San Quentin’s closure of death row is nearing completion
April 24, 2024
CDCR says it has moved approximately 222 of the individuals on San Quentin’s death row to 20 prisons throughout the state since February 26, when
CDCR says it has moved approximately 222 of the individuals on San Quentin’s death row to 20 prisons throughout the state since February 26, when
As many as 35 death penalty cases in California’s Alameda County from the past 30 years are under review after a deputy district attorney discovered
This week, a coalition of prominent civil rights and legal organizations filed a writ petition at the CA Supreme Court stating that “Extensive empirical evidence
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced earlier this month that he had filed a motion in Superior Court to recall the 15 death
One hundred-ninety-seven individuals sentenced to die have been exonerated in the U.S. since 1973. Melissa Lucio, on Texas death row since 2008 for a crime
CA Gov. Gavin Newsom grants 37 pardons; 18 commutations Late last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he pardoned 37 individuals and commuted the sentences
The death penalty “is state-sanctioned homicide, wholly ineffective, often botched, and a much more expensive punishment than life imprisonment. There is no ethical, scientifically supported,
In Georgia, corrections officials killed Willie James Pye last week, the state’s first execution since 2000. The 59-year-old Pye was sentenced to death after being
Texas killed Ivan Cantu late last month by lethal injection despite legitimate questions about his trial and conviction. Cantu’s original defense attorneys didn’t call any
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to Ramiro Gonzales earlier this month, two days before he was scheduled to be killed. The CCA, which is the state’s supreme court, ordered the trial court to consider Gonzales’s claim that his death sentence was based on false testimony. That testimony was provided by Dr. Edward Gripon, an expert witness for the prosecution who declared at Gonzales’s murder
Oklahoma’s plan to kill 25 men between next month and December 2024 has been met with outrage and disbelief. Former Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester, co-chairs of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, which issued a 300-page report in 2017 detailing the myriad flaws in the state’s capital punishment system, weighed in with an editorial in the Oklahoman this week. They noted that the
In California, three death sentences were overturned by state and federal courts in the past few weeks, the Death Penalty Information Center reports. “Richard Clark, Michael Bramit, and Andrew Lancaster were granted relief on claims related to defense counsel’s inadequate performance or jury-related issues,” according to DPIC. Clark (sentenced in 1987 in Santa Clara) and Bramit (sentenced in 1997 in Riverside) were granted new penalty phase trials, and a Los
In her New York Times piece, “After Parkland, One Question Remains: What Is Justice?”, Audra D. S. Burch writes about Tom and Gena Hoyer, whose son was killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Fifteen-year-old Luke Hoyer was one of 17 students and teachers killed in the shooting, which also injured 17 others. A penalty trial is now underway for the
“It was so frustrating to see these horrible, untrue claims go unconfronted. I felt I could go after them and call them out for what they are — absurd.” Dr. Philip Hansten is explaining what inspired him to write his new book, Death Penalty Bullshit: Fifteen Absurd Claims of Death Penalty Supporters, and why he gave it what some might consider a controversial title. “It’s an accurate description. We have
Amnesty International called on President Biden to make good on his 2020 campaign promise and abolish the federal death penalty, and commute the sentences of the 44 men on federal death row. The 114-page report, “The Power of Example: Whither the Biden Death Penalty Promise?”, was released late last month to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the death
The Death Penalty Information Center marked the 50th anniversary of Furman v. Georgia by releasing a census of death sentences handed down from June 29, 1972 — the day the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in Furman — through January 1, 2021, and the status of each sentence. “The data provide powerful evidence that the nation’s use of capital punishment continues to be arbitrary, discriminatory, and rife with
In our June Focus newsletter, we covered how Oklahoma’s attorney general has asked for execution dates for 25 men who have exhausted their appeals, but have valid innocence claims still unresolved. The most well-known among these men is Richard Glossip, who was sentenced to death in 1997, convicted of engineering the murder of Barry Van Treese, the owner of a motel where Glossip worked. The actual killer, Justin Sneed, serving
(Updated July 4, 2022) On Friday, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals scheduled execution dates for 25 men on death row, including individuals with claims of innocence, severe mental illness, and intellectual disability. The CCA set the dates in response to a request by Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor, who said he was acting “for the sake of the victims’ families, many of whom have waited for decades.” Despite troubling