One hundred and six years ago today Kansas became one of the first states to pass legislation ending the death penalty. Kansas’ death penalty was reinstated a few times since 1907, most recently in 1994. But it was never embraced. In 2010 the State Senate voted 20-20 on repealing the death penalty, with 12 Republicans…
The capital conviction of Jerry Hartfield, an illiterate man with an IQ of 51, was overturned in 1983. At that time, the appeals court ordered a new trial – but that trial never happened. The case was at a virtual standstill until 2006, when another prisoner helped him file a handwritten motion asking that Hartfield…
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty renewed their call for repeal of the Montana’s death penalty following a recent ruling declaring the state’s execution method unconstitutional. “Conservatives dislike waste and inefficiency. That is why we should cast a critical eye when the State is involved with the business of executing people,” said Roy Brown, former…
Today the PA Coalition Against Rape joined numerous groups against sexual violence, hundreds of child advocates, faith leaders, and former jurors in calling on Pennsylvania’s governor to stop the execution of Terrance “Terry” Williams. Pennsylvania is scheduled to execute Williams on October 3rd for killing two men, Amos Norwood and Herbert Hamilton. What the jury…
A new study finds that 3 percent of executions in the United States were “botched.” What the study doesn’t tell you is the ripple affects of harm these botched executions can take. Every execution requires a team of corrections officers who watch the inmate in his or her final days, who strap the inmate to…
In 2006, the Chicago Tribune published a three-part investigative report that revealed the execution of Carlos DeLuna in Texas in 1989 may have been a case of mistaken identity. Today The Columbia Human Rights Law Review published The Wrong Carlos – a book-length study of the case that chronicles in shocking detail the massive series…
In the first case heard under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act (RJA), a judge found that racial bias played a significant role in the death sentence given to Marcus Reymond Robinson 18 years ago. Robinson’s sentence was changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The RJA, passed in 2009, allows death row…
April 22nd marks the 25th anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s decision in McCleskey v. Kemp. In this controversial decision the court ruled that it was “inevitable” that minorities would be treated worse by the criminal justice system and that the Constitution is only violated where it is proven that a specific person in a…
Just hours before Texas inmate Duane Edward Buck was to be taken to the death chamber the US Supreme Court halted his execution to investigate charges that his sentence was tainted by race issues . Buck, an African-American, was convicted of a double-murder in 1995. At trial Dr. Walter Quijano, a psychologist, testified that simply…
Right now I am mourning. I am sad, outraged, and angry. I am full of emotions I can’t even name. I know many people like you feel the same way right now. Troy Davis was executed by the state of Georgia tonight, at 11:08pm EST after an awful, 4-hour roller coaster in which the Supreme…