Oregon commutes death sentences en masse
Democratic Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon has commuted 17 death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Associated Press. The action came with less than 30 days remaining of her term in office. “I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people,” Brown said. She hoped … [Read More...]
Pharmaceutical companies want to manufacture death drugs in secret-IDAHO
A new bill prohibiting drug supplier transparency on lethal injection drugs has reached the full Idaho Senate. A 5-4 vote pushed the bill to the full Senate by the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee, The Associated Press reported March 14. “If this is an issue we’re going to address, we need to address it now” said Sen. Todd Lakey, committee chairman. Some suppliers are declining to … [Read More...]
‘Civil Death’ doctrine ruled unconstitutional, RHODE ISLAND
The Rhode Island Supreme Court has thrown out an old law that says anyone serving a life sentence has no civil rights. The 1909 law said such people have a “Civil Death,” which meant they were considered dead “with respect to property rights, the bond of matrimony and other civil rights.” The state court ruled 4-1 that the archaic law was unconstitutional. “Today’s … [Read More...]
Move to stop state’s use of holocaust gas in executions
ARIZONA On February 15, Arizona’s Jewish leaders filed a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Corrections in an effort to stop the use of the cyanide gas in the state’s prison death chamber, the Equal Justice Initiative reports. Last summer, the state renovated its gas chamber so that it could execute people using hydrogen cyanide, the type of gas that was used at Auschwitz … [Read More...]
Report: California’s death penalty ‘beyond repair’
A committee on penal code revisions recommended abolishing California’s death penalty, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Voters have twice rejected ballot propositions to end capital punishment. The new recommendation to end death sentences comes from the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, established by law in 2020. “California’s system for capital punishment is beyond … [Read More...]
The end of the line for Death Row?
California begins the process of repurposing Death Row housing units The nation’s largest Death Row is now in its final throes, as Gov. Gavin Newsom prepares to implement the remaining portion of a 2016 voter initiative that moves condemned prisoners to other maximum-security facilities and integrates them with the general prison population. “We are starting the process of closing Death … [Read More...]
Japanese prisoners sue over same-day executions
Japan’s same-day execution law has prompted two death row prisoners to file a lawsuit, the Insider Sun reports. The attorney for the men, Yutaca Ueda, is alleging that these same-day executions provide no time for an appeal, or for the men to mentally prepare to die. “Death row prisoners live in fear every morning that that day will be there last,” said Ueda. “It’s extremely … [Read More...]
Killer executed despite intellectual disabilities
On October 5 Missouri executed Ernest Johnson — despite claims by death penalty opponents and Johnson’s attorney that killing him violated the Constitution because he had intellectual disabilities. In one court filing, Johnson’s legal team said IQ tests had indicated he had the intellectual capacity of a child, according to an NBC News article. However, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson denied … [Read More...]
Supreme Court considers ministers’ presence in death chamber during execution
A Death Row inmate’s religious request to have his pastor place hands on him during his execution is being examined by Supreme Court Justices, said the Associated Press (AP). John Henry Ramirez is sitting on Death Row in Texas for killing a convenience store worker during a robbery in 2004. The AP said that he stabbed the clerk 29 times and robbed him of $1.25. The question that Supreme … [Read More...]
Victims and prosecutors angered by transfers of condemned prisoners
Prisoners sentenced to death can now be transferred to other California prisons, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s website. A newly implemented transfer program for Death Row’s incarcerated, the “Condemned Inmate Transfer Pilot Program” (CITPP), will allow qualified prisoners to be housed in general population, reported the Orange County … [Read More...]
USSC denies stay of execution because of constitutional issues
Over the last three months, six executions in the United States have been stayed or rescheduled because of constitutional issues regarding the method of execution or who can be present in the death chamber, according to Reuters. At the helm of this controversy is the state of Alabama, according to recent articles featured in Reuters and Mother Jones. Christopher Price was scheduled to be … [Read More...]
The uplifting experience of Good Friday at San Quentin
Watson Allison, who spent more than 30 years on San Quentin’s Death Row, was one of many in awe of sunset ser- vices for Good Friday — the day Jesus Christ was crucified. Allison stood inside the Protestant Chapel as light filtered through its blue-tinted windows, dusk approached and men-in-blue mingled. Listening to Raul Higgins slapped the congas, Albert Flagg’s fingers danced on the piano … [Read More...]
Two California Supreme Court justices against capital punishment
Two California Supreme Court justices have joined the debate against capital punishment. “California’s death penalty is an expensive and dysfunctional system that does not deliver justice or closure in a timely manner, if at all,” Justice Goodwin Liu wrote in a published opinion. The opinion upheld the death sentence of Thomas Potts, convicted of two murders in 1998. Liu’s opinion was … [Read More...]
Gov. Mike DeWine halts executions in Ohio
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has halted capital punishment in his state until a constitutional method is developed for executions. “As long as the status quo remains where we don’t have a protocol that has been found to be OK, we certainly cannot have any executions in Ohio,” DeWine told reporters at an Associated Press forum. “That would not be right, at least in my opinion.” DeWine ordered a … [Read More...]
Some prisoners suffer another form of death penalty
An alarming number, 80 prisoners, died in Texas jails in a nine month period between Oct. 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018, according to the Bureau of Justice statistics, in an article published by Prison Legal News. The Texas Commission of Jail Standards (TCJS) is an agency that sets the standards for Texas jails to follow. They perform annual inspections of local jails and prisons. TCJS is also … [Read More...]
An interview with former Death Row prisoner Alfred Sandoval, from Pelican Bay’s Newsletter “The Pelican”
K: Thank you for sitting down with me and for agreeing to do this interview. If I remember correctly, you said you’ve been in prison for about two-thirds of your life? That... is a long time. S: Trust me, it’s been very long. From the boy’s home to death row – I came into the system in ’79. K: Has it been hard? S: No. It’s life. It’s survival. Out there, in the streets, you have to … [Read More...]
Iranian legal reforms reduce executions
Capital punishment in Iran has roughly been cut in half because of drug law reform, a human rights organization reports. Executions in Iran have also been cut in half after historic law reforms, according to Human Rights Watch and Harm Reduction International. Iran had 225 executions in 2018, of which 91 were for drug offenses. In 2017, there were 507 executions, according to a March 17 … [Read More...]
