Death Penalty News

Mike DeWine spent years quietly opposing thedeath penalty in Ohio without ever saying so out loud – largely by ensuring no one was executed in the seven-plus years he has been governor. Even though most people could see how he felt, he still had a big moment Tuesday when he formally announced his opposition. One reason the announcement had weight, Today in Ohio podcast hosts said on Wednesday, is that he was the author of the state’s death penalty law 45 years ago. But podcast hosts also said the announcement landed with a bit of a thud, because it was so unsurprising and because DeWine did not do the one thing that would have had a big impact: commute all existing death sentences.

Pro-life advocates have seen significant gains in rolling back the death penalty in states around the country in recent years. A smaller but still determined band of activists and policymakers, meanwhile, is hoping for a similar victory at the federal level.  The vast majority of executions in the United States are carried out at the state level. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1976 Gregg v. Georgia decision affirming the legality of the death penalty, just 16 convicts have been put to death by the federal government, compared with nearly 1,600 by state governments.

Who suffers the most through decades of appeals? Who suffers the most when justice delayed turns into justice denied? The families who were victimized.  Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, represents Ohio’s 3rd senate district and is the vice chairperson of the senate judiciary committee. Reynolds is also on the host committee of the council of state governments midwestern legislative conference and the vice chair of the conference’s criminal justice and public safety committee.

David Hosier, who was executed on June 11 for a crime he insisted he didn't commit, described the harrowing conditions of Missouri's death row, where he spent the last 11 years of his life During the last four months of his life, David Hosier spent almost all of his time in a 7-foot-wide by 15-foot-long cell, completely isolated from everyone, only allowed to leave if he was shackled head-to-toe, had a full security escort and a legitimate reason to venture out into the rest of the prison.

BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana legislature convened for it's second special session Monday, with crime solutions at the forefront for lawmakers. Legislators are days away from deciding if the new execution methods will be legal with a bill filed by Republican state Rep. Nicholas Muscarello. One of the governor's top priorities is to add new methods for capital punishment. It's one of the issues Governor Jeff Landry campaigned on. 

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost just couldn’t resist jumping onboard a new way to kill people – or the opportunity to be in front of television cameras. Yost, Ohio’s two-term Republican attorney general, on Tuesday announced his support for legislation to allow nitrogen hypoxia to be used in Ohio executions. The bill is sponsored by state Reps. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, and Phil Plummer, R-Dayton. Yost said Ohio has “broke faith” with crime victims and jurors by not carrying out death sentences for the last five years while capital punishment remains law. Without mentioning Gov. Mike DeWine by name, Yost said not following the law is “an abdication of the sovereignty of the state of Ohio.”

A group of Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the death penalty and advocated for legislation that  would abolish it in Missouri during a Tuesday press conference at the state Capitol — characterizing it as an issue of restraining government overreach and protecting life.  Rep. Chad Perkins, a Republican from Bowling Green, has filed legislation to abolish the death penalty and sentence those on death row instead to life in prison without parole.

Voters in Louisiana elected a new governor last week. For 56 of the state’s residents, the stakes of that contest were especially high: The elevation of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a rabid defender of the death penalty, dramatically increases the odds they will soon be executed. Earlier this year, the dozens of inmates on Louisiana’s death row had a glimmer of hope: In April, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, used his last state of the state address to call on the legislature to abolish executions. He declared them exorbitantly expensive, difficult to administer, and often wrong, pointing to more than 50 reversals of sentences and six full exonerations of death row inmates in the last 20 years. The death penalty, Edwards said, “doesn’t deter crime; it isn’t necessary for public safety; and more importantly, it is wholly inconsistent with Louisiana’s pro-life values as it quite literally promotes a culture of death.” All but one of Louisiana’s 57 death row inmates petitione...

BATON ROUGE, La. — For the first time, Louisiana is on the precipice of emptying death row. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards is using his clemency power to help advance a mass request for commutations after he publicly called on state lawmakers to stop the death penalty months ago. But time is running out. The governor leaves office in January. Emboldened by Edwards’ comments on capital punishment, all but one of the state’s 57 people on death row asked the governor in June to spare their lives by commuting their sentences to life without parole.

Granting clemency to Death Row inmates would show the nation Louisiana is the staunchly pro-life state many claim it to be, death penalty abolitionists said during an Aug. 15 news conference. The group of faith leaders, activists and relatives of murder victims and inmates gathered on the steps of the state Capitol Aug. 15 to urge the Louisiana Board of Pardons to reconsider its rejection of the 56 clemency petitions forwarded to it by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards last month. “We urge the board to grant mercy over vengeance, and for the governor to continue to use his authority to grant clemency,” said Samantha Kennedy, executive director of the New Orleans-based Promise of Justice Initiative, which organized the event.

Louisiana’s death penalty saga continues. Two steps forward, one step back, on the road toward abolition. The latest step forward came last Wednesday, when Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards exercised his executive authority and ordered the state’s clemency board to hold hearings on the petitions filed by 56 death row inmates this summer. His order tees up the possibility that, before he leaves office next January, Edwards may be able to issue the largest mass commutation in this country since Illinois Gov. George Ryan emptied his state’s death row in 2003.

Acting one day after Gov. John Bel Edwards asked them to do so , the Louisiana Pardon Board on Thursday scheduled hearings for 20 of the 56 death row inmates seeking life sentences rather than a possible date with the executioner. Among those who now have clemency hearing dates in October and November are some of the state’s most notorious murderers. The board is planning to hear 5 cases on each of the 4 new dates. The Louisiana District Attorneys Association quickly condemned the move. “It is unfortunate that the survivors and their families are being thrust into this chaos,” Loren Lampert, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “Rest assured that district attorneys, and their staff, are steadfastly working at this very moment to determine the best course of action on how to make sure that the victims are heard, and justice prevails.”

