NCADP state affiliate, Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, launched an ongoing vigil today in front of the Oklahoma pharmacy which allegedly is supplying lethal injection drugs to Missouri officials. Read More
Despite the continued national trend away from the death penalty, we are off to a blustery start to the year when it comes to executions. Seven states had collectively scheduled 11 executions for this month alone. That’s shocking given that only nine states carried out executions in all of 2013. Read More
The holiday marking the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. coincides with the beginning of legislative sessions in state capitals across the country. In a number of state capitals policymakers will consider whether the death penalty should continue as a feature of their justice systems. Support for capital punishment continues to decline as a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center indicates. The more people learn about the death penalty in action, the less they like it. Read More
In Gary Strauss's USA Today article on the execution of Dennis McGuire, Diann Rust-Tierney states, "What's happening is shocking. We're seeing the underside of the death penalty: irresponsible behavior by states and the realization that there's not a good way to kill people.This case and others are going to increase and galvanize those who oppose capital punishment and cause the public and policymakers to say. 'What are we doing?'" Read More
Ohio made history today by becoming the first state to use the two-drug combination of midazolam and hydromorphone in the execution of Dennis McGuire. State officials decided to use this experimental combination of powerful sedatives and painkillers after supplies of approved execution drugs ran dry. These shortages have caused other states to begin using experimental and downright dangerous methods to carry out executions. Read More
In 2013, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and our many allies and supporters in the death penalty abolition movement celebrated triumphs and learned from our setbacks. This list of important stories from 2013 emphasizes the successes but provides critical reminders of the challenges we still need to overcome. Read More
For decades most death penalty states used a three-drug lethal injection protocol until the U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental stopped supplying it. The other producers of the drug were all in Europe where capital punishment is illegal. Under pressure from its own citizens, these companies have worked to keep their products from being used in U.S. executions. As a result, state administrators of capital punishment have gotten increasingly frustrated and desperate in their actions to gain access to drugs for executions. Read More
On July 18th, Judge Gail Tusan of the Fulton County Superior Court indefinitely stayed the execution of Warren Hill, a person with mental retardation, to consider the merits of his lethal injection challenge. Today, the State did not appeal the ruling. Read More
A Fulton County judge has upheld a stay of execution for Warren Hill, expressing concern that a new state law, which allows the Department of Corrections to keep secret the identities of those who make and distribute the lethal injection drugs used to carry out an execution, is unconstitutional. The state's attorneys plan to immediately appeal the ruling to the State Supreme Court. If the court overturn's Judge Tusan's injunction, it remains possible that Hill could still be executed on Friday, July 19th at 7pm ET. Read More
Fulton County Superior Court has temporarily stayed tonight's scheduled execution of Warren Hill so that a briefing can take place on Mr. Hill's complaint challenging the extreme secrecy surrounding the execution in light of Georgia's new Lethal Injection Secrecy Act. Read More