Popularity for capital punishment is on the decline in the US
The popularity for and sentencing for the death penalty is declining in America, a research paper reports. “The recent history of capital punishment in the U.S. has been marked by declining popularity and usage ... Within the past 15 years, eight states have abandoned the death penalty through legislative repeal or judicial invalidation,” according to theconversation.com website. “Capital … [Read More...]
Texas DA to decide his stance on Death Penalty
Halfway through his first term, Mark Gonzalez, the District Attorney of Nueces County, Texas, is still trying to decide what his stance is on the death penalty, according to the Texas Observer. Gonzalez, called a “progressive prosecutor” by many, due to his progressive stance on many issues, said he’s conflicted about the death penalty and wants to let the people of Nueces County decide whether … [Read More...]
California Death Row prisoner qualifies under new felony murder rule
Demetrius Howard is on California’s Death Row for a crime in which he did not kill anyone. He was never accused of firing a shot, but based on California’s felony murder rule then in effect, he was eligible for a death sentence due to his participation in the crime, reported The Appeal. The felony murder rule was revised in 2018 so that participants in a crime do not face a death penalty unless … [Read More...]
Alabama Death Row inmate loses memory
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a second look at the case of a Death Row prisoner who says he no longer remembers his crimes. Prisoner Vernon Madison suffered a series of strokes which impaired his memory, CNN.com reported Feb 27. The court ruled previously that no one can be executed who doesn’t understand why. Madison was convicted for the shooting death of a Mobile, Ala. police officer … [Read More...]
Subtle tactics to dismiss Black jurors in CA trials
Some prosecutors may be using subtle tactics to dismiss Black jurors, despite laws against such racial bias in jury selection, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. You could call it the “O.J. Strategy.” Rather than addressing race overtly, these prosecutors ask jurors whether they agreed with the controversial 1995 acquittal of O.J. Simpson. Simpson, a Black football star, was charged … [Read More...]
US High Court excludes Imam at execution
A Muslim prisoner awaiting execution for rape and murder in Alabama lost a court appeal that claimed that his religious rights were being violated by not allowing his spiritual prayer adviser (imam) to be present during his execution, according to the ABA Journal. com Domineque Ray was put to death after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated his stay of execution by Alabama’s lower courts. Ray wanted … [Read More...]
Death penalty dying according to author John Grisham
Seventy-five percent of the 141 prisoners on North Carolina’s Death Row would face radically different prosecutions today under reforms enacted in recent years, The News & Observer reports. “Almost none would get the death penalty. For some, the charges would be dropped,” wrote John Grisham, a best-selling author and former defense lawyer who now is on the board of the Innocence … [Read More...]
Magick helps man to survive the row
An Arkansas inmate performed ceremonial “ magick” to help him survive Death Row, reported an article in The Guardian. Damien Echols said he summoned an angel through magick (which he believes is a mixture of gnostic Christianity, esoteric Judaism, and Taoist energy practices) to protect himself. “It had no discernible facial features. But I knew it was an angel,” Echols said, “and I got … [Read More...]
Canadians favor death penalty
A Canadian newspaper editorial cites a 2016 survey that says 58 percent of Canadians favor the return of the death penalty. The editorial board of the Ottawa Sun took issue with Amnesty International Canada (AIC) criticizing Florida’s use of the death penalty. Canada abolished capital punishment in 1976 — the same year the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. The last execution … [Read More...]
Developing a relationship from 40 years of letter writing
Letter-writing has not lost its appeal, at least not for Carol Horan, who values having something handwritten for its “lasting quality.” She has been a pen pal to prisoners for more than 40 years. Horan first wrote a man name Jeff Dicks, who later died in prison of a massive heart attack after 17 years on Death Row, according to mysouthsidestand.com, a digital news site. “The first letter was … [Read More...]
Death Row gains attention with crucifixion painting
Prisoners on Death Row in Nashville gained the attention of many parishioners with a thought-provoking painting of the crucifixion scene of Jesus, reported Holly Meyer of the USA Today Network. Derrick Quintero, sentenced to death in 1991 for first-degree murder, is one of the artists who depicted the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. “The piece of art is a commentary on the continuing … [Read More...]
Tennessee prisoner makes ultimate decision in how he wants to die
Death by lethal injection or death by electrocution was, for Edmund George Zagorski, the last major life decision he would make. He was 63 years old when he was executed Nov.1 by electric chair for the murder of John Dotson and Jimmy Porter over a sale of 100 pounds of marijuana in l983. Zagorski shot, stabbed and robbed Dotson and Porter, then stole their truck. The two men died … [Read More...]
State v. Gregory ruled unconstitutional
Abolition of the death penalty is likely in the near future, a constitutional law professor says. “The American death penalty lurched one step closer to its eventual demise” because of a Washington State Supreme Court decision in October, Garrett Epps wrote in an article for The Atlantic. “In State v. Gregory, the state court held that the death penalty, as imposed in the state of Washington, … [Read More...]
Amnesty International urges death penalty repeal
“Two wrongs don’t make a right. The death penalty is no way to impart justice,” says Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International. In 2016, the US Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida ruled that Florida’s capital sentencing law was unconstitutional. Yet, despite the ruling, Florida still has the second-largest death row in the nation and is fourth in the number of executions since … [Read More...]
Houses of Healing a self-study program for Death Row and the SHU
Some of California’s most segregated prisoners are finding self-forgiveness and introspection through The Houses of Healing Self-study Program. Death Row prisoners and those housed in segrated housing units (SHU) facilities are offered a 14-week correspondence course. San Quentin, Pelican Bay and Corcoran state prisons are among the facilities where the program is available. “Through … [Read More...]
Inert gas asphyxiation the new method of execution
Alabama lawmakers in March voted to authorize a method of execution that has never been used before—inert gas asphyxiation. Lawmakers say this alternative method is a more humane way to carry out capital punishment. It works by directing the inmate to breathe inert gas as opposed to oxygen. Examples of such gases include helium, methane and nitrogen. The Associated Press reported that inhaling … [Read More...]
CA leads nation in women on Death Row
California leads the nation with 23 women on Death Row, but the condemned women are largely invisible and forgotten behind bars, and their stories rarely see the light of day. California has more than three times the number of condemned women in Texas (six on condemn) and in Alabama (five on condemn), according a Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) report. The women on California’s Death Row … [Read More...]
