
Join us for a conversation on “Torture and the Death Penalty”
Death Penalty Focus is marking the 20th World Day Against the Death Penalty with a webinar featuring a discussion on “Torture and the Death Penalty”

Death Penalty Focus is marking the 20th World Day Against the Death Penalty with a webinar featuring a discussion on “Torture and the Death Penalty”

“His story, of a young boy victimized by addiction, poverty, violence, the foster care system and later the justice system, profoundly touched me then, and

Alabama may not kill Alan Eugene Miller on Thursday, AL.com reports. A federal judge issued a stay for Miller yesterday after Miller argued he had

Toforest Johnson, who has been on Alabama’s death row since 1998 for a crime he likely didn’t commit, is asking the state Supreme Court for

Conservatives love to blame high violent crime rates on progressives and their criminal justice reform efforts, especially in California, which is why the recently-released state

South Carolina’s plan to execute men and women by electrocution or firing squad constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state Constitution, a

Albert Woodfox, who spent 42 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as Angola Prison) for a crime he didn’t commit before

The American Psychological Association called on the courts, Congress, and state legislatures to ban the death penalty for people younger than 21, “based on scientific

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has issued a 60-day stay of execution for Richard Glossip. The stay is effective September 22, the day Glossip was scheduled

In any case charged from this day forward, LADA will not seek the death penalty. In any case currently charged with special circumstances where the Office has not previously announced it would seek death, the case shall now proceed as a non-death penalty case. Read More

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