by updater | Jan 5, 2026 | Uncategorized
In December, Pennsylvanians Against the Death Penalty collaborated on a press briefing with our partners Witness to Innocence, Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, and Death Penalty Policy Project. These are some highlights. “Shapiro ‘is...
by updater | Dec 19, 2025 | Uncategorized
Executive Summary Recent 2025 polling indicates a historic shift in Pennsylvania’s stance on capital punishment, with support falling to a record low of 29%. Driven by concerns over government fallibility and the risk of executing the innocent, a bipartisan coalition...
by updater | Dec 18, 2025 | Uncategorized
The Death Penalty in 2025: Majority of Capital Juries in 2025 Rejected Death Sentences This week the Death Penalty Information Center published their year-end report, reinforcing the fact that the increase in executions is out-of-step with public views on the death...
by updater | Oct 16, 2025 | Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania, News, Prosecution
“The death penalty is divisive. Support for and opposition to it is not as easy as political party or position. It is all over the map. There are people with firmly held convictions about crime and law enforcement who draw a line when it comes to capital...
by Andrew Keck | Oct 8, 2025 | Uncategorized
October 8, 2025 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Andy Hoover, Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, andy@hoovercomms.com, 717-256-1293 Kathleen Lucas, Pennsylvanians Against the Death Penalty, klucas@padp.org HARRISBURG – New public opinion data from...
by updater | Aug 22, 2025 | Innocence, Wrongful Conviction
“After being branded a monster and spending more than 30 years in prison for murder, Mr. Melock’s name and record are finally cleared. “I can finally hold my head up high,” he says. WAUKEGAN, Il. – Robert Melock was only 22 in January 1989, when he was arrested...
by updater | Mar 19, 2025 | News
Even as the national and global trends remain overwhelmingly towards abolition of the death penalty, some states remain unapologetically emboldened, especially in the ex-Confederate states of the (Deep) South, to continue carrying out executions. Even with a few...
by updater | Mar 19, 2025 | News
Why I oppose the death penalty and why I’m working to abolish it in Pennsylvania. I have long been personally opposed to the death penalty and am now working to take it off the books in Pennsylvania via House Bill 888, which I introduced this week with...
by updater | Dec 23, 2024 | News
by updater | Dec 23, 2024 | News
WHO: Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty WHAT: 2024 Year-End Death Penalty Report WHEN: December 19, 2024 Noon Eastern WHY: PA-specific Info re: Death Penalty Information Center 2024 Report CONTACT: Kathleen Lucas KLucas@padp.org 717-236-4840 With...
by Margaret Begg | Nov 15, 2024 | Issues
Read...
by First Last | Jul 11, 2024 | News, Wrongful Conviction
BREAKING NEWS: U.S. Reaches 200th Exoneration from Death Row FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — As of July 1, 2024, 200 prisoners in the U.S. have been exonerated and freed from death row since 1973, demonstrating the serious risk of executing the innocent. Witness to Innocence...
by Kathleen Lucas | May 16, 2024 | ADAM REINHERZ
Program is a reminder that people need a “Second...
by Margaret Begg | Dec 2, 2023 | Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania, Issues
Read...
by Margaret Begg | Nov 20, 2023 | News
src=”https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eddie-ramirez-murder-conviction-overturned-20231130.html”...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 21, 2021 | News
They were innocent and on death row. Now, the exonerated want to ensure Biden keeps pledge By Christina Carrega, CNN Updated 6:01 AM ET, Sun March 21, 2021 (CNN)Sabrina Smith was only 17 when a predominately White Mississippi jury convicted her in 1989 for fatally...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 18, 2021 | News
Read...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 18, 2021 | Innocence, News
February 18, 2021 Death Penalty Updates Death Penalty Information Center adds 11 more people to its innocence list. This brings us to the point where for every eight persons executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the 70s, one person has been exonerated....
