Capital charges dismissed because of racism in LA gang case
June 28, 2022
The death penalty is off the table for Cleamon Johnson, an alleged Los Angeles gang leader accused of killing five people during the 1990s. Now,
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In brief: June 2022
June 27, 2022
In Texas, a state district judge rejected a request by Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez to cancel a death warrant for a man scheduled
While we’re on the subject . . .
June 22, 2022
In her piece, “How the Supreme Court Stopped Fighting the “Machinery of Death,” in Balls and Strikes, Yvette Borja looks at how far the U.S.
Webinar On-Demand: District Attorneys & The Death Penalty
June 16, 2022
On Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at 12 p.m. (Pacific) / 3 p.m. (Eastern), Death Penalty Focus hosted a one-hour webinar on the role district attorneys
Arizona executes Frank Atwood
June 9, 2022
Arizona killed Frank Atwood by lethal injection on Wednesday morning, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. The 66-year-old Atwood was sentenced
SCOTUS “hamstrings” death row prisoners’ 6th Amendment rights
June 7, 2022
In a decision that dissenting Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor called “perverse” and “illogical,” the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 late last month that death
Texas lawmaker would support death penalty moratorium in the wake of Lucio case
May 25, 2022
Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach, who led a bipartisan effort in the legislature to commute Melissa Lucio’s death sentence last month, told the host of
Arizona plans another execution in early June
May 25, 2022
Frank Atwood, imprisoned on death row since 1987 for the killing of an eight-year-old girl, is scheduled to be executed on June 8 in Arizona’s
Tennessee and Ohio stay executions over lethal injection concerns
May 25, 2022
A little over a week after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced he was staying five state killings planned for this year, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine
While we’re on the subject . . .
May 23, 2022
Closing the Slaughterhouse: The Inside Story of Death Penalty Abolition in Virginia is a comprehensive account of the remarkable effort that resulted in the abolition of
In brief: May 2022
May 19, 2022
There was a “worrying rise in executions and death sentences” last year, Amnesty International announced in its annual report this week. In 2021, at least
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine postpones another execution over lethal injection concerns
May 17, 2022
A little over a week after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced he was staying five state killings planned for this year, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine
While we’re on the subject . . .
October 18, 2022
In his piece, “The Supreme Court Shows No Signs of Slaking Its Thirst for Capital Punishment,” in The New Republic, Matt Ford points out that
On Demand: Torture and the Death Penalty: in Recognition of World Day Against the Death Penalty
October 11, 2022
On Monday, October 10, 2022, at noon Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern, in recognition of World Day Against the Death Penalty, DPF presented “A Conversation with Death
CA’s Racial Justice Act cited in murder conviction reversal of two men
October 10, 2022
The murder convictions of two East Contra Costa men were reversed by a Superior Court judge last week, who ruled that the prosecutor and police
Despite three botched executions, Alabama plans to kill a fourth man next month
October 6, 2022
(Update: Today, just two weeks after Alabama corrections officials botched the execution of Alan Miller, the state wants to try again. According to AL.com, the
In brief: September 2022
September 29, 2022
“Cole is a man who is so debilitated by paranoid schizophrenia and brain damage that he barely speaks or moves, crawls on his cell floor
Court finds South Carolina’s execution methods unconstitutional
September 29, 2022
South Carolina’s plan to execute men and women by electrocution or firing squad constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state Constitution, a
OK law firm releases more information casting doubt on Glossip’s case
September 29, 2022
Last week, the Oklahoma law firm Reed Smith released a third supplemental report on its investigation into the case of Richard Glossip. He was sentenced
Alabama’s cruel and unusual attempt to kill Alan Miller
September 29, 2022
It appears that for the second time in two months, Alabama corrections officials botched an execution with their rushed attempt to kill Alan Miller last
Thank you, survey respondents!
September 29, 2022
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