On February 17, 2007, paramedics in Harlingen, Texas, responded to a call at an apartment shared by Melissa Lucio and her husband, Robert Alvarez. The EMTs found the couple’s two-year-old daughter, Mariah, unresponsive and, according to police reports, covered with…
Category: Death Penalty
2022
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Death Penalty
The death penalty is the ultimate punishment imposed in the American criminal justice system.
One hundred eight countries have completely abolished the death penalty, while another 55 have effectively abolished it by not executing anyone over the last ten years,…
2022
In March of 2021, Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed a Democratic-sponsored legislative bill into law that repealed the state’s death penalty—the 23rd such state to take such action.
State-Sponsored Racism
Many of the lawmakers who voted for the…
2022
Category: Corruption | Death Penalty | Prosecutorial Misconduct
The continuing march by the State of Texas to execute George Edward McFarland adds to the often-repeated phrase associated with death penalty cases, “only in Texas.”
Texas has probably executed at least ten innocent people (far more than any other…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Death Penalty
The United States carried out seventeen executions during the pandemic year 2020. Seven of those executions were carried out by five states (Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri), while the federal government carried out the remaining ten. Texas led the…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Death Penalty
In a January 28, 2020 post titled “Is Arkansas Governor Responsible for Execution of Innocent Man,” we pointed to the fact that Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has a bloodthirsty penchant for the death penalty, sent four men to their…
2020
Category: Capital Crimes | Death Penalty
A capital felony is the most severe felony you can face in Texas. While carrying out death sentences has actually decreased in recent years, the federal government under the Trump administration, led by outgoing Attorney General William Barr, has accelerated…
2020
Category: Capital Crimes | Corruption | Death Penalty
For nearly a hundred years, Mitchell Palmer was considered one of the worst U.S. Attorney Generals in American history. He was appointed and confirmed as A.G. in March 1919. The author of the nation’s first Red Scare, Palmer’s nearly two-year…
2020
Category: Constitutional Law | Death Penalty
The federal government’s July 14, 2020 execution of Daniel Lewis Lee in the federal penal facility at Terre Haute, Indiana—the first and only execution during the pandemic crisis sweeping the nation—was not only a shameful affront to the decency of…
2020
Category: Appeals | Death Penalty | SCOTUS
Defending a person charged in a serious criminal case, under the best of circumstances, is a difficult task and an extraordinary professional responsibility. Defending a death penalty case under any circumstance is much more arduous and requires years of commitment…