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Two men facing death penalty charges in Riverside County are granted evidentiary hearings under Racial Justice Act

February 3, 2024

In California’s Riverside County, two Black men challenging their separate death penalty prosecutions under the California Racial Justice Act (AB 256) were granted evidentiary hearings by a California Court of Appeals late last month. Russell Austin and Michael Mosby argued that “the death penalty in Riverside County is tainted with racial inequality — and offered statistical studies, along with other evidence, reaching that conclusion,” the ACLU Southern California announced in

Oklahoma attorney general asks for 90-day intervals before next six executions

January 31, 2024

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Department of Corrections Executive Director Steven Harpe are asking the state Court of Criminal Appeals to set the execution dates for the next six people it plans to kill at 90-day intervals. The state had scheduled 12 executions for 2024. “The present pace of executions, every 60 days, is too onerous and not sustainable,” DOC ED Harpe stated in the joint motion https://www.oag.ok.gov/sites/g/files/gmc766/f/documents/2024/in_re_execution_dates_1.30.24.pdf to

“SCOTUS’ guardrails have given way to removing roadblocks,” says a USF law professor

January 24, 2024

In her essay in Politico Magazine, USF School of Law Professor Lara Bazelon says the downward trend in death sentences that began after hitting a peak in the mid-1990s, “is beginning to reverse.” She notes that in 2021, there were 11 executions in the U.S. and one year later, in 2022, there were 18. In 2023, there were 24 people executed, the highest in five years. The reason for the

ABA Urges Transparency in Kevin Cooper Case: A Call for Justice and Due Process

January 12, 2024

The American Bar Association (ABA) has sent a compelling letter to Governor Gavin Newsom concerning the case of death-row inmate Kevin Cooper. In this letter, the ABA expressed ongoing concerns about Cooper’s conviction and the transparency of the investigation process. The ABA highlighted that all law enforcement files were not disclosed during the investigation, urging the Governor to ensure full disclosure of relevant evidence. They emphasized the importance of due

Federal judge rejects Kenneth Smith’s request to stop his execution by nitrogen gas

January 10, 2024

U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected Kenneth Smith’s request for an injunction to stop Alabama from executing him with nitrogen gas late last month, making his execution, scheduled for January 25, more likely, although the constitutionality of using nitrogen gas in state killing could be raised in the U.S. Supreme Court. No other state has ever attempted to kill a person using nitrogen gas, although Oklahoma and Mississippi have

Florida prosecutor seeks death penalty in sex abuse case in a test of a new state law

December 30, 2023

Florida prosecutor seeks death penalty in sex abuse case in a test of a new state law A Florida prosecutor announced late last month that he will seek the death penalty in a child sexual assault case. The indictment is a test of a new state law that allows a person convicted of the rape of a minor to be sentenced to death. In a statement on his website, State

TCADP year-end report calls attention to Texas’s “continued outlier status”

December 20, 2023

“Texas remained an unfortunate outlier as just one of five states to carry out executions in 2023, leading the nation with eight people put to death this year,” the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty stated in its annual report, “Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2023: The Year in Review.” The report noted that the majority of the eight men killed by the state in 2023 had “significant intellectual

Webinar On-Demand: Making a Murderer: False Confessions, Wrongful Convictions

December 20, 2023

Our conversation on “Making a Murderer: False Confessions, Wrongful Convictions” was such an enlightening discussion between DPF President Mike Farrell and Dr. Richard Leo, Professor of Law and Social Psychology at the University of San Francisco School of Law. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQhfA9_yW54&t=42s Quick Facts Since 1989 there have been at least 3,431 exonerations. Fully 13% of these – 434 cases – contained false confessions or admissions. That percentage soars to 23% in

DPIC releases its 2023 Year-End Report

December 9, 2023

2023 was the ninth consecutive year that fewer than 30 people were executed in the United States, and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death, the Death Penalty Information Center states in its 2023 annual report. Twenty-nine states — the majority — have either “abolished the death penalty or paused them by executive action,” according to DPIC. And only five states, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, conducted executions,

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