SCOTUS hears arguments re: Ayestas & rights of the indigent
November 9, 2017
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
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
In Texas, 47-year-old Ruben Ramirez Cardenas, a Mexican citizen, was executed on Wednesday for the 1997 killing of his 16-year-old cousin, Mayra Laguna. He was
“We have lost one of the best among us, but each day when we do something good for a client, we are renewing our connection
In an op-ed in AZ Central, Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice president Amy Kalman explains why she and more than 20 former Arizona judges, former
Jack Greene was granted an emergency stay by the Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday, two days before he was scheduled to be executed. Greene’s attorneys
“Plagued by wrongful convictions, high costs, and delays, the death penalty has proven to be ineffective and incompatible with a number of core conservative principles.
Americans’ support for the death penalty is now at 55 percent, the lowest number since 1972, according to a poll released by Gallup late last
Death Penalty Focus is partnering with CharityBuzz to bring you two new charity auctions–your chance to meet Ed Asner and Ed Begley, Jr.–all while supporting our
Last night, members of the Bay Area death penalty community gathered to honor the late Scharlette Holdman, a woman who, as SF attorney Andy Love
Fourteen years ago, the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment issued a report recommending 85 reforms designed to minimize the possibility that an innocent person would be executed under that state’s death penalty scheme. One year later, Southern California criminal defense attorney (and DPF board member) Robert Sanger analyzed the report in light of California’s death penalty system, and concluded that more than 92 percent of the same reforms were needed
Angela Corey, the Florida State Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit, whose jurisdiction included Duval County, which had the highest number of death sentences per capita in the nation, lost her reelection bid in the Republican primary late last month. Corey, whom the Nation suggested could be “the cruelest prosecutor in America,” was trounced by Melissa Nelson, a former prosecutor, 64 percent to 26 percent. Corey is probably best known
“I described to the jury how I had to tell my six-year old daughter that she would never see her daddy again. I told them about her putting a flower on the coffin, hugging his coffin. I pulled no punches, let me tell you. I made that jury understand how much pain I was in, how much pain my family was in. I was very persuasive.”
A man who was wrongfully convicted of murder in New Orleans, and served 18 years, 14 on death row, in Angola State Prison before being freed, filed a petition earlier this month asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what he describes as “a disturbing pattern of lawlessness, corruption and prosecutorial misconduct by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.” John Thompson is asking the department’s Civil Rights Division to
Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court issued an order declaring that the state’s death penalty law was unconstitutional. This makes Delaware the 20th state (plus the District of Columbia) to ban the death penalty, and the eighth state to end the death penalty in the last nine years. This decision also raises constitutional questions about the death penalty in California and other states. In a 148-page opinion, the court said
“If putting him to death would bring my mama back, I’d want him dead. But that won’t happen, so what’s the point of killing him? I’m just trying to do the best I can and honor the memory of my mama. I believe in my heart she wouldn’t want this boy put to death.”
In Utah, legislators are planning to introduce a bill that would “fast-track” the death penalty appeals process to compete with a bill calling for repeal of the death penalty. The repeal bill passed the Senate earlier this year but failed to make it to the House floor before the end of its session. KSL reports that state fiscal analysts estimated a capital murder trial costs $1.6 million more than a
Former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter. California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp. Former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso. Don Heller, author of California’s Death Penalty Law. Ron Briggs, former El Dorado County Supervisor who led the campaign for California’s Death Penalty Law in 1978. Gil Garcetti, former Los Angeles County District Attorney. These are just a few of the leaders, lawmakers,
Quin Denvir, a long-time criminal defense attorney — with significant stints as the State Public Defender and the Federal Defender for the Eastern District of California — embodied the zealous advocate, representing countless criminal defendants with fierce determination and more than occasional brilliance. He and I were co-counsel for Tom Thompson, who was executed on July 14, 1998 –a case that was fraught with legal errors, arbitrary rulings and mind-blowing unfairness, with serious questions of Tom’s guilt remaining