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 12, 2021 | News
...
by Kathleen Lucas | Nov 3, 2020 | Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania, Heejae Jung
Reflections by our intern, Heejae Jung. Heejae is a sophomore at Vassar and is with us for the fall 2020 semester. In mid-July, the embers of fireworks were still ingrained in my memory from the celebration of Independence day and reawakened by the occasional...
by Margaret Maguire | Jun 30, 2020 | News
27 years ago three activists gathered outside the Supreme Court for four days and three nights, Starvin’ 4 Justice. *** 48 years ago, on June 29, 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was unconstitutional in application, being...
by Margaret Maguire | Jun 9, 2020 | Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania, Cost, News
June 9, 2020 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kathleen Lucas, klucas@padp.org, 717-236-4840 Pa. Auditor General’s Criminal Justice Report Cites Costly Death Penalty June 9, 2020 York, PA — Pa. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a report this...
by Margaret Maguire | Jun 8, 2020 | Innocence, News
June 5, 2020 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kathleen Lucas, klucas@padp.org, 717-236-4840 WALTER OGROD TO BE FREED TODAY FROM PENNSYLVANIA DEATH ROW AFTER ALMOST 30 YEARS York, PA– Today, Walter Ogrod, who spent almost 30 years in prison, including 27 on death...
by Margaret Maguire | Jun 4, 2020 | News, Race
It is not easy or simple, but there is hope. Akin Adepoju, President of PADP, joins with our community of civil rights organizations, advocates, organizers, and citizens in mourning the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police. We extend our...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2020 | Innocence, Wrongful Conviction
While the rest of us shelter in place, Walter Ogrod is on Pennsylvania’s death row. He checks all the boxes on the list of symptoms for the Coronavirus disease: high fever, cough, shortness of breath. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Conviction...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 9, 2020 | Faith, News, Victims' Families
Join us for a screening of the film In the Executioner’s Shadow. Vicki and Syl Schieber, whose daughter Shannon was raped and murdered in Philadelphia, will speak after the film. Audience Q & A will follow. FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Please register...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 19, 2020 | News
Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (PADP) announces with sadness the passing away of Kenneth Lawrence Fox, the Vice-Chair of the organization’s board of directors, on Thursday, February 13, 2020. “Working alongside Ken has been a privilege for me,...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jan 3, 2020 | Issues, Multimedia
Once you and your friends have seen this movie, they’ll want to join the fight to end capital punishment in Pennsylvania. Make sure to welcome them aboard. Ask them to share their name, address, and email address to info@padp.org to join the over 10,000...
by Kathleen Lucas | Sep 5, 2019 | News
The only way to ensure that the state does not execute an innocent person is to stop using the death penalty altogether When I was a young mother of my beautiful baby girl Shannon many years ago, I could never have imagined I would lose her to violent crime. I never...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Cost, Deterrence, Race, Uncategorized
Prosecution How Overzealous Personalities Drive The Death Penalty Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania DEATH-PENALTY STEWARDSHIP AND THE CURRENT STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA CAPITAL JURISPRUDENCE ABA Study Finds PA Death Penalty Flaws Innocence Carlos de Luna Proceedings of...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Victims' Families
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Faith
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Innocence
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Innocence
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Innocence
“Sunshine is the best disinfectant”
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Prosecution
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Issues
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Issues
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Issues
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Issues
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Issues
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Issues
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Issues
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2019 | Issues
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Multimedia
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Multimedia
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Multimedia
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Multimedia
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Multimedia
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Multimedia
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Multimedia
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2019 | Multimedia
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 13, 2019 | News
Today, Governor Gavin Newsom took the historic step of declaring a moratorium on executions in California. Four other states have a moratorium in place — Colorado, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The 737 California death row inmates represent over...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 8, 2019 | News
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 7, 2019 | News
Death-row exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown (pictured) was declared “actually innocent” by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg on March 1, 2019, making Brown eligible for state compensation for the time he spent wrongfully imprisoned on Texas’ death row.
