Newsletter: June, 2021
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.
Arizona buys chemicals to make hydrogen cyanide, used by Nazis at Auschwitz, for gas chamber
In 2014, the State of Arizona temporarily suspended its use of the death penalty after mass criticism over the execution of Joseph Wood. Wood was injected with 15 times the amount of lethal injection permissible in Arizona’s execution protocol and was left ‘gulping’ for 2 hours before he died... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member
California Supreme Court hears case that could undo hundreds of State death sentences
On 2 June 2021, the California Supreme Court heard an oral argument on behalf of death row inmate Don’te McDaniel, who was convicted of two murders in 2004. The proceedings are considered to be crucial, and the outcome would potentially be groundbreaking for numerous others sentenced to capital punishment... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member
Georgia inmate challenges state's death penalty laws at Supreme Court
Rodney Young was sentenced to death in 2012 for the 2008 killing of Gary Lamar Jones. Young challenged this sentence before the Georgia Supreme Court on the basis that he is intellectually disabled and that executing him would be in violation of Atkins v. Virginia. However, his death sentence was upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court this month... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member
2nd South Carolina inmate seeking to block electrocution
In South Carolina, a new bill signed into law by Governor Harry McMaster has provided fresh hope to a second death row inmate, 43 year-old Freddie Owens. The bill compels current death row inmates to choose between death by electric chair or death by the newly formed firing squad, in the absence of drugs required for the state's primary execution method of lethal injection... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member
California Governor Gavin Newsom orders investigation into Kevin Cooper capital murder conviction
The Governor of the State of California, Gavin Newsom, has signed an executive order for an independent investigation into the case of Kevin Cooper. Cooper is a black death row inmate, whose murder conviction 35 years ago has been under fierce scrutiny... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member
America’s longest serving death row inmate receives life sentence
Seventy-one-year-old Raymond Riles, America’s longest serving death row inmate, was resentenced to life this month, after previously receiving two death sentences and spending 45 years on death row. Riles was originally sent to death row in Texas in 1976, for the shooting of John Thomas Henry in 1974... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member
FEATURE: The effects of death row
‘Life on death row’ is undoubtedly an oxymoron. The sentence of death begins immediately on its pronouncement. The ultimate sentence of death only impacts on the individual many years in the future when a death warrant is read prior to execution. The majority of prisoners on death row are housed in separate buildings to the rest of the prison population and are normally held in solitary confinement... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member