Support for death penalty lowest in decades
October 22, 2018
The majority of Americans no longer believe the death penalty is applied fairly. For the first time since Gallup polled on this issue in 2000,
The majority of Americans no longer believe the death penalty is applied fairly. For the first time since Gallup polled on this issue in 2000,
There is nothing new about comics depicting tragedy. Comics and graphic novels have been covering serious topics for years. Art Spiegelman’s classic graphic novel, Maus,
Update: On October 10, 2018, the Malaysian government announced that the country will abolish the death penalty for all crimes. Around 1,200 people are on
In the words of Bob Dylan, “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.” The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing
“The eighth amendment isn’t just a window. It’s a mirror. And what the Court has said is that our norms, our values are implicated when
(This is a developing story. We will continue to update it as events unfold.) Yesterday, just a few hours before Edmund Zagorski was scheduled to be executed,
Although court documents state that a member of the Oklahoma jury that sentenced Julius Jones to death for the July 1999 fatal shooting of 45-year-old Paul Howell
In his column, “Justice Delayed, With a Life on the Line,” in last Sunday’s New York Times, Nicholas Kristof again writes about the case of Kevin
In North Carolina, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation released a report, “Unequal Justice: How Obsolete Laws and Unfair Trials Created North Carolina’s Outsized Death
“If, from the tangled morass surrounding the death penalty generally, and Morva’s case, specifically — Governor McAuliffe is to emerge from his life or death decision a standard-bearer of modern-day democratic values — a truly viable candidate for Commander-in-Chief in 2020 (and beyond) — there is only one action he can take, that he must take: McAuliffe must spare Mr. Morva.” That’s the stance the LA Post Examiner just took
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