Victims’ Families Want Virginia to End The Death Penalty Virginia may soon become the 23rd state to abolish capital punishment. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
As Support For The Death Penalty Plummets, The Trump Administration Embraces Executions While bans on capital punishment progress at the state level, the federal government is racing to carry out three more executions before President Trump's term end. Ten people have been put to death since July, the first such executions since 2003. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Terry McAuliffe’s Record on the Death Penalty Is Out of Step With National Trends McAuliffe is running to become Virginia governor a second time. If he wins, he would be the only active Democratic governor to have carried out executions in office. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
U.S. Executes Keith Dwayne Nelson, The Fifth Federal Prisoner Put To Death This Year Nelson’s attorneys had sought to have his death sentence reversed, citing critical errors by his original trial attorneys. Lauren Gill
U.S. Executes Lezmond Mitchell Over Objections Of The Navajo Nation It’s the first time in modern history that the federal government has executed a Native American for a crime committed against another Native American on tribal land, his attorneys say. Lauren Gill
The Federal Government’s Decision To Execute Lezmond Mitchell Is A Direct Affront To Tribal Rule The execution of Mitchell against the will of the Navajo Nation only perpetuates the U.S.’s dreadful history of colonial violence and oppression of Indigenous peoples. Ruth Hopkins
U.S. Executes Dustin Lee Honken, The Third Federal Execution In A Week Honken, convicted of the murders of five people, died by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The federal government resumed executions this week for the first time since 2003. Lauren Gill
U.S. Completes Second of Three Executions Set for This Week In a 5-4 ruling early today, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the lethal injection of Wesley Ira Purkey. Lawyers had argued that killing Purkey, who had dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease, would represent cruel and unusual punishment. Lauren Gill
U.S. Government Carries Out The First Execution Of A Federal Prisoner in 17 Years A late-night Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, despite his claims of innocence and his attorneys’ belief that DNA testing could show he was wrongly convicted. Lauren Gill
The Federal Death Penalty Has The Veneer Of Respectability. But It’s Just As Flawed As the States’ Killing Machines. Attorney General Bill Barr has scheduled executions for four people on federal death row in July and August. That’s more federal executions in one month than in the entire modern history of the federal death penalty. Ben Cohen
Federal Prisoner Set To Be Executed Next Week Was Labeled A ‘Psychopath’ Because Of A Faulty Evaluation Tool A government psychologist who used the tool to evaluate Daniel Lewis Lee—who is scheduled to die Monday in Indiana—has since disavowed it. Without it, the trial judge has written that it’s ‘very questionable’ Lee would have been sentenced to death. Lauren Gill
After 17 Years, Bureau Of Prisons Set To Resume Federal Executions A civil rights advocate calls the scheduled executions of four men ‘appalling’ and a return to a ‘biased, arbitrary, and error-prone’ system. Lauren Gill
Texas Prisoner Whose Case Changed the State’s Death Penalty Law Is Granted Parole Attorneys argued for decades that Bobby Moore was intellectually disabled when he was sentenced to death in 1980. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling led to a change in his sentence last year and cleared the way for his release. Lauren Gill
Missouri Set To Execute Walter Barton Tonight Despite Claims That He May Be Innocent If the U.S. Supreme Court or the state’s governor doesn’t step in, Barton’s would be the first execution carried out in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lauren Gill
Tennessee Set to Execute Intellectually Disabled Black Man In Killing of White Woman Even Though Innocence Questions Persist Attorneys say the prosecution’s theory of the murder case was ‘concocted out of whole cloth’ and based on ‘outdated racial stereotyping.’ Steven Hale
Mother Of Slain 4-Year-Old Says Pennsylvania Should Release Death Row Prisoner With COVID-19 Symptoms Sharon Fahy, whose daughter was murdered in 1988, asked the court to release Walter Ogrod, the man convicted in her killing. Lauren Gill
Alabama Officials Executed Nathaniel Woods Despite Claims of Innocence. Then, Against His Religious Beliefs, They Autopsied His Body ‘It was almost like they were going to do whatever they could to demean him and take away his dignity,’ Woods’s spiritual adviser said. Beth Shelburne
Pennsylvania Man On Death Row Shows Signs of Coronavirus Days Before Hearing That Could Have Freed Him Prosecutors say Walter Ogrod is ‘likely innocent’ of the charges that sent him to prison in 1996. Now, his attorney says, ‘every day a decision and/or hearing is delayed is another day that Mr. Ogrod’s health is at grave risk.’ Lauren Gill
Justice In America Episode 24: Death Penalty Josie Duffy Rice and guest co-host Darnell Moore focus on the death penalty as they talk with State Attorney Aramis Ayala of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.