Arkansas judge faces sanction for blocking lethal injection
An Arkansas judge faces judicial sanction for blocking the state’s use of a lethal injection drug on the same day he pro- tested the death penalty out- side the governor’s mansion, reported The Associated Press. The Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission charged Judge Wendell Griffen, a Pulaski County Circuit Judge, with violating ethics rules in June. The three- member panel cited the … [Read More...]
CCWP advocates mount a fight to end LWOP
Advocates are mounting a fight to end the other death penalty—life without the possibility of parole. These “hidden death sentences” mean prisoners must live the rest of their lives in “prisons with extraordinarily high suicide rates, with substandard medical, dental, and mental health care and with scant rehabilitative programs. Prisons rife with gang violence, racism, and despair,” said Kenneth … [Read More...]
Dear Kid CAT by Joseph Montes
I’m sending this letter to you today to inquire about the curriculum. I know generally speaking, your program is available for lifers, and not Death Row inmates. There are many of us who were sentenced to death as youths. Myself included. I just turned 20 when I received my sentence. My question is this: Could we begin now to start taking classes that your program offers to youth offenders? We … [Read More...]
Texas court updates death penalty protocols
A Texas court implemented updated protocols for Death Row prisoners with intellectual disabilities. The revised standards came after the U.S. Supreme Court had set aside Texas prisoner Bobby Moore’s execution, Reuters reports. The new protocols allowed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reinstate Moore’s death sentence. Moore, 58, was convicted of murder in 1980. He was sentenced to … [Read More...]
States struggle to carry out executions
Lethal injections, legal battles and difficulty obtaining drugs have forced a number of states to find alternative ways to carry out the death penalty, reports the New York Times. Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi have authorized the use of inhaling the inert gas nitrogen for executions. “An oxygen-deficient atmosphere” can knock a person unconscious after just one or two breaths and “the exposed … [Read More...]
Pope Francis condemns the death penalty
Pope Francis declared executions are an attack on human dignity and the church would work with “determination” to abolish capital punishment worldwide. The Pope also made official changes to the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, according the New York Times. The Catechism is the book of doctrine for 1.2 billion Catholics and is studied by adults and taught to children. Ending the death … [Read More...]
Nebraska executes inmate using Fentanyl
Despite being sued by a pharmaceutical company for alleged unauthorized use, the state of Nebraska was successful in executing a prisoner on death row using the addictive drug fentanyl, according to NPR News. Robert Dunham, head of the Death Penalty Information Center, believed the use of fentanyl—the first execution in the country using the chemical—was unusual. “It’s somewhat ironic that at the … [Read More...]
Prosecutors accepting guilty pleas: no executions
It’s now been four years since a Georgia jury handed down a death sentence. In the majority of the capital punishment cases, prosecutors are allowing the alleged suspect to enter a guilty plea in exchange for a life-without-parole sentence, reported Bill Rankin in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Many of Georgia’s district attorneys still strongly support capital punishment. According to state … [Read More...]
India adopts capital punishment for child rape under twelve
In April, India passed a law permitting the death penalty for rape of a child under 12, reigniting an international debate over capital punishment. In India, only four people have been executed in the past 13 years. Three of those executed were convicted of terrorism and one for rape of a minor, Chaitanya Mallapur reported for the Business Standard News. Sentence Of the 109 prisoners sentenced to … [Read More...]
Nitrogen gas could be new method for executions
Nitrogen gas may be the next method of state-sanctioned executions, according to The New York Times. Many states are considering the gas as an alternative to the controversial use of other lethal drug combinations. "25 percent of millennial-age American men think asking a woman who is not a romantic partner to go for a drink is harassment," according to a recent survey by The Economist/YouGov … [Read More...]
Cloud of capital punishment lingers in New Mexico
The only two inmates remaining on New Mexico’s death row are fighting to have their death sentences overturned by the state Supreme Court. The appeal claims that their sentences were arbitrary because worse crimes did not draw a death sentence. New Mexico repealed capital punishment in 2009, but death sentences were not commuted for Robert Fry and Timothy Allen, The Associated Press (AP) … [Read More...]
Governor Gavin Newsom halts the state’s death penalty
California Governor Gavin Newsom halts the state’s death penalty with an Executive Order rousing comments and opinions from supporters and opponents, including some inmates. “I did this with a heavy heart,” said Newsom in an interview on KRON 4, a Bay Area television channel. “I did this with the victims in mind." "The order was met with scorn from supporters of the death penalty who called … [Read More...]
California’s next governor faces executions
California’s next governor could be forced to make a life-or-death decision that the state’s top executive hasn’t faced in over a decade; whether to spare an inmate facing execution. There are nearly 750 people on death row at San Quentin State Prison, more than any other state, and decisions made by the next governor will help set the pace of executions going forward. Five of the top six top … [Read More...]
Tennessee schedules three executions
Tennessee has scheduled three executions this year, after nearly a decade without them, according to USA Today. Dozens of Death Row prisoners lost challenges to the use of the death penalty and lethal injection. The Tennessee Supreme Court has consistently ruled in favor of the process. “The intended result of an execution is to render the inmate dead,” wrote Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivins in his … [Read More...]
Death Row inmate freed after serving more than 25 years
A man who spent 27 years on Death Row walked out the prison gates on April 17, 2018. “He appeared amazed to be on the other side of the wall,” Public Information Officer Lt. Sam Robinson said. About eight people, including family members and his attorney, awaited Vicente Benavides as he exited the prison as a free man. Decades earlier, a Kern County courthouse convicted Benavides in the 1991of … [Read More...]
States seeking lethal injection cocktails from black market
Some states have turned to the black market to obtain scarce lethal injection drugs that have caused botched executions, according to www.Reason.com. According to the report by C.J. Ciaramella, investigative journalists found that, “these states have turned to untraceable cash transactions, unregulated pharmacies, and overseas scammers to buy drugs to fill the veins of condemned inmates.” Some … [Read More...]
French journalist films San Quentin Death Row inmate
Keith Zon Doolin is on death row despite evidence of his innocence, according to Agnes Buthion, a French journalist who has directed a documentary called “20 Years on Death Row.” Interviewed by The Fresno Bee, Buthion said that she hoped to highlight Doolin’s innocence. In 1996, Doolin was convicted of a crime spree shooting six sex workers in Central California. The result of his conviction was … [Read More...]
