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,
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.
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
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
In Virginia, there is no death row anymore. The Virginia Mercury reports that last weekend, prison officials announced the last two prisoners facing death sentences were sentenced to life without parole and moved to different facilities, leaving death row empty. Virginia officially abolished the death penalty in March. In Ohio, the Death Penalty Information Center reports that David Braden became the first prisoner in the nation taken off death row because of
“The first half of 2021 spotlighted two continuing death-penalty trends in the United States. On one hand, the continuing erosion of capital punishment in law and practice across the country; on the other hand, the extreme and often lawless conduct of the few jurisdictions that have attempted to carry out executions this year,” the Death Penalty Information Center reported last week in its 2021 Mid-Year Review. The stark difference between
It’s taken 28 years, but William Richards is officially an innocent man. Three weeks ago, a San Bernardino Superior Court judge declared Richards “factually innocent” of the murder of his wife, Pamela, who was killed in 1993. Richards went to trial four times in San Bernardino County Superior Court before he was convicted. His first three trials all ended in a mistrial. What finally convinced a jury to convict him
By Mike Farrell Sloughing off a warning from the Vatican, the American Conference of Catholic Bishops seem to have enlisted in the Culture Wars with an act of shocking hypocrisy. While Pope Francis has espoused a consistent life ethic, a ”seamless garment” urging an end to both abortion and the death penalty, the American Bishops Conference recently voted by a large margin to move forward on drafting guidance that will
by Stephen Rohde When the story is told about how the death penalty was abolished in California, the work of a little-known legislative committee will deserve an entire chapter. On June 23, after hearing public comments, the six-member Committee on Revision of the Penal Code voted unanimously to approve a staff report with the following enlightened conclusion: “Eliminating the death penalty is a critical step towards creating a fair and
Stating that the Justice Department “must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” and noting “that obligation has special force in capital cases,” Attorney General Merrick Garland last week imposed a moratorium on the federal death penalty. The moratorium means no federal executions will be
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:Mary Kate DeLucco415-243-0143mary@deathpenalty.org US Attorney General Merrick Garland Calls for a Moratorium on Federal Death Penalty Sacramento (July 2, 2021) — Stating that the Justice Department “must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States but is also treated fairly and humanely,” and noting “that obligation has special force in
In Arizona, corrections officials are preparing to execute death row prisoners with the same gas the Nazis used in mass killings at its concentration camps, the Washington Post reports. The paper says the state has refurbished its gas chamber — unused for 20 years — and has obtained the ingredients for the lethal gas known as Zyklon B. Defendants sentenced to death before 1992 will have the choice between lethal injection
“I am confident there will come a day when we will have abolished the death penalty, and we will wonder how we could possibly have let such an ineffective, irrational, immoral, and costly institution endure for so long,” says Dr. Philip Hansten, Professor Emeritus, School of Pharmacy, at the University of Washington. Hansten worked with an organization affiliated with Amnesty International to convince the American Pharmacists Association to include a
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