Death Penalty News

The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution protects us from “cruel and unusual punishment” by the government. This seemingly simple language raises a host of complicated questions. “Cruel” by what standard? “Unusual” in what sense? Does this provision have a fixed meaning? Or does its meaning change over time? History offers a few clues. In 1689, England adopted a Declaration of Rights that prohibited “cruel and unusual punishments.” Some of the Founders argued that we needed a similar provision in our own Bill of Rights.

The state of Oklahoma put James Coddington to death on Aug. 25, 2022, for the 1997 murder of a 73-year-old friend who refused to give him money to buy drugs. It marks the beginning of a busy period at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary’s execution chamber. Last month, the state announced plans to carry out the death sentence of 25 people over the next couple of years. As a scholar who has long followed the capital punishment debate in the U.S., I know that Oklahoma’s plan runs against the grain of the death penalty’s recent history. Over the past several years both the number of death sentences imposed and executions carried out across the U.S. has declined sharply . Since 2007 more states have abolished the death penalty than in any comparable 15-year period in American history. And in November 2020 America elected its first president ever to openly oppose capital punishment . Today, fewer jurisdictions are using the death penalty, but some – like Oklahoma – seem to be doubling down....

While many countries around the world have banned the death penalty, the same is not true for the United States, as evidenced by the 9 states with the most total executions in 2020.  The death penalty has been around for thousands of years. In fact, it was the go to punishment for dozens of crimes, including some which aren’t even crimes anymore. If you find that hard to believe, just think that a dozen years from now, people will marvel how you could get extremely harsh sentences for simple possession of marijuana, now that it’s being legalized across the world and in several states in the US as well. The death penalty gained significant traction in the United States in the 17th century, increased in the 18th and 19th century, and just exploded exponentially in the 20th century. While the executions barely touched 4,000 by the end of the 19th century, they nearly reached 8,000 in the 20th century. But then 1972 happened. While 5 years had already passed without any ...

SAN ANGELO — A defense attorney for Lesley Renay Moreno Fernandez filed seven court motions earlier this month — among them, that the 391st District Court consider declaring the death penalty in Texas unconstitutional. Fernandez is facing capital murder charges after San Angelo police and firefighters found her toddler son unconscious in his crib. An autopsy report later declared 21-month-old Nathan Quezada died from trauma. Police arrested Lesley Fernandez and Andrew Andy Fernandez in February 2019 in connection to Quezada's March 2018 death. In Texas, the slaying of a child younger than 10 is a capital murder offense. In April 2019, 51st District Attorney Allison Palmer notified the court of the state's intention to seek the death penalty against Andrew Fernandez. Court documents do not show that the state is seeking the death penalty against Lesley Fernandez as of Tuesday June 30, 2020. Defense attorney argues death penalty is 'racist in its applic...

With the nation’s attention focused on racial injustice, now is the time to confront the racial disparity on death row. The millions of Americans protesting to achieve racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s brutal killing in Minneapolis have a lot on their plate. But there is one issue, in particular, that seems to be slipping through the cracks despite the increasingly broad agenda being pursued by the Black Lives Matter movement. Except for a few signs held by protesters , that agenda has included little about the racial injustice of America’s death penalty. Spurred on by the horrifying images of what Floyd’s brother called “a modern-day lynching in broad daylight,” protesters are rightly pushing to reform policing and make long-needed changes in legal doctrines like qualified immunity . But the legal executions of black men, though less visible than Floyd’s death, are as tainted by racism and a history of lynching as the extrajudicial deaths at hands of the po...

Georgia has been executing condemned prisoners since before the nation’s founding. The first person put to death was Alice Riley, who was hanged in Savannah on Jan. 19, 1734. An indentured Irish servant who protested her innocence until the end, she was charged with participating in the murder of William Wise. Riley was pregnant at the time of her sentencing and allowed a temporary stay. She was executed 4 weeks after her child was born, according to GeorgiaInfo, an online almanac hosted by GALILEO and the University of Georgia Libraries. The state’s legacy of slavery is intertwined with its laws regarding the death penalty. In 1863, for example, state law at the time held that white people who incited slave revolts or even tried to could face execution. By 1865, race-based death penalty statutes had been eliminated. Condemned prisoners generally faced the gallows until the 1920s, although the state also used firing squads and at least two prisoners were burned at the st...

(THE CONVERSATION) -- Recently, several states, including Nevada, have introduced bills that cite legal costs as one of the reasons for ending the death penalty. National trends show the death penalty is being sought and imposed less frequently. There is also ample evidence that the costs for seeking and administering the death penalty have increased significantly since the 1980s. As our recent studies have revealed, this is the case in both Oregon and Washington. The findings clearly show that the costs for death penalty trials and appeals for both Oregon and Washington have increased significantly over time. Understanding all of the reasons why costs have increased is complicated. But much of the cost increases can be attributed to changes in public opinion, the law and in the advancement of scientific evidence and methods, all of which impact legal practice regarding death penalty cases. Putting a price on the death penalty Until recently, attempts to measur...

On the surface it sounds like a sick joke. The German drug manufacturer Fresenius Kabi is suing to block an execution in Nebraska — not because it opposes capital punishment, but because it would be bad for the company’s public relations for its drugs to be used to kill. It’s not the first time. Other drug companies have also tried to block executions using their products for similar reasons. A federal district judge rejected Fresenius’s suit Friday, but the company has appealed. Regardless of whether the Nebraska execution, scheduled for Tuesday, is delayed or halted, the effort is worth examining. There is something morally bizarre, even horrifying, about the idea that a human being should live or die based on the PR concerns of a company thousands of miles away. Yet these efforts demonstrate what you might call the banality of good: Their official worries are based on ordinary corporate profit, but their actions nonetheless play a meaningful role in the long, slow process...