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 7, 2019 | News
Pennsylvania’s death penalty is, by all accounts, embattled. There hasn’t been an execution in two decades, even before Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on them in 2015. The courts have long scrutinized death sentences, throwing out scores of them at appeal. And...
by Marshall Dayan | Oct 29, 2018 | Marshall Dayan
With Vicki Schieber, Pittsburgh October 2018 To My Concerned Friends, This past Saturday morning, I was in synagogue, standing next to the Torah. As we were reading of the binding of Isaac, other folks got word of the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel...
by Kathleen Lucas | Oct 11, 2018 | News
“People need to know,” said Sister Helen Prejean. “Most people have never thought about the death penalty, because it doesn’t touch their daily lives. Together, we need to change it.”
by Kathleen Lucas | Jun 18, 2018 | Uncategorized
The arbitrariness of the death penalty is one of its worst attributes. If the government is going to carry out capital punishment on its citizens, it should at least be consistent about it. Death sentences are influenced by geography, race, gender, wealth, and mental...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 22, 2018 | Uncategorized
This letter was published on February 22, 2018 at GoErie.com Abolish the death penalty; it wastes too much money Feb. 13 marks the third anniversary of a moratorium that halted all executions in Pennsylvania. It was enacted by Gov. Tom Wolf in part because of the high...
by Kathleen Lucas | Sep 6, 2017 | News
September 6, 2017 More than a dozen inmates in Pennsylvania have been removed from death row this year, leaving the commonwealth with the fewest under a death sentence in nearly a quarter-century…
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 22, 2017 | News
August 22, 2017 In a case that reignited scrutiny of Pennsylvania’s death penalty and the workings of the state’s highest court, an evenly divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered a new death penalty hearing for Terrance Williams, convicted and condemned in the...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jun 29, 2017 | News
June 29, 2017 An innocent man who survived 22 years in solitary confinement on death row has spoken out about living among some of America’s most dangerous criminals. …
by Kathleen Lucas | Jun 3, 2017 | News
June 3, 2017, Centre County voters favored a new DA, Bernie Cantorna, in the recent primary election. I can find no record of his position on capital punishment.…
by Kathleen Lucas | May 12, 2017 | News
May 12, 2017, In the early 1990s, the police arrested three men for crimes they didn’t commit. It’s taken more than 25 years for justice to be served.…
by Kathleen Lucas | Apr 25, 2017 | News
April 25, 2017, Over the past few weeks, the state of Arkansas has been trying to obtain warrants to execute eight death row inmates before the end of the month. The deadline was set in order to use the state’s supply of lethal injection drug midazolam before it is...
by Kathleen Lucas | Apr 19, 2017 | News
April 19, 2017 Activists campaigning to abolish the death penalty recently confronted a new and urgent occasion for their efforts, when the state of Arkansas announced it would execute eight death-row inmates in a ten-day period because its store of chemicals for...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 14, 2017 | News
March 14, 2017, State Rep. Chris Rabb, of Philadelphia, has confirmed the rumor that he is planning to introduce a bill to repeal Pennsylvania’s death penalty law. I fully support his decision. I believe abolition of our capital punishment system is long...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 7, 2017 | News
March 7, 2017 Companion reports released on March 7 by the National Registry of Exonerations found record numbers of exonerations and wrongful convictions involving official misconduct in 2016, and striking evidence of racial bias both in the wrongful convictions...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 22, 2017 | News
February 22, 2017 With Seth Williams’ decision not to seek a third term as district attorney, Philadelphia now has a chance to join the rest of the Northeast in moving forward without the death penalty…
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 21, 2017 | News
February 21, 2017 At 6:19 a.m. Saturday morning ACCR staff got the call: 38 years, 3 months and 4 days after the 14-year-old Ricky Olds went to prison for buying a bag of potato chips with the wrong crowd, he was going home a free man. rickyfree If you don’t believe...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 20, 2017 | News
February 20, 2017 Most people probably don’t associate Valentine’s Day with the death penalty, but i do…
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 13, 2017 | News
February 13, 2017 is the second anniversary of Gov. Tom Wolf’s moratorium on executions. The moratorium was wise because it halted a system that is filled with flaws…
