Alabama Executes Matthew Reeves
January 28, 2022
Alabama executed Matthew Reeves last night despite the fact he had an intellectual disability. His execution was the second state killing yesterday after Oklahoma executed
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Oklahoma Executes Donald Grant
January 27, 2022
Oklahoma executed Donald Grant this morning, less than 24 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay on Wednesday afternoon. He was killed by
Teaser for a Kevin Cooper documentary is now streaming
January 10, 2022
“In his Defense,” a documentary on the Kevin Cooper case, is in the works right now, and California filmmaker Kenneth Carlson has released a teaser
While we’re on the subject . . .
January 10, 2022
In his editorial in Verdict, Austin Sarat says there is such significant “new progress in the effort to abolish America’s death penalty,” that it’s “not
In brief: January 2022
January 10, 2022
In Texas, the oldest person imprisoned on death row is scheduled to be executed on April 21. Carl Wayne Buntion, who is 77, has been
Executions and death sentences at near record lows in 2021, DPIC reports
January 10, 2022
“The death penalty in 2021 was defined by two competing forces: the continuing long-term erosion of capital punishment across most of the country, and extreme
Idaho governor denies commutation for Gerald Pizzuto, Jr.
January 10, 2022
Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. is 65 years old, dependent on a wheelchair, diabetic, and on hospice care because of advanced bladder cancer. He suffers from the
“Innocence isn’t enough here,” Arizona tells SCOTUS
January 10, 2022
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
Watch Now: The Death Penalty Brutalizes Us All
December 10, 2021
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,
While we’re on the subject…
December 6, 2021
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 brief: December 2021
December 6, 2021
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 dies
December 6, 2021
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
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,
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