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Nearly all of Louisiana’s death row inmates asked on Tuesday for term-limited Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards to spare their lives and grant them clemency — changing their punishment from the death penalty to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The 51 clemency applications came after a bill to abolish the death penalty failed during Louisiana’s legislative session, which adjourned Thursday.  Over the spring, Edwards — who is unable to seek reelection this year due to consecutive term limits, opening a huge opportunity for Republicans to win the seat in a reliably red state — voiced his support, for the first time, to eliminate capital punishment. He urged lawmakers to get rid of the death penalty, saying it was “inconsistent with Louisiana’s pro-life values, as it quite literally promotes a culture of death.”

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Gov. John Bel Edwards for the first time is for an end to the death penalty in Louisiana. Edwards took his public stance during his final State of the State address on Monday, April 10. “For the first time, I’m calling on the legislature to end the death penalty,” Edwards said. Louisiana is one of 27 states where the death penalty still exists. Rep. Kyle Green from Jefferson Parish filed a bill before the state of the regular legislative session that would abolish capital punishment, despite receiving pushback over the years. “I think it’s inconsistent with our values of being a Pro-Life state. On one hand, we say we support the most innocent life, and all lives should be protected, but we are perpetuating a culture of death,” Green said. Green and those who agree with him have argued that it’s too expensive, difficult to carry out, ineffective at deterring crime, and a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Similar measures passed in the House before, only to fall flat in the more conservative Senate chamber AUSTIN (TEXAS TRIBUNE) - In a state where mental illness is prevalent on death row, the Texas House of Representatives has again passed a measure to bar the death penalty for some people with severe mental illnesses. House Bill 727, by state Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, finally passed the chamber Wednesday on a 97-48 vote, a week after the measure was tentatively passed. The bill’s final version precludes the death penalty for defendants diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. In a statement released Saturday, Rose said the bill was delayed “due to ongoing conversations we’re engaging in to present a strong level of support for the proposal to the Senate.”

The Deep South has long been where America’s death penalty has killed the most people. Ask almost anyone about capital punishment and they are likely to bring up Alabama, Florida, or Texas. As a 2018 New York Times headline noted, “There’s a Lot of Killing in the Thou Shalt Not Kill States.” Since 1976, southern states have executed 1,278 of the 1,567 people put to death during that period. That contrasts with 196 in the Midwest, 89 in the West, and 4 in the Northeast. It is clear that America’s death penalty will not end until Southern states are ready and willing to do so. That moment is coming sooner than you might think. As the national climate becomes more hospitable to abolitionist arguments, we are beginning to see significant cracks in the wall of southern support for the death penalty. That development is yet another indication that this country is now on the road to ending capital punishment.

Last November, Alabama tried yet again to extinguish a human life in the form of a state sanctioned execution. The state’s previous three attempts to take a life did not go as planned. One resulted in a torturous botched execution and the other two were complete failures that had to be called off at the last minute. As people of faith who embrace a culture of life, we are deeply concerned about our state’s continued involvement in the killing business and are so pleased that Governor Ivey chose to pause executions after what transpired. Now is the time for a comprehensive, independent review of Alabama’s death penalty procedures. The execution process should not be shrouded in secrecy.

A former member of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has helped launch a new anti-death penalty group to educate fellow conservatives and lobby state lawmakers about the flaws of capital punishment. The new branch of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty was unveiled in a livestreamed press conference Aug. 25, the same day Oklahoma executed the first of a slate of 25 prisoners scheduled to die by lethal injection over the next two years — about one a month. Adam Luck resigned from the parole board in January at the request of Gov. Kevin Stitt, with whom he disagreed about the validity of the death penalty. Luck said he was swayed by three years on the panel and by a 2017 bipartisan commission report that found Oklahoma’s death penalty system to be deeply flawed. “I challenge every legislator, local, state and federal elected official to honestly examine your beliefs, read the commission report and have the courage to decide again on your beliefs in the death penalty,” Luck...

Anti-crime groups back efforts to push bill through Congress when Marcos becomes president At least 3 anti-crime groups in the Philippines are backing fresh calls to reinstate the death penalty for heinous crimes and drug lords. The Federation of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Campaign, together with the Anti-Crime Council of the Philippines and the Fight Drug Trade Movement, issued a joint statement on June 26 saying they would join efforts to push President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. into reinstating capital punishment, which was abolished in 2006 by former president Gloria Arroyo. “Our group has reached the conclusion that we need the death penalty to curb rising heinous crimes in the Philippines. Capital punishment provides benefits to society such as instilling fear into criminals, especially in a country where discipline is wanting,” the groups said. The call came after a recent survey revealed that more than 50 % of the population believed the death penalty was effective in p...

On the heels of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade , Governor Mike Parson wasted no time signing the Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act. And Attorney General Eric Schmitt signed a proclamation banning abortion in the state. This is according to a story from Ozarks First . Yet, I'd like to know if life is so precious, is he willing to abolish Missouri's death penalty? The Ozarks First story quotes Governor Parson as saying: With Roe v. Wade overturned and statutory triggers provided in HB 126, we are issuing this proclamation to restore our state authority to regulate abortion and protect life. Thanks to decades of conservative leaders, Missouri has become one of the most pro-life states in the nation, and our administration has always fought for the life of every unborn child. Today, our efforts have produced what generations of Missourians have worked and prayed for: Today, we have won our fight to protect innocent life. And while Governor Parson is quick to protect...