The news media may be permitted to visit and interview individuals imprisoned in California prisons and jails for the first time since the mid-1990s, under
A group of faith leaders is asking Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to appoint an independent review board to investigate the state’s execution protocol, AL.com reports.
Four men sentenced to death in Texas have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state corrections department alleging that subjecting the 185 men on death
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted a motion filed by newly-elected Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond to slow down the state’s frenzied plan to
Stating that Arizona’s recent history of executions by lethal injection “has caused many, including courts, to express concerns regarding whether executions are being carried out
2022 was the “year of the botched execution,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center. And now, a 166-page report from a law firm commissioned
The California Supreme Court granted review earlier this month on whether people serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed when they were between the ages of
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an Executive Order in May 2021, calling for an investigation into Kevin Cooper’s 1985 death penalty conviction for a quadruple
In Oklahoma, Scott Eizember was killed last week. Eizember was sentenced to death in 2003 for the murders of A.J and Patsy Cantrell. His execution
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, even the special circumstances that would prohibit parole have been stricken. Last month, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis Rappé ruled that the racist conduct of the LAPD investigating officer and the failure of the DA to disclose his conduct for four years were grounds,
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 to be executed on October 5. Gonzales sought to cancel the execution of John Ramirez because of his “firm belief that the death penalty is unethical and should be not be imposed on Mr. [John Henry] Ramirez or any other person.” Gonzales says one of
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. Supreme Court has strayed from “seriously considering whether the death penalty could ever be constitutional.” She notes that since the Court’s 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision, which found the death penalty unconstitutional, all five justices in the majority wrote concurrences clarifying their reasoning. All five
On Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at 12 p.m. (Pacific) / 3 p.m. (Eastern), Death Penalty Focus hosted a one-hour webinar on the role district attorneys play in capital cases, including how they can undo death sentences after they have been imposed, and how their policies can make our criminal justice system more fair, more humane, and less racist. We also discuss the statement from prosecutors, including two of our panelists,
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 to death in 1984 for the murder and abduction of 8-year-old Vicki Lynn Hoskinson. It was the second execution in two months in Arizona. The state killed Clarence Dixon in May, its first execution since 2014, when Joseph Wood was executed in a botched lethal
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 row prisoners can’t present new evidence that they had ineffective counsel in their state trials in their federal habeas appeal. The case of Shinn v. Ramirez involved two respondents, David Ramirez and Barry Jones, who were convicted of separate murders and sentenced to death in
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 the WFAA television public affairs program, “Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely,” that he would support a moratorium on all executions in Texas. “Right now, going through what I just went through and seeing what I just saw, I would,” Leach told Whitely. “My trust
Frank Atwood, imprisoned on death row since 1987 for the killing of an eight-year-old girl, is scheduled to be executed on June 8 in Arizona’s gas chamber. The state has two methods of killing: lethal injection or the gas chamber (which was outlawed in 1992, but since Atwood’s conviction occurred before that date, he can choose death by gas), but the only option for gas is cyanide. AZ Central reports
A little over a week after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced he was staying five state killings planned for this year, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced he was postponing the September execution of Kareem Jackson. Both states execute by lethal injection, and both cited issues with that method as their reason for issuing stays. In Tennessee, Oscar Smith’s late April execution was stayed by the governor about an hour before
