Death Penalty

Sirhan denied parole in 1968 slaying of Robert Kennedy, for 15th time

For the 15th time, the convicted slayer of Robert F. Kennedy was denied parole on Wednesday by California’s Board of Parole Hearings. Pressed to express remorse, Sirhan Sirhan, 71, told the board he didn’t remember shooting Kennedy in 1968, just after the Democratic presidential candidate had delivered a victory speech…

Feb 11, 2016 2:05 PM CST

How far should Florida go to reform death penalty? Lawmakers mull changes after SCOTUS decision

Florida lawmakers are considering changes in the state’s capital sentencing law after the U.S. Supreme Court found one provision to be unconstitutional last month. Legislators are debating how far to go in overhauling the law, the New York Times reports. Florida law requires jurors to make capital-punishment recommendations by a…

Feb 3, 2016 12:06 PM CST

Delaware puts capital cases on hold while death-penalty issues are mulled by state supreme court

After a U.S. Supreme Court decision in January that struck down a Florida death-penalty sentencing scheme similar to Delaware’s, the state’s top court has agreed to review questions about whether Delaware’s capital punishment structure is constitutional. That led to a Monday announcement by Delaware Superior Court President Judge Jan Jurden…

Feb 1, 2016 5:00 PM CST

Breyer renews call to review constitutionality of death penalty

Justice Stephen G. Breyer has used an Alabama capital case to renew his call to examine the constitutionality of the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution for the inmate, Christopher Eugene Brooks, drawing a dissent (PDF) from Breyer, report BuzzFeed News, the Montgomery…

Jan 22, 2016 8:38 AM CST

SCOTUS reinstates death sentences in ‘Wichita Massacre,’ cover-up killings; Sotomayor dissents

The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentences of three convicted Kansas murderers in a decision with only one dissent. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion (PDF) reinstating the death sentences of Reginald and Jonathan Carr, convicted in a notorious spate of crimes in Wichita that left five people…

Jan 20, 2016 10:09 AM CST

Supreme Court overturns Florida’s advisory death-penalty scheme in 8-1 decision

The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down Florida’s death penalty sentencing scheme in which jurors make capital-punishment recommendations and judges make the final decision. In an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court said Florida’s sentencing scheme is unconstitutional because the Sixth Amendment requires jurors, rather than judges, to find each fact…

Jan 12, 2016 9:40 AM CST

Pennsylvania Supreme Court upholds governor’s authority to postpone executions

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has affirmed Gov. Tom Wolf’s constitutional authority to postpone executions. The court, in a unanimous decision (PDF) Monday, said Wolf had the power to delay the execution of a convicted murderer until a legislative task force issues a report on the future of capital punishment in…

Dec 22, 2015 12:20 PM CST

Top NC court vacates ruling for death-row inmates claiming racial bias in their sentences

The North Carolina Supreme Court has vacated a judge’s finding that racial bias played a role in the death sentences of four inmates. The state supreme court said the judge should have granted prosecutors more time to respond to a statistical study used to support the inmates’ racial bias claim,…

Dec 21, 2015 11:38 AM CST

Death sentences imposed this year are at the lowest level since 1973

Death sentences imposed and death sentences carried out continue to decline. Forty-nine defendants were sentenced to death this year, the lowest number since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Twenty-eight inmates were executed this year, the lowest number since 1991. The New York Times covers the findings (PDF).…

Dec 16, 2015 8:30 AM CST

SCOTUS tells appeals court deferential standards of review ‘apply with equal force’ in capital cases

The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated a death sentence imposed after a federal trial judge excused a juror who waffled on whether he could impose the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death sentence for Roger Wheeler on Monday in a per curiam opinion (PDF) summarily reversing a…

Dec 14, 2015 11:45 AM CST

Judge overturns death sentence because of prosecutor’s Bible quotes

A prosecutor’s inflammatory references to the Bible require reversal of a 1992 death sentence, a federal judge in San Diego has ruled. The ruling last week by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller requires prosecutors to give defendant Rudolph Roybal a new sentencing hearing or to reduce his sentence to life…

Dec 10, 2015 10:42 AM CST

Supreme Court ruling could spark more unintentional-discrimination cases

A recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion that addressed unconscious discrimination in a low-income housing case could have far-reaching effects on future civil rights and criminal cases involving implicit bias. The June 2015 opinion (PDF) dealt with a claim against the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. It alleged that…

Dec 1, 2015 3:30 AM CST

Innocence project movement in China rises to aid the wrongfully convicted

China's death penalty train, widely believed to be the world's most active, is showing some signs of slowing down. And domestic innocence projects may be having an effect, though small, on getting wrongful convictions in capital crimes overturned.

Dec 1, 2015 2:30 AM CST

As execution looms, appellate lawyers fight client’s effort to get new counsel and seek clemency

Scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for setting a house fire that killed three children almost 15 years ago, a 36-year-old death row inmate in Texas has effectively been abandoned by his court-appointed appellate counsel, some observers say. Raphael Deon Holiday sent letter after letter from prison seeking to find…

Nov 17, 2015 2:00 PM CST

9th Circuit overturns judge who deemed California’s death-penalty system ‘dysfunctional’

A federal appeals court has overturned a federal judge’s finding that “systemic delay and dysfunction” in California’s process of reviewing capital sentences had made the death penalty unconstitutionally arbitrary. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against inmate Ernest DeWayne Jones because he sought to apply a…

Nov 13, 2015 9:17 AM CST