1,500 executions; 166 exonerations
July 11, 2019
Two milestones were reached in June, starkly illustrating how broken the death penalty in the United States is. In North Carolina, prosecutors formally dismissed all
Two milestones were reached in June, starkly illustrating how broken the death penalty in the United States is. In North Carolina, prosecutors formally dismissed all
New Mexico closed its death row late last month. The last two condemned prisoners, Timothy Allen and Robert Fry, had their sentences vacated by the
In his chapter, “Capital Punishment,” in the American Bar Association’s The State of Criminal Justice 2019, Ronald J. Tabak reviews significant developments through the past
A report published today by the ACLU, “A Closer Look at Los Angeles County’s Troubling Death-Penalty Track Record,” finds that under LA District Attorney Jackie
Early last month, a small group of California district attorneys organized what it called a “Victims of Murder Justice Tour” in a few cities around
“I have no reason to believe government officials are deliberately hiding the way they pay for capital trials, but I do believe taxpayers in death
Twenty-one years after New Hampshire legislator Renny Cushing introduced his first bill to repeal the death penalty, he was finally successful last month when the
The machinery of death was in high gear in the South in May. Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida each killed a man, and Alabama executed two.
Stating that, “After the Florida Supreme Court’s decision on the death penalty, it became abundantly clear to me that the death penalty law in the
Nicola White is a London-based artist whose work is fashioned from the fragments of wood, glass, pottery, and other artifacts she finds on the banks of rivers in London. It’s called “mudlarking,” a term dating from the late 19th century to describe the poor who would scavenge the banks of the Thames for anything they could find that could be sold. White takes these objects she pulls from the mud
Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and mother wounded in a mass shooting in Seal Beach, California in 2011, has not given up her crusade to end the death penalty in California. Webb, who has spent years representing DPF in seminars and panel discussions around the state, was part of a panel sponsored by the PEOPLE’S (People Enraged Over Prosecutors and Law Enforcement) Coalition in Orange County earlier this week.
Malcolm Alexander was convicted in New Orleans in 1980 of a rape in a case where the only evidence against him was the eyewitness identification by the victim who was attacked from behind, in a trial that took less than a day from beginning to verdict. His trial lawyer didn’t give an opening statement, closing argument, or present any witnesses in his defense. The fact that the victim identified Malcolm
On February 10, from 2-3:30 p.m., in San Francisco, we are co-sponsoring with the Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, San Francisco chapter, and the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee an event featuring a conversation with Kevin by phone, and his attorney live, about Kevin’s case in particular, and the injustice of the death penalty in general. Kevin is one of about 18 people on San Quentin’s death row
This Friday, January 26, is a day of meditation, prayer and action for San Quentin death row prisoner Jarvis Masters, who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of a prison guard, Sgt. Howell Burchfield, in 1985. Jarvis was in another part of the prison when the guard was killed. Another prisoner was convicted of the actual stabbing, and a third man of ordering the killing. Of the three accused, only
It’s easy to forget that California is a state with the death penalty on its books, and it’s not hard to see why. The state has not executed anyone in 12 years as January 2018. Nevertheless, California has sentenced nearly 1,000 people to death since the current system was adopted in 1978. There have been 13 executions in that time, and we currently house more people under sentences of death
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case of Keith Tharpe, who was sentenced to death in 1991 in Georgia, to a lower court to reconsider whether a juror who voted to put him to death did so because Tharpe is black. Tharpe’s appeal was based on an affidavit that his lawyers filed of an interview they conducted with Barney Gattie seven years after the trial. In the interview,
Doyle Lee Hamm has been on Alabama’s death row for 30 years. He is 60 years old, and is terminally ill with cranial and lymphatic cancer, which he has been battling for almost four years. Nevertheless, the Alabama Supreme Court signed Hamm’s death warrant last month, and he is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on February 22. “When judges schedule a lethal injection for a terminally ill prisoner
There are six major-party candidates running for governor of California, and according to a recent report in the San Francisco Chronicle, all but one is opposed to the death penalty. “As the death penalty has gradually lost its once-overwhelming public support, it may also have lost its effectiveness as a wedge issue among office-seekers,” says reporter Bob Egelko. The four Democrats who are running include Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former