In brief: December 2021
December 6, 2021
In Mississippi, David Cox died by lethal injection late last month in the state’s first execution since 2012. Cox, who had asked the court to
In Mississippi, David Cox died by lethal injection late last month in the state’s first execution since 2012. Cox, who had asked the court to
Doyle Lee Hamm, who survived a horrifically botched execution in Alabama’s Holman Correctional Facility in 2018, died late last month in prison. The cause was
Pervis Payne, who has been on Tennessee’s death row for 34 years, and has always maintained his innocence, will be resentenced to life in prison
Oklahoma executed Bigler Stouffer II on Thursday. He was 79, the second-oldest prisoner to be killed in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated
Right up to and including the commutation of his death sentence, the state of Oklahoma acted with deliberate malice and cruelty to Julius Jones. Yes,
When the California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code released a draft report in May, recommending that California abolish its death penalty, it highlighted
A year ago, wrongful convictions and the death penalty were not something that crossed my mind very often. As a Japanese major, I generally stay
“I want to share with you my absolute conviction that the death penalty must disappear from the entire world as it is a shame for
In Japan, death row prisoners wake up every day wondering if it will be their last. Execution dates are not set in Japan so the prisoners don’t know when they will be executed until right before they are hanged (the only method Japan uses).
Source: The Washington Post The Trump administration is engaged in a full-court press to execute as many people on federal death row as possible before Jan. 20. Attorney General William P. Barr has already overseen eight executions since July. Five more are scheduled before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has pledged to end the federal death penalty. This killing spree by a lame-duck president is unmatched in modern
Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a brief in support of the appeal of Don’te McDaniel, a man on death row convicted of murder. Newsom argued in the amicus brief that “racial discrimination infects the administration of California’s death penalty.” Six present and past California District Attorneys filed a separate brief arguing that the death penalty is “unfair and racially biased”. Newsom cited research that demonstrates significant statistical differences charging the death
2020 demonstrates the random callous nature of the death penalty. Until July 7,2020, for 17 years, the federal government did not execute a single federal prisoner. With the Trump administration’s “tough on crime” policies, the executions began. Three executions in a row, followed by two more executions, and then two more the next month. These men, most in their 50’s, have been on death row for decades. In a flash,
Former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, a progressive prosecutor, has officially beat incumbent Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey. This is a significant victory in the largest District Attorney office in the nation. Mr. Gascón promises reduced incarceration, and increased scrutiny of police misconduct. As one of his first official acts, Mr. Gascón promises to end the death penalty in Los Angeles County. Read More Photo by Shawn
Source: The Atlantic “Strapped to a gurney, two body lengths from where I sat behind thick glass and a curtain, Ricky Ray Rector groaned each time his executioner jabbed a lethal needle into his beefy arm. Once. Twice. Again and again and again—for 20 minutes, the cop-killer whimpered before I watched him die. Earlier that day, January 24, 1992, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton had left the presidential campaign trail to be
Why I Support Death Penalty Focus . . . by Colleen Tracy It is hard to say what sparked my interest in supporting the work to abolish the death penalty. Perhaps it was growing up in a Catholic Christian home passionate about Social Justice or the pin my good friend wore to school one day asking the simple question “Why do we kill people who kill people to show people
