Home : Death Penalty

Innocent North Carolina Man Exonerated After 14 Years On Death Row (05/02/2008)
KENANSVILLE, NC – An innocent man who spent 14 years on North Carolina's death row after being wrongfully convicted for a 1987 murder will be released from prison today. Jones has been represented by American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project lawyers Cassandra Stubbs and Brian Stull, along with North Carolina attorney Ernest "Buddy" Connor.

Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection in Kentucky (04/16/2008)
NEW YORK – The ACLU expressed disappointment with today's 7-2 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the three drug lethal injection method of capital punishment used in Kentucky and other states.

Death Sentence Of Mentally Ill Man Reversed (03/11/2008)
NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has reversed the conviction and death sentence of Richard Taylor, a severely mentally ill man who has twice been forced to stand trial despite his mental illness and likely incompetence. Taylor was represented during the appeal of his conviction by the American Civil Liberties Union and Kelly Gleason, then a private attorney and now with the Office of the Tennessee Post-Conviction Defender.

ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Strike Down Kentucky’s Lethal Injection Prcedures (01/07/2008)
WASHINGTON – Describing the three-drug cocktail used in most states’ lethal injection executions as unnecessarily cruel, the American Civil Liberties Union urged the U.S. Supreme Court to halt its use in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in Baze v. Rees, which is being argued today. The lethal injection procedures as practiced in Kentucky amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, the ACLU charged.

Supreme Court Review of Lethal Injection Case Encouraging, Says NYCLU (01/07/2008)
NEW YORK - The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in a case challenging the use of lethal injection to execute people. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Court’s decision to take the case is an encouraging development in the campaign to abolish the death penalty in the United States.

ACLU Says New Jersey's Historic Rejection of Death Penalty Reflects Shift in Public Opinion (12/17/2007)
NEW YORK – Today Governor Jon Corzine signed into law a bill that ends capital punishment in the state of New Jersey. The measure, which passed the state legislature last week with bipartisan majorities, replaces the death penalty with life imprisonment for the most serious offenders. New Jersey becomes the first state since 1965 to legislatively repeal the death penalty, generating forward momentum in the campaign to end capital punishment nationwide, said the American Civil Liberties Union.

ACLU and Texas Innocence Network Appeal Innocent Man's Death Sentence Based On Unfair Trial (10/24/2007)
AUSTIN, TX -- At a hearing today before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Innocence Network (TIN) argued that death row inmate Max Soffar was unfairly prevented from proving his innocence at his second trial in 2006. The groups hope to overturn Soffar's conviction in the capital murder case of four victims shot during an armed robbery in a Houston bowling alley in 1980. In 1981, Soffar was convicted and sentenced to death, but a federal court overturned his conviction in 2004 because his trial lawyers failed to argue that Soffar's confession contradicted the account of the sole surviving witness and other reliable evidence in the case. The state of Texas retried Soffar last year and he was again convicted and sentenced to death.

Nevada Coalition to End the Death Penalty and ACLU of Nevada Request Stay of Scheduled Execution (10/12/2007)
RENO, NV - The Nevada Coalition to End the Death Penalty (NCADP) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada sent a letter to Governor Jim Gibbons, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, Justices of the Nevada Supreme Court and Director of Corrections Howard Skolnik to request a stay of execution of William Castillo scheduled for Monday, October 15, 2007. Castillo volunteered to be executed.

ACLU Comments on Proposed Certification Process for State Capital Counsel Systems (08/24/2007)
The comments criticize the Justice Department's proposed new rules regarding the "fast-tracking" of death sentences.

ACLU Urges Tennessee Appeals Court to Reverse Death Sentence of Mentally Ill Man (07/17/2007)
NASHVILLE - The American Civil Liberties Union and the Office of the Tennessee Post-Conviction Defender today urged the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals to reverse the conviction and death sentence of Richard Taylor, who is severely mentally ill.

Montana Death Penalty Informational Website Launched (06/29/2007)
HELENA, MT - On the 35th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Furman v. Georgia, which declared the death penalty unconstitutional, the Montana Abolition Coalition is proud to announce the official launch of its website at http://www.mtabolitionco.org