Entries tagged with “ ACLU ”

Documents that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice ( TDCJ ) with­held from pub­lic dis­clo­sure for months reveal that ​ “ con­fu­sion and lack of train­ing” have left the state ​ “ woe­ful­ly unpre­pared to car­ry out an exe­cu­tion,” accord­ing to the American Civil Liberties…

Executions

Federal Death Penalty

ACLU : Documents Show Federal Executions Likely Caused Prison COVID- 19 Outbreak

Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act show that the fed­er­al government’s choice to bring hun­dreds of peo­ple to the fed­er­al prison com­plex in Terre Haute, Indiana to car­ry out five exe­cu­tions in July and August in the midst of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic like­ly caused a COVID- 19 out­break that has already killed three and hospitalized…

Executions

Conditions on Death Row

Federal Death Penalty

COVID- 19 Prison Outbreaks Kill Death-Row Prisoners in Ohio and Missouri and Infect At Least 11 on Tennessee’s Death Row

New COVID- 19 out­breaks on the nation’s death rows have killed pris­on­ers in Ohio and Missouri and sick­ened at least 11 men on Tennessee ​ ’ s death…

State & Federal Info

Federal Death Penalty

More Than 80 Civil Rights and Advocacy Organizations Urge President Biden to End Federal Executions

A coali­tion of 82 civ­il rights and advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions have called on President Joe Biden to hon­or his cam­paign promise of ​ “ ensur­ing equal­i­ty, equi­ty, and jus­tice in our crim­i­nal legal sys­tem” by tak­ing exec­u­tive action to end fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. The groups, led by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, asked Biden to com­mute the sen­tences of every­one on fed­er­al death row, dis­man­tle the fed­er­al death cham­ber, rescind the fed­er­al execution…

Policy Issues

North Carolina ACLU Challenges Death Qualification of Jurors as Racially and Sexually Discriminatory

Lawyers for a North Carolina cap­i­tal defen­dant have filed a sweep­ing chal­lenge to the method by which death-penal­ty jurors are empan­eled, argu­ing that the com­bi­na­tion of a process known as ​ “ death qual­i­fi­ca­tion” and dis­cre­tionary jury strikes pro­duces a jury so racial­ly and sex­u­al­ly unrep­re­sen­ta­tive that it vio­lates a defendant’s right to a fair…

Policy Issues

Federal Death Penalty

Records Disclose Taxpayers Picked Up a Nearly Million Dollar Price Tag for Each Federal Execution

The Federal Bureau of Prisons spent near­ly $ 4 . 7 mil­lion dol­lars on the first five exe­cu­tions car­ried out by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion in July and August 2020 , accord­ing to redact­ed gov­ern­ment finan­cial records recent­ly obtained by the…

Policy Issues

Recent Legislative Activity

Wyoming Senate Committee Passes Bill to Repeal State’s Death Penalty

A Wyoming state sen­ate com­mit­tee has advanced to the full Senate a bill to repeal the state’s death…