professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever explained “Why California’s reinvestigation of an infamous quadruple murder case is a sham” in their op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle last weekend. They argue that a 250-page report by a law firm appointed by California Gov. Newsom to investigate the case of Kevin Cooper, sentenced to death in 1985 for a quadruple murder in San
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled an execution date for Casey McWhorter for a 30-hour window between midnight November 16, and 6 a.m., November 17, the Montgomery Advertiser reports. McWhorter was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Edward Lee Williams. He was 18 when he was sentenced to death by a jury in a 10-2 vote. He had four accomplices, including the 15-year-old son of the victim, but
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