by Kathleen Lucas | Jan 2, 2017 | News
January 3, 2017, Already three years behind schedule, a committee studying flaws in Pennsylvania’s death penalty is still a long way away from issuing its much-anticipated report…
by Kathleen Lucas | Oct 22, 2016 | News
October 22, 2016 Last Thursday, a Centre County court ordered Kevin Siehl to be released from prison. Judge David Grine dismissed the murder charges against Siehl in part because prosecutors withheld evidence of his innocence…
by Kathleen Lucas | Oct 12, 2016 | News
October 12, 2016 In 1991, the Philadelphia district attorney’s office indicted a 20-year-old black man named Anthony Wright on a charge of capital murder. The alleged crime was heinous…
by Kathleen Lucas | Sep 29, 2016 | News
September 29, 2016 As the Supreme Court prepares to hear the first of two death penalty cases in this year’s term, the share of Americans who support the death penalty for people convicted of murder is now at its lowest point in more than four decades…
by Kathleen Lucas | Sep 11, 2016 | News
September 11, 2016, On Aug. 24, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of James A. Dennis. Dennis was convicted and sentenced to death over two decades ago for killing a high school student in Philadelphia. But there was more to the story…
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 26, 2016 | News
August 26, 2016, A recent court ruling that a man on death row was denied a fair trial is yet another sign that the state’s death penalty should be abolished, according to Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (PADP)…
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 26, 2016 | News
August 26, 2016 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit showed us that the death penalty is a flawed system (“New trial ordered in 1991 slaying,” Wednesday)…
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 25, 2016 | News
August 25, 2016 Justice has finally come for James “Jimmy” Dennis. Twenty-four years ago, Dennis was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 17-year-old Chedell Williams. But the jury wasn’t presented with all the facts of the case…
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 2, 2016 | News
August 2, 2016, Delaware’s rules for imposing the death penalty are unconstitutional, the state’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, a decision that could mean an effective end to capital punishment in Delaware…
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 1, 2016 | News
August 2, 2016 One afternoon, Donnie Calhoun, owner of Calhoun Compounding Pharmacy in Anniston, Alabama—”Compounding for Life’s Problems”—came back from a meeting to find a strange request from the Alabama Department of Corrections. The girl who’d answered the phone...
by Shane Claiborne | Apr 26, 2016 | Shane Claiborne
by PADP Board Member Shane Claiborne The color of your skin shouldn’t determine whether you live or die. But that is precisely the case for Duane Buck, a Texas man facing execution. His case is before the Supreme Court this month. Earlier this month, the nation’s...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 29, 2016 | Kathleen Lucas
This morning, the US Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case that goes to the very heart of the issue of fairness. The question in Williams v. Pennsylvania is whether a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice, who was the District Attorney at the time a case was...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jul 15, 2015 | Kathleen Lucas
Next time you defend the death penalty by saying that it’s the appropriate punishment for a person who confesses or when the crime is unspeakable, you might want to remember this. http://ow.ly/PDUdv Two young children were raped and murdered in the basement of...
by Marlene Lang | Jun 8, 2015 | Marlene Lang
The wording of House Resolution 143 calls Governor Wolf’s moratorium on the death penalty unconstitutional. The action taken by the governor was a moratorium on executions until a study is complete. Wolf has not disregarded the constitution; rather, the governor has...
by Marshall Dayan | May 27, 2015 | Marshall Dayan
Nebraska makes history! The Nebraska legislature, having passed a death penalty repeal bill last week, sustained that repeal by overriding today Governor Pete Ricketts’ veto by a vote of 30-19. This is a huge victory for the national movement to abolish...
by Kathleen Lucas | Apr 2, 2015 | Uncategorized
Repeal bill passed the senate in Delaware Former Alabama Death Row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton to be freed after new testing on bullets And for more proof of how the system is too error-prone to allow government killing, there’s this: three men...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 23, 2015 | Kathleen Lucas
Dear Emily Post, I’m faced with an etiquette dilemma and I could sure use your help. How, precisely, does one make up for sentencing an innocent person to death? Does the proper response change based on the number of years that have passed since the wrongful...