US Supreme Court Death Row case Hidalgo v. Arizona Arizona death penalty law
In the coming months, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to take up a challenge to the death penalty in Arizona. If the justices agree to hear the case, the court’s decision could also affect the California death penalty law. And that could spare the lives of 746 prisoners on California’s death row, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The pending case, Hidalgo v. Arizona, … [Read More...]
Arizona inmates allowed more privileges
Many of Arizona’s death-row inmates are no longer spending their days in solitary confinement, reported The Associated Press (AP). The Arizona Department of Corrections moved 93 of its 120 death-row inmates to a Florence, Arizona, prison, where they can be outside and socialize with other death-row inmates in a common area, instead of being isolated in their 9½-by-10-foot cells. In addition, their … [Read More...]
2017's low executions only 23
Though 2017 had the second fewest annual prison executions in several decades—23 executions to be exact—the controversies surrounding capital punishment have yet to decline, reports Newsweek. In the five death penalty cases Newsweek featured, issues of mental health, overlooked or incorrect use of evidence and neglect of inmates’ rights were brought to the forefront. Similarly, since all of the … [Read More...]
A man’s life conversion testimony from Death Row
I was arrested on Oct. 1, 1983, just 55 days after my 21st birthday. A jury in California then convicted me of the charges, which were held against me, and sentenced me to death. The very next morning, in the early hours, I was abruptly taken out of the county jail and transported to San Quentin State Prison, where I was handed over to the warden on California’s death row. The classification board … [Read More...]
Governor may stall death penalty
Gov. Jerry Brown is in control of how fast executions resume in California, according to the Los Angeles Times. Currently, there is an injunction against further executions pending in state court while an injection protocol is being litigated. Litigation has stalled any execution in the state for more than 12 years. In November 2016 California voters approved Proposition 66, a process to speed up … [Read More...]
Republicans aim to end America’s death penalty
The death penalty is dying in the United States, and surprisingly, a large number of Republicans are contributing to its demise, according to a report examining legislative attempts to end capital punishment. The report by Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a group dedicated to exposing conservative opposition to capital punishment, said lawmakers across the country are actively … [Read More...]
Lawyer urges defendant to plead guilty in capital case
In the summer of 2011, defendant Robert McCoy met with his lawyer Larry English to discuss how to plead in a capital case, The New York Times reported. English told McCoy that he wanted him to concede to killing the mother, stepfather and brother-in-law of his estranged wife. Others committed the crimes, McCoy told English, and he wanted to clear his name. However, English said in a sworn … [Read More...]
Pope calls teaching capital punishment inadmissible
When the Vicar of Christ speaks about the death penalty, shouldn’t the world listen? Pope Francis visited the United States two years ago and told Congress and the United Nations that he opposes the death penalty. He even went a step further, calling for a revision of official church teachings that would make capital punishment “inadmissible,” Christopher Lamb wrote in the Religion News … [Read More...]
Death penalty appeal to eliminate capital punishment
A well-known criminal lawyer wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the death penalty case of Abel Daniel Hidalgo because he says it could wipe out capital punishment in America. “I have spent the last few years with my team looking for cases that highlight the gross problems with the death penalty in practice, and this case is a perfect example of them,” attorney Neal Katyal told BuzzFeed News. He … [Read More...]
Nevada plans to use execute using combination of unproven drugs
Nevada plans to use a combination of drugs for an execution that has never been used and its effectiveness is unproven, an investigative Global News story reports. Despite the growing opioid epidemic plaguing a large number of U.S. and Canadian communities, Nevada Department of Corrections wants to use fentanyl in an upcoming execution, the Aug. 31 story reported. According to author Andrew … [Read More...]
CDCR officials seek new execution drug
California corrections officials are asking regulators to approve a revised method to carry out the death penalty. “The new regulations would allow California’s Death Row inmates at San Quentin State Prison to be executed using one of two different drugs or choose the gas chamber,” The Associated Press reports. Prison officials will select either the powerful barbiturate pentobarbital or … [Read More...]
Death penalty ballot fails to impose strict inmate appellate deadlines
A key provision in last year’s death penalty ballot initiative to speed up executions failed to impose strict deadlines on how much time is allowed to resolve an appeal filed by an inmate’s attorney, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Proposition 66, sponsored by prosecutors and passed by 51 percent of the voters, was intended to remove various hurdles that have prevented the state from … [Read More...]
Alabama considering asphyxia for execution
Alabama is considering use of nitrogen asphyxia as a third option to execute prisoners. “If SB12 is passed, Alabama would become the second state (Oklahoma is the other) to offer nitrogen asphyxiation, also known as nitrogen hypoxia, as a death penalty option,” the Montgomery Advertiser reported. Nitrogen is painless and easier to administer, said Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, the bill’s author. … [Read More...]
LA county imposes the highest number of death sentences
Since 2010, Los Angeles County has recorded 36 new death sentences, more than any county in the nation, said David Savage of the Los Angeles Times. “Judges and juries in Los Angeles County imposed a death sentence on four murderers during 2016, including Lonnie Franklin Jr., the so-called ‘Grim Sleeper,’ who was convicted of killing 10 women,” Savage reported. California has by far the nation’s … [Read More...]
Former Death Row inmate turns advocate
Former Death Row inmate Shujaa Graham has turned into a prison rights advocate. Graham spent 11 years in various California prisons and was convicted of killing a prison guard, according to an Arizona Republic article. “No matter if you were a criminal, you’re still a human being” He said he was twice beaten by guards shortly after his murder conviction. He said the first beating took place in an … [Read More...]
FDA impounds approximately 1000 vials of Texas execution drugs
State’s supply runs out after nine executions, it sues to have feds release impounded drugs The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has detained a shipment of approximately 1,000 vials of drugs intended for executions in Texas. After waiting for nearly a year and a half, Texas officials demanded an end to the delays, filing a lawsuit that seeks to force the federal government to turn over the … [Read More...]
California votes to speed up executions
While state lawmakers complete approval of a one-drug execution method, Californians voted not only to keep the death penalty on the books, but approved speeding up executions by limiting the appeals process. Californians rejected Proposition 62, which would have repealed the death penalty for persons found guilty of murder with special circumstances and replaced it with life imprisonment without … [Read More...]
