(Editor’s Note: The front page of this newsletter spells Joe Giarattano’s name incorrectly in the headline. We would correct it, but the computer program we use won’t
Check out this piece in the New Republic which looks at how (shamefully) few Democratic governors pardon or commute the sentences of prisoners, even though
Dear Governor Brown: On behalf of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ), the statewide organization of public and private criminal defense attorneys, we are writing
California Governor Jerry Brown today ordered new tests on items from the crime scene that sent Kevin Cooper to death row in 1985. The governor’s
Momentum is building, but time is running out. We need your help for one last push. Gov. Jerry Brown, please do not leave people behind on death row when you leave office.
Six former governors called on California Gov. Jerry Brown this week to grant clemency to the 740 men and women on death row, stating that
The California Supreme Court last week unanimously reversed the death sentence for Dora Buenrostro, who was convicted of killing her three children, Susana, Vicente, and
“New death sentences and executions remained near historic lows in 2018 and a twentieth state [Washington] abolished capital punishment, as public opinion polls, election results,
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice obtains its lethal injection drugs “from a pharmacy that regulators have repeatedly cited for dangerous practices,” according to a
The State of Texas plans to execute 34-year-old Christopher Young next month. He was sentenced to death in 2006 for the murder of 55-year-old convenience store owner Hasmukhbhai Patel. But the Christopher Young who was sentenced to death 12 years ago is not the same person. That 22-year-old was a gang member, and a self-confessed alcoholic and drug abuser. This Chris Young is a thoughtful, caring, gifted artist, who says,
In a unanimous vote, the San Francisco Labor Council, which is affiliated with 150 unions, and represents more than 100 thousand union members and their families, passed a resolution this week calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to grant Kevin Cooper’s appeal for advanced DNA testing, “and grant him a reprieve from the death penalty.” The resolution lists 13 reasons why Cooper’s case needs to be investigated, and DNA testing to
The DPF Board of Directors announced this week that longtime social and criminal justice advocate Magdaleno Rose-Avila has been appointed to the position of Executive Director. Announcing the decision, DPF President Mike Farrell said,”I couldn’t be happier to announce that Leno has signed on to lead Death Penalty Focus, an organization he has supported for many years. Leno’s commitment to social and criminal justice is demonstrated by his lifelong work
Bobby James Moore will not be leaving Texas’ death row any time soon. On Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Moore is not too intellectually disabled to execute. The state’s high court said it was basing its 5-3 ruling on current clinical standards, as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a March 2017 ruling, SCOTUS found that Moore was improperly sentenced to death because the state
When the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled to overturn the death sentence of Robert Lewis Jr. late last month finding “substantial evidence” that he is intellectually disabled, it “set a strong precedent on Atkins law,” Lewis’s attorney, Robert M. Sanger, says. In Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the intellectually disabled constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. However, the decision left it
“In 34 years at the New York Times, I’ve never come across a case in America as outrageous as Kevin Cooper’s,” Nicholas Kristof wrote in a recent column about Kevin Cooper and the stunning injustice of his case. Cooper, who is 59, was sentenced to death for the murder of four people in a suburb of Los Angeles in June 1983. He has been on San Quentin’s death row for
The ACLU of Northern California won a round in court late last month when a Marin County Superior Court judge ruled that its challenge to California’s new lethal injection protocol could go forward. The California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation had tried to adopt the new protocol without revealing details and without opening it up to public comment. “The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has a history of issuing
In Texas, a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel said yesterday it will consider parts of an appeal that lawyers for death row prisoner Andre Thomas presented in oral argument, but not the question of whether he should not be executed because he is mentally ill. Thomas gouged out both of his own eyes, eating one of them. His lawyers argued that their client suffers from schizophrenia, and was “actively
Scott Turow notes that “Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner seems to be one of the few people in Illinois who misses the death penalty” in an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune. Rauner recently proposed reinstating the death penalty for mass killers and those who kill law enforcement officials. Among the many reasons it would be a mistake to bring it back, Turow says, is that the plan to apply it in
