In Brief – June 2021
June 9, 2021
In Arizona, corrections officials are preparing to execute death row prisoners with the same gas the Nazis used in mass killings at its concentration camps,
In Arizona, corrections officials are preparing to execute death row prisoners with the same gas the Nazis used in mass killings at its concentration camps,
“I am confident there will come a day when we will have abolished the death penalty, and we will wonder how we could possibly have
For Joe Giarratano, Virginia’s abolition of the death penalty was a personal victory. He was on Virginia’s death row for 38 years before being released
Last week, the California Racial Justice Act for All (AB 256), which addresses institutionalized and implicit racial bias in criminal cases, passed the state Assembly and
The California Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments from both sides on an appeal by a Los Angeles man who says his death sentence violated
It was unanimous. “Eliminating the death penalty is a critical step towards creating a fair and equitable justice system for all in California, as the
Declaring that, “In cases where the government seeks to impose the ultimate punishment of death, I need to be satisfied that all relevant evidence is
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mary Kate DeLucco 415-243-0143 mary@deathpenalty.org — Sacramento (June 1, 2021) — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered an independent investigation of
Last year we passed the Racial Justice Act & vowed to come back to make the bill retroactive. We must pass #RJA4All to #ConfrontRacism not only in the future, but for Black & Brown people languishing in jails & prisons right now. Justice delayed is justice denied. #AB256
Two-and-a-half years ago, Kevin Cooper’s lawyer, Norman Hile, submitted to Governor Jerry Brown a 235-page clemency petition, pleading for advanced DNA testing of evidence from the quadruple murder that sent Cooper to death row in 1985. The appeal garnered enormous support, from former American Bar Association President Paulette Brown and four California law school deans, to five of the original jurors who signed declarations expressing concerns about the case. Last
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