A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.
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For Freed Inmate, Painful Memories of Life on Death Row
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TAKOMA PARK, MD — The execution in Texas of a man alleged to have been mentally disabled has once again brought attention to the issue of capital punishment in the United States.
Nearly 1,300 people have been executed in the U.S. over the past 36 years. But during that same time period, more than 130 have been exonerated, freed because of lack of evidence, or found innocent after being re-tried.
One man still bears the psychological scars of life on Death Row: Shujaa Graham. He lives an ordinary life. His favorite Sunday activity is to take his grandsons to the creek where he took his own children.
But Graham has struggled for most of his 62 years. He spent the first eleven years of his life in Louisiana’s cotton fields. The next seven he spent in and out of juvenile detention facilities.
Then, a robbery conviction at age 18 put him in adult prison - for life. He learned to read and write in prison, and denounced his earlier criminal activities. But it was a time of vast prison overcrowding and rioting. Things went terribly wrong.
"They opened up a new exercise yard in Soledad state prison," he said. "W.L. Nolan and two other blacks were killed - murdered… pow pow pow. And that’s what started the movement. People looked at the situation and said 'We dying.' They said, ‘Let’s organize ourselves and die together.'"
Graham was later blamed for the murder of a prison guard. He tried to prove his innocence for the next eight years. But after the third trial on the charge, he was sentenced to die.
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 5: This Thursday morning at exactly 7:00 am, the Criminal Execution Prosecution carried out the death penalty for six convicts at the Central Prison. Among those executed were three Kuwaiti citizens, two Iranians, and one Pakistani. However, the execution of a Kuwaiti woman, convicted of killing her friend, was withdrawn at the last moment after the victim's heirs accepted blood money and pardoned her.
The execution of Thomas Creech failed in February when a prison medical team was unable to establish an IV line to carry out the lethal injection. BOISE, Idaho — After a failed execution in February, Idaho's longest-serving death row inmate said a second attempt to execute him would be "cruel and unusual punishment" - violating his Eighth Amendment rights.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — An inmate set to be executed in South Carolina in three weeks wants the state Supreme Court to delay the execution so his lawyers can argue his co-defendant who testified against him lied about having no plea deal in exchange for his testimony. Attorneys for Freddie Owens also said in court papers filed late Friday that a juror saw an electronic stun device Owens had to wear in court to assure good behavior and a judge never talked about why he had to wear it.
A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.
The state of Alabama executed Gary Brown more than two decades ago for his connection to a fatal stabbing. But at a recent Sunday service in Birmingham, you could hear him preaching. In the bustling foyer of the Unitarian Universalist Church, an archival recording of one of Brown’s sermons in prison thrummed under patrons’ lively chatter. Visitors stood with their necks craned back, reading rows of letters fixed to a wall. The display was part of an art exhibit that’s been traveling through Alabama this summer. Using art and archival materials, “The Art of Resistance: Documenting Alabama’s Death Row” aims to spark conversations about the state’s use of capital punishment.
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 30, 2024: Meisam Hosseinkhani, a Kurdish man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Khorramabad Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Kurdish man was executed in Khorramabad (Parsilion) Central Prison on 28 August. His identity has been established as 22-year-old Meisam Hosseinkhani from Kouhdasht. He was arrested for murder with a cold weapon (knife) during a group fight three years ago and sentenced to qisas.
Florida executes man convicted of killing college student, raping victim’s sister in national forest A Florida man convicted of killing a college freshman and raping the murder victim’s older sister while the siblings camped in a national forest 30 years ago was executed Thursday. Loran Cole, 57, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the 1994 killing of the 18-year-old student. Cole also was serving t2life sentences for rape.
Trump sat down with DailyMail.com for an interview at his Mar-a-Lago home. He talked about the campaign and his plans for day one in the White House. Donald Trump says he will end the Justice Department moratorium on executions on his first day in office, and use the full force of the law to go after major drug dealers and cop killers. The Trump campaign sees crime, in general, and Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor in California, in particular, as areas where they can inflict damage on her presidential bid.
TEHRAN: The Supreme Court of Iran has upheld a death sentence awarded to a member of the all-volunteer wing of the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who stormed a house during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini and killed a 60-year-old man, said a lawyer on Tuesday. The capital punishment awarded to the Basij member marks a rare moment for Iran to hold accountable its security forces. It is pertinent to mention that more than 500 people were killed and over 22,000 were detained in the 2022 protests.
In an August 31, 2024, editorial from The New York Times , the newspaper’s editorial board writes that capital punishment is “immoral, unconstitutional and useless as a deterrent to crime,” and asserts that President Joseph Biden should follow through with his campaign pledge to end the federal death penalty. The Times believes “it would be an appropriate and humane finale to his presidency for Mr. Biden to fulfill that pledge and try to eliminate the death penalty for federal crimes.” Since 2000, public support for the death penalty has steadily declined, as have the number of new death sentences and executions.
