Robert Lewis, Jr. is off California’s death row after 34 years. Yesterday, the California Supreme Court overturned Lewis’s death sentence, finding “substantial evidence” that he
“In 34 years at The New York Times, I’ve never come across a case in America as outrageous as Kevin Cooper’s.” That’s what NY Times
When Vicente Benavides walked out of San Quentin State Prison late last month, the first prisoner in recent memory to walk off California’s death row,
What is a district attorney? The California primary elections will take place on June 5. There’s a lot at stake, in state and around the
The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided that Walter Leroy Moody wasn’t too old to be executed, but Russell Bucklew may be too sick. Moody was
Late last month, the New Hampshire House and Senate voted to repeal the state’s death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life without
In Massachusetts, some Republicans are calling for reinstatement of the death penalty for the murder of law enforcement officials in the wake of the killing
Living on Death Row examines the “psychology of waiting to die.” Edited by Hans Toch, James R. Acker and Vincent Martin Bonventre, the book presents
The Alaska man accused of killing five people and wounding six in a shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in January 2017 will be sentenced
In California, Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye told a group of reporters that she expects Proposition 66, which passed in November 2016 on the dubious promise to speed up executions, to face more legal challenges. The state’s high court upheld the measure earlier this year, but Cantil-Sakauye did not take part in the ruling because she is on the Judicial Council, which will be implementing it. Capital Public Radio
In “Two Murder Convictions for One Fatal Shot,” in the November 13 issue of the New Yorker, Ken Armstrong examines a disturbingly frequent practice by prosecutors in which they present contradictory theories of how a crime was committed. “The most common scenario involves a fatal shot: the prosecutor puts the gun in the hand of one defendant, then another,” he writes. “At least twenty-nine men have been condemned in cases
“In the Executioner’s Shadow” is a documentary that examines the death penalty from the per-spective of three very different people, and their very different experiences: The parents of a young woman who was raped and murdered; a middle-aged woman who was injured in the Boston Marathon bombing; a corrections officer who performed 62 executions. The two filmmakers, Maggie Burnette Stogner and Richard Stack, have been working on the film for
Application Deadline: January 22, 2018 Death Penalty Focus (DPF), a national nonprofit organization founded in 1988 to abolish the death penalty, is seeking an Executive Director with excellent leadership, advocacy, organizing, management, fundraising, and public speaking skills. The successful candidate will have the vision and commitment to lead the fight to end to the death penalty in California and throughout the country. Based in California, DPF is one of the
It’s not just amazing art that’s being produced on San Quentin’s death row, there is also some insightful, thought-provoking literature and poetry being written as well. One example can be found at the website Sacred Eye of the Falcon, which features the work of Steve Champion. He’s been on death row since 1981, and since that time, he has immersed himself in studying African history, philosophy, political science, and comparative
It’s not often we can share inspiring or uplifting information these days, but Nicola White, a London-based artist, has been working with prisoners at San Quentin to help them get their paintings, essays, poetry and other writings out in the world. So she created this beautiful website to showcase the work. It will take your breath away. Each artist has his own page, and the artwork ranges from pencil and
Death Penalty Focus is partnering with CharityBuzz to bring you FOUR new charity auctions–your chance to meet Patty Jenkins, Jeff Goldblum, Ben and Jerry, and Misha Collins–all while supporting our work. Meet Wonder Woman Director Patty Jenkins & Visit the Set of TNT’s New Series One Day She’ll Darken in LA Patty Jenkins is a writer and director best known for directing Wonder Woman, the Warner Bros./DC Comics blockbuster of
When Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last week to resentence Bobby Moore to life in prison, she may have finally put an end to an extremely controversial and bewilderingly unscientific evaluation that the CCA has been relying on to determine whether a capital defendant is intellectually disabled. “I’m doing what I believe the law requires,” the Houston Chronicle quoted Ogg as saying.
Carlos Ayestas was sentenced to death in Texas in 1997 for the murder of 67-year-old Santiaga Paneque two years earlier. But because a judge did not allocate the funds that the federal Criminal Justice Act allows “upon a finding that investigative, expert, or other services are reasonably necessary for the representation of the defendant,” no witnesses were presented during Ayestas’ penalty phase to testify that he was a diagnozed schizophrenic,
