We Need to Talk About Injustice

Exonerations in the United States, 1989 – 2012 | Report by the National Registry of Exonerations

A new report by the National Registry of Exonerations, a joint project of Michigan and Northwestern law schools, chronicles over 2000 cases where a person convicted of a crime was later exonerated between 1989 and 2012. More than half of these exonerated persons “were cleared since 1995 in 13 ‘group exonerations,’ that occurred after it [...]

Report: Texas Executed The Wrong Man Because He Looked Like The Real Murderer

Last year, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) admitted that he “never struggled . . . at all” with whether someone his state executed might have been innocent. Yet a new book written by Columbia Law Professor James Liebman shows that Carlos DeLuna, executed by Texas in 1989, was innocent. According to Liebman, DeLuna was wrongfully [...]

Hundreds Protest at DOJ to Demand Federal Probe of Alleged Racism in Mumia Abu-Jamal Conviction

Hundreds of supporters of former death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal marked his 58th birthday Tuesday with a protest outside the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., calling for a federal probe into his case. For decades, Abu-Jamal has argued racism by the trial judge and prosecutors led to his conviction for the killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Last year, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower judge, who set aside his death sentence after finding jurors were given confusing instructions that encouraged them to choose the death penalty rather than a life sentence. In January this year, Abu-Jamal was transferred from solitary confinement to the general prison population. We get legal update from Abu-Jamal's attorney, Judith Ritter. "Later in the broadcast we speak directly with Abu-Jamal by telephone.":http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/25/exclusive_mumia_abu_jamal_speaks_from [includes rush transcript]

California Voters to Decide on Death Penalty

Voters in California will now have the chance to vote on a referendum that may put an end to the death penalty in the state this November. Anti death penalty activists have collected the more than 500,000 signatures needed to put the measure on the bal...

Connecticut on Verge of Ending Death Penalty in State

Connecticut's House of Representatives on Wednesday night followed a recent State Senate vote by passing a bill that would end the practice of capital punishment in the state. The measure was approved by a vote of 86 to 62, along mostly partisan li...

Saudi Arabia Urged to Spare Lives of Foreign Nationals Amid Surge in Executions

Headline Title:  Saudi Arabia urged not to execute foreign nationals 15 February 2012 Three foreign nationals convicted of drug...

West Memphis 3: Freed Death Row Prisoner Makes Film about 18-Year Battle to Prove His Innocence

We turn now to the case of the West Memphis Three, the young men in West Memphis, Arkansas, who were imprisoned for the 1993 slayings of three eight-year-old boys after an investigation largely fueled by unsubstantiated rumors of a Satanic ritual. The new documentary, "West of Memphis," was co-produced by none other than one of the convicted youths at the heart of the story, Damien Echols. Echols and his two co-defendants were released last August after spending nearly two decades in prison, all the while proclaiming their innocence. Recent DNA tests did not link the men to the scene and showed the presence of others who have never been identified. The film alleges Terry Hobbs, stepfather of one of the victims, may have been responsible for the murders. And the new documentary suggests the three young boys were never mutilated, but preyed on post-mortem by snapping turtles commonly found in the Arkansas-Tennessee border town. Democracy Now! recently spoke with Echols in a rare extended interview at the Sundance Film Festival. "I didn't have any faith in the justice system, because I had seen how corrupt it was, all the way to the core, from the inside. And that completely took away any faith I had in the system whatsoever," Echols said. “What I did have faith in was all the people that came to our aid, you know, the supporters and the investigators and everybody that rallied around us. That's what I had faith in, and that's why I believed I would eventually get out." We also spoke to Echols's wife, Lorri Davis, and the film's director, Amy Berg. [includes rush transcript - partial]

Syria imposes death penalty for arming “terrorists” as death toll soars

Headline Title:  Syria imposes death penalty for “terrorism” 22 December 2011 A new law introduced this week imposing the d...

Death Penalty Returns to Haunt Afghanistan

While Afghanistan's violent decades-long war has claimed thousands of lives, the last known state-sanctioned execution was in June under the direct order of President Hamid Karzai.