by Linnell Patterson | Mar 22, 2015 | Uncategorized
Posted: Sunday, March 22, 2015 6:00 am LINELL PATTERSON l SPECIAL TO LNP I was shocked and saddened when I opened the newspaper several weeks ago and read an op-ed from Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman (“Governor’s moratorium violates his oath of...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 19, 2015 | Uncategorized
Over two years ago, Mrs. Norwood stated, in writing, that she did not want Terry Williams to be executed for her husband’s murder. Today, she reasserted her position. But the District Attorney and some House Representatives deliberately ignored her wishes and...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
Joe D’Ambrosio: Death Row Story Thursday, March 19, 2015 – 7:00pm Taylor Little Theatre, Main Drive, Erie, PA 16504, USA Mercyhurst University Meryhurst University is bringing Joe D’Ambrosio, who was convicted of murder and on death row for 21 years before...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 11, 2015 | Marlene Lang
Letter to the Editor I’m wondering what qualifies Tom Kearney to speak for the loved ones of murder victims, and why I should presume he understands the “pain and anguish that victims’ loved ones feel” but somehow “Gov. Wolf does not understand”? Kearney’s statement...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
Just a few minutes ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its ruling in the Terry Williams reprieve challenge filed by the Philly DA’s office. The court left the reprieve in place and ordered additional briefing on the matter. In doing so, the justices have...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
Statement of Timothy K. Lewis February 13, 2015 “I am a former assistant district attorney, assistant United States attorney, United States district court judge and United States circuit court judge. I was appointed a...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
From the Desk of Governor Tom Wolf M E M O R A N D U M Pursuant to authority granted in Article IV, § 9 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, I am today exercising my power as Governor to grant a temporary reprieve to inmate Terrence Williams. A death warrant for this...
by Kathleen Lucas | Nov 26, 2014 | Uncategorized
Interns play a key role in our organization and are given responsibility accordingly, working on substantial projects and products. Internships are unpaid, but we will provide supervision for academic credit. This is a great opportunity for hands-on, practical...
by Kathleen Lucas | Nov 24, 2014 | Uncategorized
In at least 80 capital cases in which attorneys have missed the deadline, it is almost always the prisoner alone who suffers the consequences. In the fall of 2006, a Florida attorney named Mary Catherine Bonner went before the U.S. Supreme Court to plead for a...
by Kathleen Lucas | Nov 6, 2014 | Kathleen Lucas
Monday, November 17, 2014 Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m. Dickinson College 208 W Louther St., Carlisle PA Panelists: Kathleen Lucas (moderator), Executive Director, Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Shujaa Graham, Death Row Exoneree Spero Lappas,...
by Kathleen Lucas | Sep 17, 2014 | Uncategorized
Posted: Wednesday, September 17, 2014, 1:08 AM Nearly surrounded by states that wisely have scrapped the death penalty – and with ample concerns already raised about the fairness and risk for error in sentencing defendants to death row – Pennsylvania has...
by Kathleen Lucas | Sep 4, 2014 | Uncategorized
September 3, 2014 The exoneration of two North Carolina men who spent 30 years in prison — one on death row — provides a textbook example of so much that is broken in the American justice system. And it is further evidence (as though more were needed) that the death...
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 16, 2014 | Uncategorized
by Kathleen Lucas | Jul 31, 2014 | R. Christian Allen
I am sickened by the news of another botched execution. The line between a death sentence and torture is beginning to be blurred. There are no regulations for the unethical process of taking a life, and that is appalling to me. The executioners aren’t doctors,...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jul 29, 2014 | Jessica Kirshner
This past Wednesday the state of Arizona carried out a botched execution on Joseph Wood, a man convicted of double murder in 1989. Wood was sentenced to death after being found guilty of killing both his ex-girlfriend and her father. The state of Arizona killed him...
by Kathleen Lucas | May 13, 2014 | Kathleen Lucas
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a stay for Robert James Campbell who was scheduled to be executed today by the state of Texas. The court’s full decision can be found...