Who gets the death penalty? It mostly depends on who the prosecutor is
A small number of prosecutors across the country are vigorously pursuing death sentences and, according to a new study, have done so without regard for fairness and accuracy. “These prosecutors are evidence that the application of the death penalty is — and always has been — less about the circumstances of the offense or the characteristics of the person who committed the crime, and more a … [Read More...]
SQ Death Row holds poetry slam
A poetry slam helped 10 condemned men talk about the challenges they face living on San Quentin’s Death Row. They presented poems to prison administrators and custody staff on Sept. 7 and 14. There is a stereotype that “we have no redeeming qualities,” said Clifton Perry, 46. “Although a jury thought this, I will never accept that I have no redeeming qualities. I know we are inmates condemned to … [Read More...]
Justice Department’s policy fast track executions
A contentious Justice Department policy that could speed up death-row executions is closer to taking effect, after a recent federal appeals court ruling. The opinion from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this March tossed a 2013 lawsuit brought by the Habeas Corpus Resource Center in California and the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Arizona, reported the Wall … [Read More...]
Clinton Opposes Death Penalty…With an Exception
The Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton are holding slightly different positions on abolishing the death penalty as this country heads into the presidential election. Shortly after the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia abolishing the death penalty, the Democratic Party incorporated into its platform a decision to do away with the death penalty on the grounds that it was “an … [Read More...]
Vote Two Opposing Death Penalty Measures November
California voters will decide again in November what to do with the death penalty. Two opposing initiatives with strong political and social ramifications will be on the ballot to abolish capital punishment or speed up executions. Details of the measures are listed in an Aug. 12 story by politifact.com. Proposition 62 would repeal the death penalty as maximum punishment for persons found guilty of … [Read More...]
California’s Death Row Population Tops All Of Western Hemisphere
California is “home to the largest Death Row population in the Western Hemisphere,” according to a recent PolitiFact press release. According to public data, California’s Death Row has nearly 750 individuals condemned to die. That’s nearly twice as many as the next closest state, Florida at 388. UC Berkeley law professor Frank Zimring says it ranks behind only a handful of countries, including … [Read More...]
Voter Initiatives Monetize the Petition Process
This presidential year has inspired many potential voter initiatives and further monetizes the petition process. In theory, a petition to place an initiative on the ballot is a form of direct democracy, allowing voters to circumvent the legislature to pass a new law. On an average election cycle, five to seven initiatives make the ballot. SIGNATURES For the 2016 election, seven have already … [Read More...]
NBC Report Sparks Death Row Debates
The tiers of San Quentin’s Death Row have not been open to the public for more than five years. All of that changed in February. Alecia Reid from NBC’s San Francisco’s affiliate was one of the first reporters to recently see the current living conditions inside one of the world’s most notorious prisons. As she prepared for this unique encounter with the men living in the original Condemned Row, … [Read More...]
Initiatives Solicit Voters’ View About Death Penalty
Signatures are being solicited for two November ballot initiatives that would ask California voters to speed up executions or repeal the death penalty. One of the initiatives would require the state Supreme Court to rule on capital cases within five years. It would also limit death penalty appeals, set strict deadlines for filing appeals and seek to expand the pool of death penalty lawyers. Any … [Read More...]
Critics Expose Myths Behind Capital Punishment
As the U.S. remains one of the five nations with the most executions in the world, critics opposing capital punishment are confronting the myths of its effectiveness. Matthew Rozsa, writer for Salon.com, claims the debate about the death penalty is “riddled with misinformation”; challenging these myths won’t just create necessary policy change, it’ll save lives. One myth is that the death penalty … [Read More...]
Death Penalty Support Continues to Decrease
America’s support for the death penalty dropped significantly in the last 20 years, according to a recent Gallup Poll. Capital punishment support dipped from 80 percent in 1994 to 61 percent this year, the poll reported on Oct. 15. Part of the reason is juries are less likely to impose death because of publicity on wrongful convictions and racial disparity, the poll reported. “There is no denying … [Read More...]
Death Penalty Ban Moves Toward 2016 Ballot
Former M.A.S.H. star and anti-death penalty advocate Mike Farrell filed papers that would end the death penalty in California in the state’s attorney general’s office on Sept. 15. The ballot initiative, “The Justice That Works Act of 2016” (The Act) would retroactively convert all California death sentences to life without possibility of parole, reported the Capital Alert. “Violent killers … [Read More...]
Single Death Drug OK’d On 5-4 Supreme Court Vote
A deeply emotional and divided U.S. Supreme Court finally upheld the use of a controversial single lethal injection execution process, “even as two dissenting justices said for the first time they think it’s ‘highly likely’ the death penalty itself is unconstitutional,” according to Mark Sherman of The Associated Press. To resolve the dispute over the lethal injection drug, midazolam, used in … [Read More...]
Texas Slows Its Record Pace Of Death Row Executions
The state of Texas is no longer killing Death Row inmates at a record pace. At its peak in 1999, there were 460 men and women sentenced to death. Today, there are only 260 waiting to be executed. In 2000, the state set an all-time record when 40 Death Row inmates were executed, compared to only 10 in 2014. Only nine inmates have been executed in 2015. “This year, there have been no new death … [Read More...]
Confronting Death Row’s Full Capacity
‘If expansion is delayed, San Quentin would not have beds to accommodate the condemned’ Death Row inmate housing at San Quentin State Prison has reached near full capacity. California Gov. Jerry Brown had requested $3.2 million in special funding from legislators to expand Death Row by 97 cells, reported the Los Angeles Times. “Based on the critical nature of the bed shortage, it is not feasible … [Read More...]
Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s Death Penalty Views ‘Dead Wrong’
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has expressed opinions about death penalty sentences that are dead wrong, said Tom Boggioni in an opinion piece published online by Raw Story. Boggioni points to the case of Henry Lee McCollum, convicted for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl more than 30 years ago. Making reference to McCollum’s case in 1994, Scalia wrote that “a quiet death by … [Read More...]
