“Justice Thurgood Marshall was correct in 1972 when he predicted that if people were better informed about the death penalty, they would reject it. That
In his book, book, Six Amendments, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for revising six of the amendments to the Constitution, including the
Death Penalty Focus has filed an amicus letter in support of a motion filed last month by death penalty lawyer and DPF board member Robert
“Anyone who claims to believe in the sanctity of life, truth, or justice cannot seriously defend the application of the death penalty in Pennsylvania,” Philadelphia
In Tennessee, the Tennessean reports Stephen West was executed by electric chair last night. He opted for electrocution over lethal injection, a choice available to
In his multi-part series, “We need to fix forensics. But how?” in the Washington Post, Radley Balko poses six questions to 14 experts who work
The “machinery of death” will shift into high gear in the next few months if the Department of Justice gets its way. On Monday, Attorney
Last month we reported on a case that may have enormous implications for the future of the death penalty in California. Death Penalty Focus has
The mass shootings last weekend have caused unimaginable pain and suffering. Dozens of people are dead. Hundreds of family members and friends are grieving. Entire
“I just couldn’t believe they could do this to me. I came out broke and homeless.” William (Bill) Richards is referring to the San Bernardino County prosecutors and investigators who, in 1993, arrested Richards for the murder of his wife, Pamela. Over the next four years, they tried him four times before finally getting a first degree murder conviction in the fourth trial. What finally convinced a jury to convict
When Domineque Ray was executed by the state of Alabama last night his spiritual advisor was not in the death chamber with him. The reason? Ray was a Muslim, and citing security concerns, corrections officials would not allow Imam Yusef Maisonet in the room. Instead, he had to watch Ray die from the room next door, through a glass window. Ray’s lawyer, Spencer Hahn, said in a statement that “I
This Saturday, January 26, at 9 p.m. (PST and EST), CBS will air a two-hour “48 Hours” program about Kevin Cooper’s case. Kevin has been on California’s death row for almost 34 years for a quadruple murder he didn’t commit. Prosecutors said Cooper, who had escaped from a minimum-security prison and had been hiding out near the scene of the murder, killed Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica,
Friends, we have work to do. Today we have to start over because in the end, Jerry Brown walked away. In spite of pleas from around the world, he walked away after eight years, leaving our state with the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere. He did it without explanation, justification, or apology. Six former governors, all of whom granted clemency in their states at a time when support
Governor Jerry Brown left office on Monday after weeks of discussion regarding the extension of clemency to the 740 condemned prisoners in California. Among all the conversation, there appeared to be a lot of confusion about the use of some of the legal terminology and what in fact clemency (and associated terms) mean. With a new governor, Gavin Newsom, at the helm, these terms are still important to get right.
Proposition 66, titled the Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act, which passed by a slim majority in California in 2016, is a deeply flawed initiative that seeks to speed up the death penalty by eliminating many of the legal safeguards that ensure the fairness of the criminal justice process and prevent wrongful executions. DPF Board Member Nancy Haydt, a criminal defense lawyer who represents capital clients in trial and on
When Jerry Brown announced on Christmas Eve that he was granting 143 pardons and 131 commutations, he also announced that he was granting Kevin Cooper’s request for DNA testing on evidence collected from the scene of the quadruple murder that he was convicted of committing. The governor’s Executive Order calls for “limited retesting of certain physical evidence in the case and appointing a retired judge as a special master to oversee this
In Nevada, 48-year-old Scott Dozier apparently died by suicide on death row at Ely State Prison last Friday. The Huffington Post reports that Dozier apparently died by hanging. Dozier had been on death row since 2008 for the murders of Jeremiah Miller, who was killed in 2002, and Jasen Green, whose body was found in an Arizona desert in 2001. Dozier had given up all appeals, and had requested that his execution go
In his New Republic article, “Why Aren’t Democratic Governors Pardoning More Prisoners?”, Matt Ford looks at how few Democratic governors pardon or commute the sentences of prisoners, even though it is in their power to do so. Ford singles out former Gov. Jerry Brown, who ignored the 739 men and women on California’s death row while issuing pardons for at least 1,332 prisoners since 2011, “quadrupling the number issued by the preceding
