Louisiana’s bipartisan push to abolish the death penalty received an extra boost this week from Bishop Shelton Fabre of the diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. In an editorial in The Advocate, the state’s largest newspaper, the bishop called the practice “inconsistent with Louisiana’s values.” “Ours is one of the most religious states in the country, with more…Read More
What happens before a murder? In looking for ways to reduce death penalty cases, David R. Dow realized that a surprising number of death row inmates had similar biographies. In this talk he proposes a bold plan, one that prevents murders in the first place.
In two recent actions, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed its death penalty decisions are hardly cut and dried. In late March, the court blocked an execution because an inmate’s religious adviser wasn’t permitted to be present, which contrasted with their decision not to block an execution the previous month in a case also involving a…Read More
The Supreme Court practically foreclosed the possibility that a Texas inmate named Bobby James Moore will be executed, finding Tuesday that Moore is intellectually disabled. Moore was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980 for the shooting death of a store clerk. Though friends and counselors say Moore could not tell time and struggled with…Read More
Ten months after abandoning lethal injection, frustrated Oklahoma officials have yet to find a way to execute inmates with nitrogen gas. “I’ve got both arms tied behind my back,” said Joe Allbaugh, director of the Oklahoma Corrections Department. At issue is an inability so far to find a manufacturer of a gas delivery device willing…Read More
The latest death penalty case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court was not about if a death-row prisoner should be executed, but how. And the newest member of the court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, could be the deciding vote on the outcome. The Nov. 6 oral arguments considered if an alternative execution method could…Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court, no stranger to death penalty cases, is looking very narrowly at two aspects of capital punishment this term: if an inmate with dementia should be executed if he has no memory of the crime he committed three decades ago and if a death-row prisoner with a specific health problem can be…Read More
Without being aware of it, Vernon Madison might become a footnote in constitutional law because he is barely aware of anything. For more than 30 years, Alabama, with a tenacity that deserves a better cause, has been trying to execute him for the crime he certainly committed, the 1985 murder of a police officer. Twice…Read More
Despite promises to have a new execution protocol drafted by July, officials said this week that implementation remains unfinished with no planned date for executions to resume. Officials with the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Corrections, meanwhile, now say there is no estimated completion date for the state’s new nitrogen hypoxia protocol. “I…Read More
The bishops of Tennessee issued a letter to the state’s governor Friday, encouraging him to halt upcoming executions expected to use a controversial three-drug lethal injection. “It is within your power to establish your legacy as a governor of Tennessee who did not preside over an execution on your watch,” the bishops wrote July 13…Read More