Texas Court Issues Temporary Stay Of Execution Amid Coronavirus ‘Health Crisis’ John Hummel was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. The court, citing the current health crisis, has postponed the execution for 60 days. Lauren Gill
Alabama Executes Nathaniel Woods Despite Claims That He Was An ‘Innocent Man’ ‘I think everyone involved— the governor, the attorney general, the DOC commissioner—everyone knew it,’ his lawyer said. Lauren Gill
Alabama Prepares To Execute A Man Whose Case Is Haunted By Claims Of Police Misconduct Nathaniel Woods, who was convicted in connection with the deaths of three Birmingham police officers in 2004, is ‘100 percent innocent,’ the man who shot the officers told The Appeal. Lauren Gill
Tennessee Man Could Be The First Person In Nearly A Century To Be Executed After Being Forced To Represent Himself At Trial Across the country, the death penalty is in steep decline. But in September, the state’s attorney general sought execution dates for nine men, and its Supreme Court set dates for two of them. Steven Hale
The Appeal Podcast: Documenting the Death Penalty With Jordan Smith and Liliana Segura of The Intercept. Adam H. Johnson
Arkansas Executed Ledell Lee. Posthumous Testing Will Most Likely Prove He Was Innocent, Lawsuit Says Lee’s family wants officials in Jacksonville, Arkansas, to turn over evidence that was used to convict and sentence him to death. The family says that evidence could posthumously exonerate him. Lauren Gill
As Support For Capital Punishment Wanes, An Ohio D.A. Continues To Push For Death In Franklin County, experts say Ron O’Brien’s capital cases—which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars— amount to ‘just taxpayer money being lit on fire.’ Joshua Vaughn
The Appeal Podcast: States Turn To Nitrogen Gas For Executions, Despite Serious Concerns With Appeal staff reporter Lauren Gill Adam H. Johnson
Using Nitrogen Gas For Executions Is Untested and Poorly Understood. Three States Plan to Do It Anyway. Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama have all authorized the practice in capital punishment. So what happens now? Lauren Gill
Why Juries Need Expert Help Assessing Jailhouse Informants Informants are highly motivated to lie. But jurors don’t always have the information or skills to discern the truth. Alexandra Natapoff
Missouri Is Set To Execute Russell Bucklew. His Lawyers Say His Case Was Mishandled. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that his execution, which experts have said will be bloody and gruesome, does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment. But problems with his case started long before that, his attorneys say. Lauren Gill
Harris County D.A. Seeks Execution of Intellectually Disabled Man, Lawyer Says Kim Ogg ran as a reform-minded district attorney candidate, but her office has sought two death warrants for Dexter Johnson, whose lawyer says cannot name everyday objects and has an IQ of 70. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
In Alabama, Decades-Delayed Justice In A Double Homicide—Or A Brand New Injustice? Police in Ozark said they solved the 1999 murders of two teenage girls using a genealogy database. But Coley McCraney‘s attorneys say that the case against their client is far from certain. Lauren Gill
Philadelphia D.A. Asks Court to Declare Death Penalty System Unconstitutional Larry Krasner says the punishment is ‘really about poverty’ and race. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
An Alabama Woman Got Pregnant While In Jail. She Has No Memory of Having Sex. Since 2017, LaToni Daniel has been incarcerated pretrial in a capital murder case. During that time, Daniel became pregnant, and she just delivered a baby boy. But as she brings in new life, she also faces the death penalty. Lauren Gill
Texas Plans to Execute a Man For A Murder He Didn’t Commit Patrick Murphy didn’t even learn about the murder until later that day. A controversial law allows him to be executed anyway. Katie Rose Quandt
‘I’ve Made My Share Of Wrongs, But I Haven’t Killed No One’ California amended its felony murder law, which holds accomplices responsible for murder. But reform won’t reach a man sentenced to death in a deadly robbery—even though he was never accused of firing a shot. Maura Ewing
Billionaire Pushes Marsy’s Law To Victory in Six States, Despite Concerns That It Threatens Defendants’ Rights Victims’ rights campaign spent more than $70 million nationwide, with more than half of that spent in Florida. Melissa Gira Grant
Did Prosecutors Use a ‘Cheat Sheet’ to Strike Black Jurors in North Carolina Death Penalty Case? A single training document uncovered in a prosecutor’s files could save Russell William Tucker’s life. Jacob Biba
