Newsletter: February 2019

Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Our newsletters are sent to members at the end of every month. They are composed of articles (usually US death penalty-themed) written by members for members.
We publish an abbreviated version here shortly after it is sent out. If you'd like to write for the newsletter and support us, click here to become a member.
In the News
 

Resurrected bill marks second attempt to bring the electric chair back to South Carolina
A bill was passed 26-13 on 24th, January 2019 in the South Carolina State Senate seeking to reintroduce the electric chair back to South Carolina as a form of capital punishment. According to the Department of Corrections the electric chair was last used in 2008. Some believe that the electric chair is a barbaric...Read more by becoming an Amicus Member 

Alabama inmate executed after Supreme Court denies him imam’s presence
After having spent nearly 20 years on death row, Dominique Ray was executed on 7th February 2019. The prison warden informed Ray two weeks prior to his execution that, in accordance with Alabama’s execution policy, the Christian chaplain employed by the Alabama Department of Correction (hereafter, ADOC) could be in the execution room with him...Read more by becoming an Amicus Member 

US to use data handed over by the UK in Death Penalty Cases
On 21 December 1964, Sydney Silverman spoke in the House of Commons in favour of his private member’s bill to abolish the death penalty. The UK’s longstanding position since then of the abolition of the death penalty at home also means campaigning for abolition in foreign jurisdictions. Yet at the end of January Parliament inched ever closer to adopting laws allowing the US to demand...Read more by becoming an Amicus Member

Wyoming death penalty abolition falls at the final hurdle
A bill to abolish Wyoming’s death penalty was rejected by the State Senate on 14 February, having safely passed the House of Representatives and been unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The arguments raised in defence of the death penalty included some of the usual points, with
Representative Bill Pownall stating that “I believe the death penalty is a deterrent”...Read more by becoming an Amicus Member