Death Penalty in ‘Legal Limbo’ Over Use of Lethal Injection
Even though the state’s death penalty is in “legal limbo” over the use of a three-drug lethal injection procedure, Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to convert existing cells at San Quentin State Prison to create room for condemned inmates, according to a Marin Independent Journal (IJ) editorial. According to a short editorial released in … [Read More...]
Death Penalty ‘Costly, Still Broken’
The death penalty is broken in the U.S., according to a federal judge. Judge William A. Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals told a student audience at Cornell Law School it has been almost 40 years since the court struck down mandatory executions for certain types of murder. Despite the fact that the death penalty is no longer mandatory, the U.S. is the “only industrialized western … [Read More...]
Oklahoma Lethal Injection Faces Supreme Court Review
Three botched executions in 2014 prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to Oklahoma’s lethal injection procedures. “I am deeply troubled by this evidence suggesting that Midazolam cannot constitutionally be used as the first drug in a three-drug lethal injection protocol…” said Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor. This case comes after the execution of Charles Warner, one of four … [Read More...]
State Court Increases Scrutiny of Death Penalty Cases
In January, the California Supreme Court ruled that the death sentence of a man with a long criminal record was appropriate. On March 11, that ruling was rescinded. The turnaround came after two justices appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, Mariano-Florentino Cuellar and Leondra R. Kruger, were sworn into the court on Jan. 5. On the date they were sworn in, the previously constituted court issued a 4-3 … [Read More...]
Approximately 10 Counties Responsible For a Quarter of U.S. Executions
The National Journal has released a report on the death penalty showing that there are approximately 10 counties responsible for one quarter of the executions in U.S. prisons. Dustin Volz, author of the article, placed a huge emphasis on the state of Texas, where four out of 254 counties have accounted for nearly half of the state’s executions. Though state governments are responsible for … [Read More...]
Costly and Broken Death Penalty System
More than two-thirds of all countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, Amnesty International reports. But some countries, including the United States, still carry out executions. More than half of the world’s population lives in 58 countries where the death penalty is retained by their legal system. At least 778 executions were reported in 22 countries in 2013, according to … [Read More...]
Public Defender Throws Last Resort Lifeline to Nevada Death Row Inmates
In a state with a per capita death penalty rate that ranks fourth in the country, inmates on Nevada’s Death Row can always call on their friend Michael Pescetta. “Pescetta, an assistant federal public defender in Las Vegas who specializes in capital punishment cases, is often a final resort for inmates who have exhausted their options at the state level to appeal a death penalty conviction,” the … [Read More...]
Supreme Court Slightly Tightens Standards for Executing Mentally Disabled Prisoners
The U.S. Supreme Court has voted 5-4 to set new standards for executing mentally disabled prisoners. The May 27 ruling requires a new capital punishment trial for a Florida inmate who scored 71 on an IQ test, Reuters reported. Florida’s law had said 70 or less indicates mental disability. The ruling noted the IQ test contains a five-point margin of error, meaning the 71 score could have meant a … [Read More...]
Push to Speed Up State Executions Fails to Make Ballot
A ballot measure meant to speed up the review process for prisoners sentenced to death did not qualify for the November election, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The proposed initiative would have limited appeals by death row inmates, eased the qualifying standards for death penalty defense lawyers and done away with public hearings on lethal injection procedures. The initiative, backed … [Read More...]
Federal Judge Rules California’s Death Penalty Unconstitutional
California’s death penalty is unconstitutional because of extraordinary delays and its uncertainty, a federal judge has ruled. “Typically, the lapse of time between sentence and execution is 25 years, twice the national average, and is growing wider each year,” said U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. California voters adopted the current death … [Read More...]
‘Is the Era of the Death Penalty Ending?’
Is the era of the death penalty ending? “We’re seeing the first signs that it could happen,” William Saletan of Slate reports. In a 1994 Gallup poll and a National Opinion Research Center Social Survey, 80 percent of those polled supported the death penalty. A GSS sample taken in 2012 shows “support fell to 65 percent, the lowest number since the question was introduced in its current form four … [Read More...]
Studies Show Declining Executions Since 2011
‘This represents the 12th consecutive year in which the number of inmates under sentence of death decreased’ Executions in the United States are on a decline. At the end of 2012, 35 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons held 3,033 inmates on death row, down by 32 from the previous year. “This represents the 12th consecutive year in which the number of inmates under sentence of death decreased,” … [Read More...]
Federal Court Refuses to Order Disclosure of Lethal Drug Source
A federal appeals court has refused to order Missouri to reveal the source of drugs to be used in lethal injections. In a 7-3 decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said Death Row inmates’ lawyers neglected to show more humane executions are available. The Post Dispatch reported that the majority decision said, “If the inmates’ lawyers can’t point to a more humane execution … [Read More...]
Study: False Convictions Among Death Sentences Projected at 4.1 Percent
According to a collaborative research project initiated by the University of Michigan Law School and published earlier this year in PNAS, 4.1 percent of all death sentences in the U.S. are the result of false convictions. The researchers, Samuel R. Gross, Barbara O’ Brien of the University of Michigan, Chen Hu of American College and Edward H. Kennedy of University of Pennsylvania, consider their … [Read More...]
Execution by Alternative Means
‘This isn’t an attempt to time-warp back into the 1850s or the wild, wild west or anything like that’ Hangings, firing squads and gas chambers are being considered as means of execution by some states because of the unavailability of lethal injection drugs. The drugs are in short supply and death penalty states are looking to make sure they can still execute people effectively, The Associated … [Read More...]
Execution Case Investigated Nearly 70 Years Later
‘Stinney is the youngest person known to be executed in America in the last two centuries’ The execution of 14-year-old George Junius Stinney Jr. in June 1944 has sparked a discussion regarding deep racial injustice in South Carolina. Stinney is the youngest person known to be executed in America in the 20th century. Nearly 70 years after Stinney was put to death for allegedly killing two white … [Read More...]
European Countries Refuse To Supply Execution Drugs
European Union countries do not allow drugs used for execution to be exported to the United States. The reason? European countries have a fierce hostility toward capital punishment, according to an Associated Press interpretive story. “There’s one big reason the United States has a dearth of execution drugs so acute that some states are considering solutions such as firing squads and gas … [Read More...]
