Voices: William Richards
February 8, 2019
“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
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“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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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,
In terms of the criminal justice system, it can be argued that the most important locally elected official is the district attorney. So, in last month’s election, while many people focused their attention on House and Senate candidates, some of the most important races were at the local level. In California, the most significant – and surprising — development was the defeat of longtime San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos
Next Tuesday, 34-year-old Christopher Young is scheduled to be executed in Texas for the 2004 murder of a 55-year-old convenience store owner. Exactly three months later, on October 17, Ohio plans to execute 61-year-old Raymond Tibbetts for the 1997 murder of his 67-year-old landlord. Young is black, Tibbetts is white. Young was 22 years old when he was arrested for killing Hasmukhbhai Patel during a robbery. Tibbetts was 40 when
Last Friday, Japan executed doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara and his six followers, who had been sentenced to death for the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 13 people in 1995. And, while this killing shocked the Japanese people for its unprecedented scale, it was not a surprise for those who had been following the case. The transfer of the condemned prisoners to different prisons had indicated
Scott Dozier In Alabama, AL.com reports that eight death row prisoners are dropping their lawsuit challenging the state’s three-drug lethal injection method because they have decided to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, which was approved as an execution method in March. “Because they’ve now opted to die by nitrogen hypoxia instead of lethal injection, their claims in the lawsuit are moot,” AL.com says. The story includes a statement by the Federal
In a New York Times op-ed, “What Happens When Prosecutors Break the Law?” defense attorney Nina Morrison focuses on the case of Suffolk County, New York prosecutor Glenn Kurtzrock who was found to have suppressed evidence in five murder cases, and in spite of being fired and having all five cases overturned, “hasn’t been charged with a single crime. Not fraud, not tampering with government records, not contempt of court.”
An American pharmaceutical company filed a lawsuit blocking Nevada’s scheduled execution of Scott Dozier on Wednesday. New Jersey-based Alvogen said the state had “illegitimately acquired” its product, midazolam, to use as one of the drugs in its new, untested, three-drug lethal injection cocktail. “Past attempts by other states to use the medicine in lethal injections have been extremely controversial, and have led to widespread concern that prisoners have been exposed
The son of the man whose life Christopher Young took 14 years ago has released a powerful video asking the State of Texas not to execute Chris this coming Tuesday. But in spite of his eloquence, and the compassion and forgiveness Mitesh Patel expresses, the TX Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Chris Young’s clemency application by a vote of 6 to 0. It’s hard to believe not one person
In Louisiana in 1974, at the age of 16, Gary Tyler was sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit. He was arrested for allegedly shooting a white boy during racially-charged protests over school integration in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. Convicted and sentenced to die by an all-white jury, he was, at the time, the youngest person on death row in the United States, and spent eight years
I am furious! I am disgusted. I am an American and this perfidy is being carried out in my name. That the would-be ruler of this country could be so twisted as to conceive of a policy that forcibly separates children from their parents is an outrage, a barbarity, an atrocity. That his sinister, cretinous batboy could enact such a policy under the guise of protecting me from the purported
