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
It passed by the slimmest of margins in November’s election, but Prop 66 has been stayed by the California Supreme Court since a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality was filed in the aftermath of the election. DPF board member and death penalty attorney Aundre Herron brings us up to date on the latest developments in the legal challenges facing this problematic initiative.
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
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Joan Baez, legendary defense attorneys Judy Clarke and Thomas H. Speedy Rice were honored last weekend at the Death Penalty Focus 26th
While the state of Arkansas continues with its plans to execute Kenneth Williams by lethal injection tonight, his lawyers are trying to obtain a stay
Guardian reporter Jacob Rosenberg was one of the witnesses to the execution of Marcel Williams, who was the second man put to death by the
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe earlier today commuted the death sentence of Ivan Teleguz, who was scheduled to be executed this Tuesday. There was no physical
Two Arkansas death row inmates, Bruce Ward and Don Davis, will not be executed tonight. The Arkansas Supreme Court this afternoon granted stays of executions
The Guardian is reporting that lawyers for the seven men who are scheduled to be executed over the span of 11 days starting next Monday
Alabama will no longer give judges the final say in whether a defendant is sentenced to death; that responsibility will lie with the jury.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Shinn v. Ramirez. It’s a complicated case, involving two respondents, David Ramirez
On Wednesday, December 8, 2021, we will presented “The Death Penalty Brutalizes Us All,” the fourth in our webinar series. Mike Farrell, DPF board president,
In his op-ed, “California halted executions, now it should abolish the death penalty,” in the Los Angeles Times, Scott Martelle says the moratorium on executions
In Mississippi, David Cox died by lethal injection late last month in the state’s first execution since 2012. Cox, who had asked the court to
Doyle Lee Hamm, who survived a horrifically botched execution in Alabama’s Holman Correctional Facility in 2018, died late last month in prison. The cause was
Pervis Payne, who has been on Tennessee’s death row for 34 years, and has always maintained his innocence, will be resentenced to life in prison
Oklahoma executed Bigler Stouffer II on Thursday. He was 79, the second-oldest prisoner to be killed in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated
Right up to and including the commutation of his death sentence, the state of Oklahoma acted with deliberate malice and cruelty to Julius Jones. Yes,
When the California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code released a draft report in May, recommending that California abolish its death penalty, it highlighted