Death Penalty Appeals One-third Of California Supreme Court Cases
Death penalty appeals make up one-third of California Supreme Court’s caseload. According to a 2013 report by Paula Mitchell for Verdict Justia.com, “the backlog at the Supreme Court is now so severe that it is taking almost 20 years for the court to decide direct appeals in death penalty cases.” Habeas corpus “Death Row inmates begin their state and federal habeas corpus proceedings, for which … [Read More...]
Capital Punishment Losing Ground in Public Support
California Had 24 New Death Sentences, While Florida Had 15 Last year, public support for capital punishment was at its lowest level in 40 years, according to a survey conducted by Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The Death Penalty in 2013: Year End Report had several key findings: There were 39 executions in nine states; there were 80 death sentences in 2013; Maryland abolished the death … [Read More...]
Court Orders Adequate Facility for Death Row Mental Health Inmates
A federal court has ordered California prison officials to create or find an adequate treatment facility for Death Row inmates with mental health problems. The case stems from a 1995 lawsuit in which the court said the condition for inmates on California’s Death Row with mental health violated the cruel and unusual clause of the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The court had appointed a … [Read More...]
Death In Dixieland
82 Percent of Executions Are in the South The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reports, “As of January 2013, 3,125 inmates on death row came from 2 percent of the counties in the U.S.” “The death penalty is not evenly distributed across the country,” reports DPIC. “Four states including Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, and Florida, have been responsible for almost 60 percent of the executions. … [Read More...]
Death Row Inmate Responds To David Carpenter’s Article
I am a Death Row inmate responding to the letter you published by Marco A. Davidson, about inmate Carpenter. I don’t understand how you would acknowledge such animosity, let alone publish in your paper. On page 18, it specifically says, “Please do not use offensive language. Articles that are newsworthy that will encourage and help the prison populace are welcomed.” I don’t see in anyway how this … [Read More...]
DNA Testing Exonerated 18 Death Row Prisoners
They Served A Total of 229 Years DNA testing has exonerated 18 people previously on Death Rows in 11 states, according to the Innocence Project. They served a total of 229 years, including 202 years on Death Row, for crimes they didn’t commit. Here are the cases cited by the project: Kirk Bloodworth was exonerated in 1993 after serving eight years in Maryland state prison for a murder and rape he … [Read More...]
A Deeper Look Inside David Carpenter’s Life
One of the most recognized prisoners on San Quentin’s Death Row was, born May 6, 1930 in San Francisco. His name is David Joseph Carpenter. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Carpenter was convicted of 10 homicides, which gave him the moniker—The Trailside Killer. Carpenter says he spends the better part of every day writing letters and working on his complex legal case. “There are many [court] … [Read More...]
Poll Finds Americans Favor Life Imprisonment
A slim majority of Americans favor life in prison over the death penalty for murders, a recent poll disclosed. The margin was 50 to 48 percent. Even though the number of states carrying out capital punishment has decreased, the number of executions in the country remains constant, a report shows. “Capital punishment has become marginalized and meaningless in most of the country,” said Richard … [Read More...]
Capital Punishment: One Person’s Moral Dilemma
Death penalty or Life Without Parole – Will someone please be kind enough to tell me which of two evils is the “lesser” one? Maybe then I’ll know if I handled my moral dilemma morally, when I voted on Prop 34. It’s seems strange now that when Proposition 34 first appeared on the horizon, over a year ago, it was greeted by us abolitionists with the big rah-rah of “Oh, Goody, now we’re going to get … [Read More...]
A Rare Press Visit to Death Row
Since 2007, members of the press have not been allowed access in any of the three Death Row buildings at San Quentin State Prison. However, recently Nancy Mullane was granted permission by then-prisons chief Matthew Cate to visit Death Row. Mullane, an independent reporter/producer for National Public Radio and KQED-TV, interviewed three inmates in East Block, which houses 537 of the more than 700 … [Read More...]
Voters Amend Three Strikes Law
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT UPHELD BY A NARROW MARGIN OF STATE VOTERS Voters have approved major changes to the Three Strikes Law, but rejected attempts to abolish capital punishment in California. With most of the Nov. 6 votes tallied, the Three Strikes Law, Proposition 36, won 69.1 percent to 30.9 percent. The vote total was 7,943,034 yes to 3,556,723 no. The death penalty initiative, Proposition 34, … [Read More...]
DNA Evidence Frees 300 Prisoners Nationwide
Damon Thibodeaux confessed to raping and killing his 14-year-old cousin and spent more than 15 years on Louisiana’s Death Row, but was cleared by DNA evidence earlier this year and has now been released from prison. He was the 300th prisoner freed nationwide by DNA tests —18 of whom were on Death Row, according to lawyers from the New York-based Innocence Project. Crystal Champagne was last seen … [Read More...]
Executions of Inmates With Low IQs Questioned
Intellectually disabled convicts are being executed despite some judges saying it is cruel and unusual punishment, reports New Scientist. A group of researchers, who specialize in psychometric testing and intellectual disabilities, found that some courts discard “key scientific facts surrounding IQ testing,” according to the article. First, the courts are ignoring the margin of error inherent in … [Read More...]
Back in the Day
The following story was originally published in the San Quentin News on March 3, 1972. By a 6 to 1 decision, the California State Supreme Court has ruled the death penalty to be unconstitutional. The Court’s decision means that 107 men and women who now occupy death rows in two institutions may now be spared; among whom are Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson, and John Linley Frazier. For almost the … [Read More...]
Insufficient Funding Leads to Slow Death Penalty Appeals
Inadequate funding of capital defense attorneys has drastically slowed the appeals process in some states. The result: overflowing Death Row populations, including California’s, reports show. A 2008 report evaluating California’s death penalty found “to achieve the goals of justice, fairness and accuracy in the administration of the death penalty in California, and reduce delays at least to the … [Read More...]
Death Penalty and Wrongful Executions
There is no credible evidence that an innocent person has been executed in California, a state commission report concludes. However, the commission “cannot conclude with confidence that the administration of the death penalty in California eliminates the risk that innocent persons might be convicted and sentenced to death,” says the report. It was prepared in 2008 by the California Commission on … [Read More...]
Jurors’ Mixed Views About Capital Punishment Focus of High Court Ruling
Jurors cannot be excluded from death penalty trials because they have mixed views about capital punishment, the California Supreme Court has ruled. The court voted unanimously that a prospective juror was improperly dismissed because of her conflicting views in a written questionnaire on the death penalty. In its ruling July 16, the high court upheld John Riccardi’s murder conviction. It will be … [Read More...]
