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U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Review Three Cases on Scope of Protections Against Executing the Intellectually Disabled
by Death Penalty Information Center on July 8, 2020 at 7:37 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to step in to resolve festering disputes about the scope of the protections its prior rulings afford to intellectually disabled death-row prisoners. On July 2, 2020, the Court denied petitions to review three such cases, […]
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74-Year-Old ‘Golden State Killer’ Joseph DeAngelo Pleads Guilty to 13 Murders and Rapes, Gets 11 Life Sentences
by Death Penalty Information Center on July 7, 2020 at 12:53 pm
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (pictured), the “Golden State Killer,” whom prosecutors had one year earlier held out as a “poster child for the death penalty,” has pleaded guilty to 13 counts each of murder and rape in exchange for multiple […]
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Kareem Johnson Becomes Nation’s 170th Death-Row Exoneree Since 1973
by Death Penalty Information Center on July 6, 2020 at 4:00 am
Former Pennsylvania death-row prisoner Kareem Johnson has been exonerated, thirteen years after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death by a Philadelphia jury. On July 1, 2020, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas completed his exoneration, […]
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DPIC 2020 MID-YEAR REVIEW: Pandemic and Continuing Historic Decline Produce Record-Low Death Penalty Use
by Death Penalty Information Center on July 2, 2020 at 7:00 pm
New death sentences and executions were at historic lows in the first half of 2020, the Death Penalty Information Center reported in its 2020 Mid-Year Review. The report, released July 2, attributed the record-low numbers to the combined effects of the […]
TCADP Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
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State of Texas executes Billy Wardlow
by Kristin on July 8, 2020 at 2:18 pm
Update as of 7:40 PM, July 8, 2020: The State of Texas executed Billy Wardlow tonight, July 8, 2020, despite an outpouring of support from legislators, juvenile justice and neuroscience experts, and so many others. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider […]
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TCADP July 2020 Newsletter: “Future dangerousness” and the Texas death penalty
by Kristin on July 1, 2020 at 3:36 pm
In this edition Reflections on race and “future dangerousness” in the Texas death penalty Scheduled executions: State of Texas seeks to execute Billy Joe Wardlow for a crime he committed 27 years ago at the age of 18; federal government sets […]
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Race and “future dangerousness” in the Texas death penalty
by Kristin on July 1, 2020 at 2:03 pm
Many of Texas’s most troubling death penalty cases are rooted in a corrosive system of racism fostered by predictions of future dangerousness, a unique facet of our state's capital punishment statute.
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U.S. Supreme Court remands case of Terence Andrus based on woefully inadequate legal representation
by Kristin on June 18, 2020 at 4:36 pm
On Monday, June 8, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court remanded the death penalty case of Terence Andrus to Texas for further review, finding that his trial attorney provided inadequate and deficient legal representation. Among his many failings were neglecting to […]
World Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
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Loopholes in Saudi promise to end death sentences against children
on June 24, 2020 at 9:24 am
Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission has announced that children are no longer eligible for the death penalty in the Kingdom. Citing a royal decree, the commission stated that anyone convicted of crimes that took place while they were under the […]
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COVID-19: Calling for a Worldwide Moratorium on the Death Penalty During the Pandemic
on June 22, 2020 at 1:38 pm
“When the whole world is trying hard to save lives from COVID-19, an execution by the state is contradictory and perverse” said Kevin Miguel Rivera Medina, President of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
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Call for actions on World Day in the Maldives and Turkey
on June 19, 2020 at 9:52 am
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (the World Coalition) and its 14 international member organizations active in the Philippines, the Maldives and Turkey are part of a joint project which aims to combat the resurgence of the death penalty, […]
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The abolition of the death penalty in Tunisia, a fight against torture
on June 19, 2020 at 9:38 am
In its 2019 annual report, the Organization Against Torture in Tunisia (Organisation contre la torture en Tunisie, OCTT) denounced the death penalty and identified it as the most cruel form of torture.
Death Penalty – Human Rights Now The Amnesty International USA Blog
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Race and the Death Penalty: “Just a Bunch of Racists”?
by James Clark on November 4, 2016 at 4:29 pm
At a recent public debate of California’s competing ballot initiatives on the death penalty, Paul Pfingst, a former district attorney for San Diego County and a supporter of Prop 66, spoke about the role race plays in the death penalty. … Please […]
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Troy Davis: 5 Years On
by James Clark on September 21, 2016 at 2:00 pm
Troy was on death row for over two decades before he was finally executed. In that time he became a leader himself in the movement to end the death penalty, with his steadfast spirit and unshakeable faith in justice inspiring activists around the world.
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Troy Davis’s Legacy
by Guest Writer on September 21, 2016 at 2:00 pm
By Savannah Fox, Field Organizer Five years ago today, on September 21st, I became an activist. I didn’t sign my first petition or attended my first rally. I found my passion, my anger and my hope as an activist, all … Please continue reading.
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Jeffrey Wood is Scheduled for Execution on August 24th, but he Didn’t Commit Murder
by James Clark on August 17, 2016 at 9:41 pm
As death sentences and executions dwindle around the country and most states are abandoning the death penalty, a few states are determined to keep executions rolling. Top of the list is Texas, the state that’s now gearing up to execute a man who never […]