While we’re on the subject. . .
March 21, 2023
“It is not for nothing that some critics refer to it as the ‘criminal legal system.’ The word ‘justice’ must be earned, and too often,
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Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain
March 21, 2023
“I was haunted by Russ before I even knew him. I tried to wrap my mind around what it was like to sit across from
In brief: March 2023
March 21, 2023
In Texas, corrections officials executed two men this month, Gary Green and Arthur Brown, Jr. Texas has killed five men this year. With last week’s
Texas withdraws Andre Thomas’s execution warrant
March 21, 2023
A state district judge withdrew the April 5 execution warrant for Andre Thomas earlier this month to give Thomas’s lawyers time to prepare for a
CA Gov. Newsom to turn San Quentin State Prison into “San Quentin Rehabilitation Center”
March 21, 2023
Declaring that he wants to “literally transform this place,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that San Quentin State Prison will convert from a
South Carolina and Florida want to expand their death penalty statutes
March 7, 2023
Bucking a trend of decreasing support for the death penalty in the United States, Republican-dominated legislatures in South Carolina and Florida are attempting to expand
Alabama to tinker with the machinery of death again
March 3, 2023
Three months after a series of botched executions caused Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to call for a pause in state killing to allow time for
The execution of Donald Dillbeck
February 27, 2023
Florida corrections officials killed Donald Dillbeck last Thursday. They did so despite the extensive evidence of his horrific sexual and physical abuse as a child,
Donald Spoto
February 27, 2023
Former Death Penalty Focus board member Donald Spoto died earlier this month. He was 81. His death from a brain hemorrhage was announced by his
While we’re on the subject . . .
February 27, 2023
“Justice Department standards on federal death penalty called confusing,” was the headline in a recent Washington Post article. The paper interviewed federal defense lawyers and
In brief: February 2023
February 27, 2023
The Death Penalty Information Center reports that the first state killing this year occurred on January 3, when Missouri executed Amber McLaughlin. Texas followed one
The incomprehensible injustice of the Andre Thomas case
February 27, 2023
The State of Texas plans to execute Andre Thomas on April 5. Throughout his life, Thomas sought treatment for his severe mental illness symptoms, including
SCOTUS grants Glossip a stay of execution
May 8, 2023
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Richard Glossip a stay of execution to give the Court time to review two pending petitions. Glossip was
In brief: April 2023
April 27, 2023
In Texas, a district court judge withdrew the April 26 execution date for Ivan Cantu. CBS Texas reports that the postponement was granted to give
Washington State abolishes its death penalty
April 27, 2023
“It’s official. The death penalty is no longer in state law,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted last week after signing SB 5087. In a follow-up
Florida now has the lowest threshold for death sentencing in the nation
April 27, 2023
The bill Florida Gov. Ron De Santis signed into law last week will allow juries to recommend a death sentence with an 8-4 vote, the
Oklahoma Pardon & Parole Board denies Glossip clemency
April 27, 2023
Not even the unprecedented presence of Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who attended the hearing to advocate for clemency for Richard Glossip, was enough to
CA bill allowing judicial review of old sentences passes its first hurdle
April 27, 2023
SB 94, which would allow judges to review death penalty and life-without-parole sentences for people who have been imprisoned for at least 20 years, passed
While we’re on the subject. . .
April 25, 2023
In his guest essay, “San Quentin Could Be the Future of Prisons in America,” in the New York Times, Bill Keller writes that “there are
Louis Gaskin executed in Florida despite a non-unanimous jury vote
April 13, 2023
The State of Florida killed Louis Gaskin on Wednesday. The state has now killed more than 100 people since the death penalty was reinstated in
Oklahoma AG says Richard Glossip’s conviction should be set aside
April 10, 2023
“After thorough and serious deliberation, I have concluded that I cannot stand behind the murder conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip,” Oklahoma Attorney General
