Alabama man on death row files lawsuit challenging constitutionality of nitrogen gas execution
“The State of Alabama has a bad track record of botched executions,” a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s new method of execution by nitrogen gas
“The State of Alabama has a bad track record of botched executions,” a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s new method of execution by nitrogen gas
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation plans to complete the transfer of those on San Quentin’s death row to other prisons around the state
Robert Badinter, the former French Minister of Justice and the man who, in 1981, in one of his first acts as justice minister in the
In California’s Riverside County, two Black men challenging their separate death penalty prosecutions under the California Racial Justice Act (AB 256) were granted evidentiary hearings
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Department of Corrections Executive Director Steven Harpe are asking the state Court of Criminal Appeals to set the execution
In her essay in Politico Magazine, USF School of Law Professor Lara Bazelon says the downward trend in death sentences that began after hitting a
The U.S. Department of Justice decision to seek the death penalty in the case of Payton Gendron, accused of killing 10 people in a racist
In New York, the man accused of killing ten people in a Buffalo supermarket in May 2022 in a racially-motivated shooting will be facing the
A Florida prosecutor announced late last month that he will seek the death penalty in a child sexual assault case. The indictment is a test
Late last month, Pennsylvania House Bill 999 to repeal the death penalty passed out of the Judiciary Committee on a vote of 15-10. It was supported by all the Democrats and one of the Republicans on the committee. Democratic state Rep. Chris Rabb sponsored the bill, arguing that the repeal is imperative for many reasons, including its astronomical cost and the high risk of executing an innocent person. City &
Texas killed 53-year-old Brent Ray Brewer by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on November 9. And one week later, on November 16, the state executed David Renteria. The state killed a total of eight men this year. It has executed 579 individuals since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Brewer was executed for the April 1990 death
Texas killed 53-year-old Brent Ray Brewer by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville last week. Brewer was executed for the April 1990 death of 66-year-old Robert Laminack during a robbery. He was 19 at the time. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Brewer’s 1991 death sentence, finding that finding that the court failed to give his jurors the instructions that they could consider mitigating factors in his
Gallup released a poll this week that found that for the first time since 2000 when it began asking whether respondents believed the death penalty was fairly applied, 50% said it was not fairly imposed, while 47% believe it is. “This represents a five-point increase in the percentage who think it is applied unfairly since the prior measurement in 2018,” Gallup stated. The pollsters noted that the number of those
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that the state attorney general can proceed with his plan to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas, CBS News reports. It was a 6-2 decision by the all-Republican court. No other state has ever attempted to kill a person using nitrogen gas, although Oklahoma and Mississippi have also included the method in their execution protocols. Smith, who is one of two men
In Florida, a new law that would allow a person convicted of the rape of a minor to be sentenced to death went into effect earlier this month. The bill, which establishes a minimum sentence of life without parole, was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May. The law defies the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), which found that “the Eighth Amendment categorically rules
University of San Francisco School of Law professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever explained “Why California’s reinvestigation of an infamous quadruple murder case is a sham” in their op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle last weekend. They argue that a 250-page report by a law firm appointed by California Gov. Newsom to investigate the case of Kevin Cooper, sentenced to death in 1985 for a quadruple murder in San
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled an execution date for Casey McWhorter for a 30-hour window between midnight November 16, and 6 a.m., November 17, the Montgomery Advertiser reports. McWhorter was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Edward Lee Williams. He was 18 when he was sentenced to death by a jury in a 10-2 vote. He had four accomplices, including the 15-year-old son of the victim, but
We wanted to update you on the Kevin Cooper case, which we have written extensively about over the years. Cooper, who has been on California’s death row for 35 years, is asking California Gov. Gavin Newsom to reject the findings of an investigation into his case by the law firm Morrison Foerster that was released in January. Cooper, through his law firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, included his request in