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
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
“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:
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
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
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
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
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
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
Almost six years ago, a man walked into a hair salon and killed his ex-wife and seven other people in Seal Beach, California. One of his victims was Laura Webb-Elody, whose mother, Hattie Stretz, was shot but survived. And for six years, Bethany Webb, sister of Laura, and daughter of Hattie, has been asking that the killer, Scott Dekraai, be given a life without parole sentence. Webb was not alone,
William Morva suffers from delusional disorder, a disease that makes him believe things that aren’t true. It’s a serious mental illness, similar to schizophrenia, and it caused him to commit two murders for which the state of Virginia now wants to execute him. He is scheduled to die on July 6. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has the power to grant William Morva clemency based on his mental illness. If you
On May 7, 2017, Death Penalty Focus awarded Sen. Bernie Sanders with its top honor, the Abolition Award, for his commitment to ending executions in the United States. He then delivered a thoughtful, moving acceptance speech to those at the event. We now have the video, so you can see it as well.
Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson abolished the death penalty in his state in 2009 because, he says, “Empirical evidence and common sense convinced me that the death penalty is an ineffective deterrent, is unfairly applied and has become increasingly costly for states.” In an op-ed in the Washington Post today, Richardson says states like Arkansas, which carried out six executions in April, and Delaware, where the state’s House of
When the lawsuit against Proposition 66 was filed the day after it passed last November, plaintiffs Ron Briggs and the late John Van de Kamp challenged its constitutionality. Initially, the Supreme Court denied the stay until the election results were certified, allowing Briggs and Van de Kamp to amend the petition after certification. On December 19th, they filed again. As a result, the California Supreme Court stayed implementation of the
“If the death penalty is for the worst of the worst, then a person whose actions are driven by an illness over which he has no control can’t be defined as being the worst of the worst. And I have a hard time believing that 12 reasonable jurors who heard that evidence would have sentenced that person to death.” Dawn Davison is referring to her client, William Morva, who is
The death penalty continued to roil political waters in Florida in the last few weeks. Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by state Attorney General Pam Bondi to review an October 2016 state Supreme Court ruling requiring unanimous jury verdicts in death penalty sentencing. That ruling meant that as many as 200 condemned inmates who were sentenced after 2002 could get resentencing hearings. As is customary,
In Alabama, Robert Melson, who was sentenced to death in 1994 for killing three people, was executed last night, the state’s second execution in two weeks. Melson had been granted a temporary stay last week, but an order signed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas lifted the stay on Tuesday. Melson’s challenge argued that the state’s three-drug lethal injection cocktail “has failed to work properly.” Four other death row inmates
“For justification of any punishment go back to the Enlightenment,” University of Baltimore Law Professor John Bessler says. “Philosophers such as Montesquieu and Cesare Beccaria said you can only justify a punishment if it’s absolutely necessary. There were no penitentiaries back then; today we have prisons. One cannot say it’s absolutely necessary to put someone to death. We need to continue legal challenges to the death penalty, but there are
