Death Penalty Focus

10/20/2024

It's not too late to register for our webinar on “The Case for Universal Clemency in California” this Thursday, October 24, 2024, at noon Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern.

DPF President Mike Farrell will moderate the discussion with panelists Robert D. Bacon, Natasha Minsker, and Molly C. Sheahan. The conversation will focus on why Gov. Gavin Newsom must act now to grant clemency to the 620 people sentenced to death in California. Eight governors from all over the country have granted universal clemency, recognizing that it's an act of mercy. It's time for California to step up and do the same.

We hope to see you there. You can register here:
https://tinyurl.com/3nf9yxcx

09/18/2024

Ask Missouri Gov. Parson to stop this ex*****on now!

In less than one week, Missouri plans to execute Marcellus Williams, a man who is very likely innocent, as evidenced by the fact the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney reviewed the DNA results and filed a motion to vacate his conviction because he believed the DNA results proved by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Williams did not commit this crime.

Please sign the petition asking the governor to commute Marcellus's sentence, and stop this ex*****on. Sign the change.org petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/mike-parson-do-not-execute-marcellus-williams?source_location=search

And, call Gov. Parsons' office: https://tinyurl.com/3snxc2kp

Help us stop Missouri from the irreparable mistake of executing an innocent person, Marcellus Williams on Sept. 24.

09/17/2024

California artist Amy Elkins incorporated the last words spoken by people about to be executed in her visual archive, https://www.amyelkins.com/partingwords1 "Parting Words." Elkins combed through some 560 mug shots and records of the last statements of the people executed in Texas since 1976, converting "each mug shot into looping excerpts ... ranging from confessions to hymns, protest to sorrows and fears." It's a compelling -- and haunting -- work of art.

Partings WordsParting Words is a visual archive created out of mug shots and testimony readily available through public record of the 560+ people executed in Texas prisons since 1976, the year the ban on capital punishment was overturned. Using an algorithm, I converted each mug shot into looping ex...

07/30/2024

This is a must-see video. It's a powerful and beautifully written story by Brian Wharton, videotaped by Kirk Semple and Adam Westbrook for the New York Times. It's another searing example of how flawed our criminal justice system is. Robert Roberson, III, who has autism, was sentenced to death in Texas 20 years ago for the death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, who prosecutors said died of shaken baby syndrome, evidence of which has been debunked time and time again, and yet is still used to imprison and kill innocent people. The video accompanies the cop who arrested him as he visits Robert on death row and who now says, "There is unassailable doubt that Robert did it." As for Robert, he says, "I just hope and pray that we can make things right together." Robert is scheduled to be killed on October 17.

07/12/2024

Making child r**e a death penalty crime "may actually encourage abusers to kill their child victims"

A powerful essay in the Tennessean by Sarah McGee ((https://tinyurl.com/2s3ttkju), a victim-witness coordinator in the Davidson County DA's office, who has also served as an assistant public defender for youth and adults, explains how the push by Republican legislators to pass bills allowing a death sentence for any individual convicted of the r**e of a minor, "may actually encourage abusers to kill their child victims to eliminate any witnesses, because the punishment is now the same whether or not they kill their victims."

McGee also notes that another consequence of the legislation is it could also lead to "dramatic under-reporting" of the crime because experts have estimated that 90% of r**es of minors "are committed by members of the child's own family or those in their circle of trust."

This month, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that requires adults convicted of the r**e of a child "or especially aggravated r**e of a child" to be sentenced to death or life in prison, or life without the possibility of parole.��Florida also has a bill authorizing the death penalty for the r**e of a child, and six other states are considering similar bills.

When will legislators learn that draconian laws almost always have unintended consequences?

06/06/2024

We hope you can join us on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at noon Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern, for a DPF webinar on "Alameda County, CA Prosecutors and the Exclusion of Jewish and Black Jurors." Moderated by DPF President Mike Farrell, in conversation with Brian Pomerantz and Ann-Kathryn Tria, co-counsels for the man whose appeal set the investigation into jury bias in motion, the discussion will examine how the Alameda County District Attorney's office systematically excluded people of certain faiths, races, or genders from serving on juries.

To register or for more information, go to www.deathpenalty.org Hope to see you there!

04/28/2024

San Quentin's closure of death row is nearing completion

CDCR says it has moved approximately 222 of the individuals on San Quentin's death row to 20 prisons throughout the state since February 26, when mandatory transfers began. The process of emptying death row started with a pilot volunteer transfer program in January 2020, during which 104 death-sentenced people were moved. CDCR says it plans to have all 640 individuals who were on death row dispersed to the mainline by the end of May. Once the transfers have been completed, the 528 single-person cells in East Block, which housed all the people on death row except for the women (housed at CWF) will be either retrofitted or demolished.

04/23/2024

A deputy DA in Alameda County DA Pamela Price's office discovered evidence that appeared to indicate prosecutors intentionally excluded Jewish and Black female jurors from the jury pool. Price handed the notes over to the defense and the presiding judge in the case, and the result is that Judge Vince Chhabria has ordered a review of all death penalty cases from Alameda County for any evidence indicating prosecutorial misconduct. The DA's office reports the order means reviewing 35 death penalty cases from the past 30 years to determine if there are any other instances of jury exclusion based on the race or s*x of the potential jurors. We support efforts by to expose this misconduct and bring justice to those impacted.

04/17/2024

Melissa Lucio may go free at last

One hundred-ninety-seven individuals sentenced to die have been exonerated in the US since 1973. Melissa Lucio, on Texas death row since 2008 for a crime no reasonable person ever believed she committed, could and should be the 198th.

Lucio, now 55, was arrested in 2007 for the murder of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, despite forensic and eyewitness evidence that her daughter died from a head injury she suffered in a fall down steep stairs. Lucio, who was pregnant with twins and already the mother of 12 children at the time of Mariah’s death, had no record of violence, and thousands of pages of reports by Child Protective Services had never indicated that she abused her children. But after she was subjected to a five-hour, late-night aggressive interrogation by armed male investigators that didn’t end until she broke down and told them what they wanted to hear, “I guess I did it. I’m responsible.” The district attorney (now serving a 13-year federal prison sentence for bribery and extortion) then prosecuted Lucio for capital murder.

But last Friday, the district judge who presided over Lucio's death penalty trial recommended that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturn her conviction after the DA's office acknowledged that it withheld evidence that could have indicated her innocence.

Lucio came within two days of being executed in 2022 when the TCCA halted the ex*****on to give them time to examine the case further.

How many more wrongful convictions will finally convince the states and federal government that the risk of executing the innocent is all too real and all too common? When will we join the majority of the countries in the world and abolish this barbaric punishment?

04/09/2024

Half a dozen racial justice, civil rights, and legal organizations filed a lawsuit in the CA Supreme Court stating that CA’s death penalty violates the Equal Protection Clause of CA's Constitution because it's applied in a racially biased manner. This is such an important development, especially coming on the heels of Santa Clara DA Rosen's announcement that his office is moving to change the sentences of more than a dozen people on death row from death to life behind bars with no chance of parole.