A Death Penalty Curriculum

The state of Tennessee is planning to execute a potentially innocent man this month.

Critical evidence that could prove Tony Carruthers' innocence has never been tested – yet he's spent the 30 years since his conviction in limbo on death row, awaiting an ex*****on for a crime he's maintained he never committed.

The ACLU is fighting to get a court to consider all of the evidence in Tony's case, including untested fingerprints and DNA, statements from his co-defendant exonerating Tony, and evidence that the state's main witness was secretly being paid to testify. And you can join the ACLU in demanding justice by signing this petition.

No Wrongful Ex*****on for Tony Carruthers Tony Carruthers was convicted without physical evidence, based solely on testimony from informants. Now, Tony is scheduled for ex*****on on May 21st by Tennessee after being forced to represent himself at trial. Join us in calling for fingerprint and DNA testing before a possibly innocent man is put...

SOUTH CAROLINA / AGE & BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

We know that the human brain doesn't finish developing until a person reaches their mid 20s and that "executive function" (decision-making, delaying gratification, etc.) is the last part to develop. That is why it is unconstitutional to execute someone who commits a crime when they are a juvenile. Should that boundary be raised? Should we as a society refuse to put someone to death if their brain hasn't finished developing at the time they committed the crime?

When Marion Bowman was arrest­ed at age 20 for the mur­der of Kandee Martin, soci­ety did not con­sid­er him mature enough to drink alco­hol, rent a car, or enter a casi­no. Yet he was deemed old enough to be sen­tenced to death. Now 44, he has spent over half his life on South Carolina’s death row and is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on January 31.

New Analysis: Marion Bowman’s Scheduled Ex*****on in South Carolina Raises Concerns About Youth Culpability, Fits Pattern of Disproportionate Ex*****ons of Young Black Men | Death Penalty Information Center When Marion Bowman was arrest­ed at age 20 for the mur­der of Kandee Martin, soci­ety did not con­sid­er him mature enough to drink alco­hol, rent...

TENNESSEE / METHODS OF EX*****ON

Lethal injection tends to be the preferred method of ex*****on in the United States (though methods vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction). Because it is becoming harder and harder for states to obtain the standard drug cocktails needed to execute someone, some states are changing the lethal injection protocols, including to single-drug protocols. Some of these new protocols many cause severe pain, which would appear to violate the Constitutional protection against "cruel and unusual punishment" (see the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution).

Tennessee to Resume Ex*****ons with Single-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol | Death Penalty Information Center On December 27, 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) com­plet­ed a mul­ti-year lethal injec­tion pro­to­col review and announced that...

4th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Legal Challenge to South Carolina's Restriction on Media Access to Prisoners | Death Penalty Information Center On December 13, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the August, 2024 dis­missal of a law­suit that sought to...

FLORIDA / PENALTY PHASE

As explored in "A Death Penalty Curriculum," death penalty trials have two phases: a phase to determine guilt or innocence; and (if found guilty) a phase to determine if the death penalty should be imposed. In the first phase, the jury must be unanimous in their finding. Florida's 2023 law allows for non-unanimous jury findings in the second phase. That is being challenged.

On December 12, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court heard oral argu­ments in the case of Michael James Jackson, who is chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Florida’s 2023 law that allows for non-unan­i­mous jury death sen­tences. Mr. Jackson is rep­re­sent­ed by the ACLU, who argued that the Florida law is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under the Supreme Court’s 2020 rul­ing in Ramos v. Louisiana, which struck down non-unan­i­mous crim­i­nal con­vic­tions. According to the ACLU’s brief, Florida’s law has the same neg­a­tive effects for death penal­ty sen­tenc­ing as it does for crim­i­nal con­vic­tions in that it ​“per­mits essen­tial fact find­ings need­ed for death to be decid­ed non-unan­i­mous­ly and removes the ulti­mate deci­sion from the jury[.]”

Florida Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments Challenging Non-Unanimity Sentencing Standard | Death Penalty Information Center On December 12, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court heard oral argu­ments in the case of Michael James Jackson, who is chal­leng­ing the...

INDIANA / MENTAL ILLNESS

How do we determine if someone is mentally healthy enough to be executed? Can someone who volunteers to be executed be mentally healthy?

The state of Indiana is sched­uled to car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion in 15 years on December 18, 2024, with the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran. Sentenced to death for the 1997 mur­ders of four peo­ple, includ­ing his broth­er, Mr. Corcoran has a long his­to­ry of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. He has been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia, which includes symp­toms of hal­lu­ci­na­tions and delu­sions, and mul­ti­ple experts have tes­ti­fied that he is incom­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion. Mr. Corcoran holds the con­sis­tent belief that prison guards are tor­tur­ing him with an ultra­sound machine. Despite this, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in September 2024 that ​“past evi­dence of men­tal ill­ness” is not enough to block Mr. Corcoran’s exe­cu­tion. During his orig­i­nal sen­tenc­ing hear­ing in 1999, Mr. Corcoran told the court that he want­ed to waive his appeals and refused to sign a post-con­vic­tion peti­tion. Following this waiv­er, the court held a com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing in October 2003 and deter­mined that based on Mr. Corcoran’s tes­ti­mo­ny, he was com­pe­tent to waive his appeals but acknowl­edged his men­tal ill­ness. His deci­sion to waive his appeals places Mr. Corcoran among many on death row who have ​“vol­un­teered” for exe­cu­tion, and thus not had their con­vic­tions and death sen­tences under­go the search­ing, mean­ing­ful judi­cial review that the law and jus­tice requires.

Indiana Plans to Resume Ex*****ons after 15-Year Pause with a Severely Mentally Ill “Volunteer” | Death Penalty Information Center The state of Indiana is scheduled to carry out its first ex*****on in 15 years on December 18, 2024, with the scheduled ex*****on of Joseph Corcoran...

In other words, if an educational Page (like this one) suggests readers/fans learn something from another website (that is, dare to suggest they might want to take some time away from Facebook), it's spam. It's not the content of the post or the website one is referred to. The offense is daring to suggestion someone take their eyes off of Facebook.

One of the issues covered by "A Death Penalty Curriculum" is the non-monetary costs of the death penalty, including the impact of ex*****ons on the mental health of prison staff. This report digs into this issue and may be a helpful resource if you are teaching the curriculum.

Hidden Casualties: Ex*****ons Harm Mental Health of Prison Staff | Death Penalty Information Center In March, Oklahoma officials asked the state’s high court to increase the time between ex*****ons from 60 to 90 days, citing the “lasting trauma” and...

According to the Washington Post, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." Restrictions on medial access to ex*****ons is making the death penalty an area of the law with greater and greater darkness.

New Resource: In Era of Secrecy, States Increasingly Restrict Media Access to Ex*****ons The Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to serve the media, policymakers, and the general public…

RACISM AND THE DEATH PENALTY

New DPI Report Connects Modern Use of Federal Death Penalty to its Racially Biased History The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information about capital punishment.…