Even the GOP Lawmakers want to repeal the Death Penalty, Los Angeles court destroyed vital evidence in a death penalty case, Doyle Lee Hamm, Keith Tharpe, The Machinery of Death, "Unchained Artists", Death Penalty Focus, The Death Penalty and California, "The Right Way", Sustainable Action Network (SAN), Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, Kevin Cooper, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty

At a press conference in Washington, DC, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty released a new report that shows the surge in the number of Republican lawmakers who sponsored death penalty repeal legislation at the state level. The report – called The Right Way – looked at all death penalty repeal bills filed since 2000, using the increase in sponsorships as a measure for growing Republican leadership on the issue.

Findings include:

The number of Republican state lawmakers to sponsor death penalty repeal bills increased sharply since 2012.
From 2000 to 2012, it was rare for Republican state lawmakers to sponsor death penalty repeal bills. In 2013, the annual number of Republican sponsors more than doubled.
By 2016 ten times as many Republicans sponsored repeal bills than in 2000.
More than 67% of the Republicans sponsoring death penalty repeal bills did so in red states.

Read the report online (PDF, 2MB)

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In 2016, there were 10x more GOP #deathpenalty repeal sponsors than in 2000. Read the report:

In 2016, over 33% of all #deathpenalty repeal sponsors were Republican. Read the report:

Surge in the Republican sponsors of #deathpenalty repeal. Read the report:

Disturbing news broke this week in the LA Times. Have you heard?

A Los Angeles court destroyed vital evidence in a death penalty case—evidence that could have proven someone innocent. As the Times headline put it ... “Now what?”

DNA testing wasn’t available in 1984 when the case went to trial—the first DNA exoneration only took place in 1989. But since the stakes do not get any higher than life and death, the state is required to preserve the evidence. After all, there have been more than 350 exonerations due to DNA evidence since then, 20 of which involved people facing execution for crimes they did not commit.
This is a travesty. Because of bureaucratic mistakes and negligence, California could execute an innocent person.

Don, these are the types of cases that keep us fighting to end executions, in California and around the United States. We raise awareness about the fundamental injustice of this terrible system—whether it’s the risk of killing innocent people, the harm imposed on victims’ families, or the resources it drains from policies that actually build safe and healthy communities.

2018 will be a pivotal year for our movement. With a measure on the books promising to “speed up” the death penalty without, somehow, undermining safeguards, we’ll need to continue showing the world that this system is broken beyond repair. We’ll need to publicize cases of injustice and mobilize our volunteers and allies to take action—otherwise these types of mistakes could become the norm.

Hello, and welcome to the January issue of the Focus. We lead this month with a report on California’s death penalty, examining some of the trends we tracked over 2017. We also look at the rest of the country, and the many significant developments in criminal justice that have occurred in the last few weeks.

Here are the highlights:

The Death Penalty and California: 2017 in Review

California led the nation in the number of new death sentences last year. Nevertheless, it was the second-lowest number in 39 years. Executions are still on hold, but resumption efforts continued. Innocence cases received renewed attention. And we kept up the fight for justice that actually works.

SCOTUS Sends Death Penalty Case Back Because of Racist Juror Statements

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case of condemned prisoner Keith Tharpe back to a lower court to reconsider whether a juror who voted to put him to death did so because Tharpe is black.

Alabama Plans to Kill Terminally Ill Prisoner Next Month

Sixty-year-old Doyle Lee Hamm is terminally ill with cranial and lymphatic cancer. But Alabama still plans to execute him next month even though a doctor has warned that because of his condition, he could suffer “an agonizing death.”

Is Opposition to the Death Penalty No Longer a Third Rail in Politics?

There are six major-party candidates running for governor of California, and according to a recent report, all but one is opposed to the death penalty.

New Philly DA Delivers: Cleans House

Last week, three days after he was sworn in, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner fired 30 employees, including as many as a third of the department’s homicide prosecutors. It was the kind of move supporters of the progressive, career civil rights lawyer had hoped for.

In Brief: January 2018

From Pennsylvania to Texas, state officials continue to tinker with “the machinery of death.”

While We’re on the Subject . . .

There was no shortage of interesting reading material on criminal justice issues in the past month. From the New York Times to the American Prospect, crime in the U.S. continues to be a topic of discussion.

Voices: Kevin Cooper

At least 10 federal judges and the former president of the ABA have expressed doubts about his guilt, and there are serious questions about evidence that was missing, tampered with, destroyed, possibly planted, or hidden from the defense. And still, Kevin Cooper remains on San Quentin’s death, row much to the frustration and disbelief of his many supporters. But as he explains in a telephone interview, he refuses to give in to despair or bitterness.

"Unchained Artists" Exhibition Opens in Marin County

Beginning Monday, Mill Valley, California’s Bank of Marin is staging an exhibition, “Unchained Artists,” featuring some 50 pieces of artwork, poetry, and handcrafted art objects created by men and women incarcerated around the country, including those on San Quentin’s death row. The quality of the art is impressive, made even more so because of the circumstances under which it was made.