Voters Split in Death Penalty Poll
An online poll conducted July 30 – Aug 1 shows California voters are in favor of keeping capital punishment as its harshest punishment for murder. However, a poll conducted July 16-17 found support for Proposition 34, which would ban the punishment, was tied with the opposition. The CBRT Pepperdine Initiative Test asked likely California voters: “If the election were today, would you vote yes or … [Read More...]
‘Abolishing Death Penalty Could Save State Millions’
Supporters of a ban on capital punishment say it would save at least $139 million a year, the equivalent of hiring 2,500 new teachers or hiring 2,250 new California Highway Patrol officers. That is one of the conclusions in a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union, entitled The Hidden Death Tax: The Secret Costs of Seeking Executions in California. The study finds capital punishment … [Read More...]
Death Penalty in Limbo
California is taking steps to resume executions while voters are deciding whether to abolish capital punishment in November. Gov. Jerry Brown ordered prison officials to clear hurdles allowing the single-drug execution option after courts banned the three-drug combination that critics claimed caused unnecessary pain. Meanwhile, the man who spearheaded the expansion of capital punishment in … [Read More...]
Initiative to End Death Penalty Heads to Voters on 2012 Ballot
For the first time since 1978, California voters may be able to decide whether to keep the death penalty as the harshest way to punish murders. The initiative needs slightly more than 504,000 registered voter signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Organizers collected more than 800,000 signatures and turned them into the secretary of state’s office for verification. If approved, the … [Read More...]
Death Penalty Halted
A new roadblock has halted executions in California for at least another year. Marin Superior Court Judge Faye D’Opal ordered state officials back to square one in creating a new lethal-injection protocol. The state’s 2010 re-designed execution protocol was an attempt to satisfy U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel’s finding that the three-drug execution method amounted to cruel and unusual … [Read More...]
Death Penalty Called Failure
“The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, nor is it swift justice,” former San Quentin Warden Jeanne Woodford told an audience of about 100 attorneys and death penalty opponents in a recent Marin County speech. It is costly, ineffective and fails to make the public safe, said Woodford, who is now the executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a San Francisco based organization that is … [Read More...]
Lifer Parole: Not Discussing the Crime May Allow for Parole Denial
An inmate decision not to discuss the circumstances of his crime, which resulted in a conviction of a second-degree murder, provided support for the Board of Parole Hearings decision denying his parole based on a lack of insight. The California Court of Appeals for the Fourth Appellate District held that the inmate’s “inability or unwillingness to confront the character issues which caused him to … [Read More...]
Texas Bans Special Last Meals
Texas inmates, facing execution, will no longer receive special last meals after complaints by a state senator regarding the extensive requests from a man involved in an infamous dragging death. Sen. John Whitmire said he wanted to end the “ridiculous and inappropriate” practice or he would seek a state statute banning it. Prisons director Brad Livingston agreed and said the practice was ending … [Read More...]
Jeanne Woodford On the Death Penalty
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a series of articles on the Aug. 2 interview Editor-in-Chief Michael R. Harris conducted with Jeanne Woodford, a former San Quentin warden and former chief of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Since this interview, the bill to abolish the death penalty in California was withdrawn because of lack of support in the legislature. The … [Read More...]
Marin Seeks Death Penalty for Stabbing
The Marin County district attorney says he will seek the death penalty for a San Quentin prisoner accused of fatally stabbing a fellow inmate in July 2010. Frank Souza of San Jose was serving a 55-year-to-life sentence for murdering a homeless man when the stabbing occurred in the San Quentin West Block Yard. Souza, 31, arrived at San Quentin in January. The inmate victim was Edward Schaefer, 44, … [Read More...]
New Effort Launched To End Death Penalty
A new attempt has been launched to abolish capital punishment in California with claims it is an expensive failure. Supporters of Senate Bill 490 include the author of a 1978 ballot initiative that greatly expanded what constituted a capital crime, and a former San Quentin warden who oversaw four executions. Testifying before a Senate committee in support of the bill were Don Heller, who wrote the … [Read More...]
Former CDCR Chief Provides Insight into Death Penalty Issue
Editor’s Note: This is the first of two articles on the Aug. 2 interview Editor-in-Chief Michael R. Harris conducted with Jeanne Woodford, a former San Quentin warden and former chief of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Please explain where the disbanding of California’s executions stand as of right now? Senator Loni Hancock, has introduced Senate Bill 490. If it’s … [Read More...]
EDUCTION CORNER
Death Row student Craigen Armstrong wants kids to hear his voice and avoid his fate. He envies the access general population outreach groups have to at-risk youth. He has had an epiphany, and wants to share. He thinks that kids would listen to him, trust his judgment, and maybe morph into responsible citizens. He has accumulated credits toward an Associate Degree through the Coastline College … [Read More...]
Federal Drug Administration Being Sued by Death Row Prisoners
Lawyers representing six Death Row inmates are suing the Federal Drug Administration over the importing of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic used as part of the lethal three-drug cocktail in state executions, CNN reported. “The imported thiopental in question has not been listed with the FDA, was manufactured by foreign companies that have not registered with the FDA, and was exported by a … [Read More...]
D.A. Eyes Death Penalty
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón expresses the right to seek the death penalty in “very heinous” cases. “I’m not going to compromise,” reported the San Francisco Examiner. In spite of this position, Gascón does not believe the death penalty is “the right tool,” saying it has a disproportionate affect on minorities, does not bring closure to victims’ families and has a great cost … [Read More...]
California May Extend Moratorium on Executions
SACRAMENTO — The state will not be ready to defend its new lethal injection procedures in court until early next year, prolonging a moratorium on executions in California that has been in effect since January 2006. State lawyers told a federal judge that San Quentin’s new warden, Michael Martel, needs more time to select a new team of guards to carry out executions. Deficiencies in staff training … [Read More...]
State Delays Awarding of Contract for Death Row
Officials with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (report) they have delayed awarding a contract for the first phase of the $356 million death row complex at San Quentin State Prison. The corrections department has notified the three lowest bidders of its intention to “extend the period of award ... to allow additional time for the department to brief the new administration on … [Read More...]