On Monday, April 15, Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor issued dissents over the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the petitions of two death-sentenced prisoners who alleged official misconduct in their cases. In the first case, Dillion Compton alleged that Texas prosecutors illegally used thirteen of their fifteen peremptory strikes to remove female prospective jurors because of their gender. In the second case, Kurt Michaels argued that California police officers unlawfully continued to question him after he invoked his Miranda rights, leading Mr. Michaels to eventually co ..read more

On April 12, 2024, Judge Arturo Nelson signed an Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law submitted by the prosecution and defense stating that Melissa Lucio (pictured) was not given access to favorable information in the prosecution’s possession at the time of trial.  The acknowledgement of this constitutional error resulted in Judge Nelson’s recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) that Ms. Lucio’s conviction and death sentence be overturned. The ruling marks the latest chapter in a saga that saw Ms. Lucio narrowly avoid an execution date in 2022 following a hi ..read more

On April 12, 2024, Long Island University celebrated the 2023 George Polk Awards in Journalism, honoring investigative journalists and recognizing sixteen former winners, including formerly death-sentenced prisoner Wilbert Rideau. Mr. Rideau spent forty-four years incarcerated in Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary where he created The Lifer, one of the first Black prison periodicals. Sentenced to death in 1961 at age nineteen, Mr. Rideau spent twelve years on death row before the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia (1972), which struck down Louisiana’s capital punish ..read more

On April 5, 2024, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz and Innocence Project attorney Vanessa Potkin released a joint statement regarding Melissa Lucio’s case, which has been pending additional review for almost two years. On January 11, 2023, the parties submitted an Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law stating that the defense was not given access to favorable information in the prosecution’s possession at trial, an error that they agree should entitle Ms. Lucio to a new trial. “Under Texas procedure the trial court must make a recommendation to the CCA which is the only cou ..read more

On April 9, 2024, the California Office of the State Public Defender, along with several civil rights groups, filed an extraordinary writ petition at the California Supreme Court arguing that the state’s capital punishment system violates the state’s Constitution because of its racially biased implementation. In 2021, the California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code confirmed that racial bias is entrenched in the state's death penalty system. “The California Constitution does not permit a two-tiered system of justice where the most severe sentence the state has on its books imposed overw ..read more

On April 5, 2024, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed petitions asking the county superior court to resentence 15 death-sentenced men from his county to sentences of life in prison without the possibility for parole. These petitions were filed four years after DA Rosen announced his office would no longer seek the death penalty, a decision partly in response to nationwide calls for criminal legal reform following the murder of George Floyd. At the time, DA Rosen said that Mr. Floyd’s death had “changed our country and our community... It has changed my office. It has changed ..read more

“At a time when faith in society’s institutions is at an all-time low, the failure of the capital-punishment system could be Exhibit A,” concludes the annual Capital Crimes Report issued by by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. The Report highlights numerous problems with its “broken” capital punishment system, including the “enormously expensive” cost.  The Ohio Legislative Service Commission has estimated that the cost of capital cases range from $1 to $3 million per case based on a collection of quantitative and qualitative studies in other states. “If these estimates apply to Ohio ..read more

On March 28, Judge Michael Hogan of Pittsburg County ruled that James Ryder is incompetent to be executed after a hearing where experts established Mr. Ryder’s serious mental illness. “[We are] relieved the court reached the only logical conclusion… James has no rational understanding of why Oklahoma plans to execute him,” said Mr. Ryder’s attorney, Emma Rolls, following the decision. “James has suffered from schizophrenia for nearly 40 years and has little connection to objective reality.” Mr. Ryder, 62, was the first scheduled execution of 2024 in Oklahoma before the Court of Criminal Appeal ..read more

This month, DPIC celebrates Women’s History Month with weekly profiles of notable women whose work has been significant in the modern death penalty era. The fourth and final entry in this series is Miriam Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor and the Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution. Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) is an organization of elected prosecutors “committed to promoting a justice system grounded in fairness, equity, compassion, and fiscal responsibility.”  Ms. Krinsky’s work has intersected with various facets of the legal system. During her 15 years as a federal p ..read more

In a March 26, 2024, op-ed published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Patricia McTier, a Georgia nurse, recounts her experience being removed from a jury pool in 1998 for what she calls a “questionable reason” related to her race. Born and raised in Appling County, Georgia, Ms. McTier grew up in the Jim Crow era and writes that she “enter[ed] adulthood during a time of great social change,” where she grew to “cherish our American system of justice and the Constitution that endows all of us with equal rights.” In September 1998, Ms. McTier was called for jury duty for the capital murder tri ..read more