by Kathleen Lucas | May 10, 2014 | Kathleen Lucas
Suspected of murder, held for two years, man has charges dropped Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140510_Held_for_two_years__a_murder_suspect_is_cleared.html#uT31uUBBtBzbIhT7.99 Suspected of murder, held for two years, man has charges dropped Read more...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
Cross-posted from the Inquirer A divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court has dismissed litigation to reform the way Philadelphia reimburses lawyers appointed to defend indigent clients facing the death penalty. The four-justice majority filed an unsigned per curiam order...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 20, 2014 | Uncategorized
cross-posted from Jackson Free Press written by Ronni Mott “I sit in my room for a good 1 1/2-2 hours, and dad comes in my room, and goes off on me, calling me bastard, nogood, mistake, and telling me I’m inconciderate [sic] and just care about my self,...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 11, 2014 | Kathleen Lucas
How many death row exonerations does it take before the death penalty is eliminated in Pennsylvania? Ummmm, I give up. How many does it take? I don’t know. We’re still counting! ark, ark, ark Just minutes ago, Glenn Ford, who has spent over 30 years on...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 8, 2014 | Uncategorized
Bringing Human Rights Home: A Forum on LGBTQ Rights and Death Penalty Abolition Hosted by Philadelphia and South Jersey Amnesty International and Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Saturday, March 15, 2014 from 9:30am – 4:30pm The Ethical...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 4, 2014 | Uncategorized
cross-posted from The Slate Online By CASSANDRA CLARHAUT | Asst. Opinion Editor It is 2000. The year of Y2K, Backstreet’s Back, and Nintendo’s Game Cube. According to The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) for six years, William Nieves has been on death row,...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 23, 2014 | Uncategorized
What prompts county to seek death penalty? February 22, 2014 11:24 PM By Paula Reed Ward / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette On March 11, 2013, David Mazzocco shot three people in a bar in North Fayette, killing one and injuring two. The Allegheny County district...
by Kathleen Lucas | Feb 12, 2014 | Uncategorized
Feb. 11, 2014 Remarks as prepared Good morning. I’m here today to talk to you about an important criminal justice issue. Over the course of the past year, my staff and I have been carefully reviewing the status of capital punishment in Washington State.Â...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jan 27, 2014 | Uncategorized
Amnesty International Puerto Rico has fronted a campaign for the exoneration of Death Row inmates by displaying food requested by the wrongfully accused before their deaths. Here were their last meals, photographed by James Reynolds. Ruben Cantu, executed for murder...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jan 18, 2014 | Billy H. Nolas
We celebrate the life of Dr. King on Monday, so mentioning a milestone from 2013 seemed proper to me. We had this milestone when, in a dreary Bucks County hearing room, the prosecutor conceded that David Ramtahal should be resentenced to a sentence other than death....
by Kathleen Lucas | Jan 16, 2014 | Uncategorized
Robert Carl Nordvall Robert Carl Nordvall, 73, formerly of Gettysburg, passed away January 2, 2014 in Pistoia, Italy. Born March 23,1940 in Oak Park, Illinois, he was the son of the late Stuart Nordvall and Carmella Craglione Nordvall. He received a Bachelor’s...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jan 9, 2014 | Uncategorized
By: David E. Frank January 7, 2014 The Boston Bar Association announced today that, for the first time in its 250-year history, the organization is taking a stand against the death penalty in federal cases. The announcement comes after a panel chaired by...
by Kathleen Lucas | Dec 31, 2013 | Uncategorized
Taken From Courthouse News: (CN) – Vacating the death sentence imposed against a convicted murderer, the Pennsylvania high court called it “shocking” that jurors were told that killing an unborn child is a capital offense. Harold Murray IV was...
by Kathleen Lucas | Nov 27, 2013 | Uncategorized
Philadelphia County has sent more inmates to death row than any other county in Pennsylvania. However, a study of criminal cases overturned in the state because of prosecutorial misconduct found over 60% of the cases came from Philadelphia. Radley Balko, writing in...
by Kathleen Lucas | Nov 5, 2013 | Aja Beech
cross-posted from www.newsworks.com On Aug. 21, 2013, a judge in Philadelphia said Jimmy Dennis, convicted 21 years ago of the murder of Chedell Ray Williams, deserved to be retried within 180 days or to be set free. He is still on death row. I remember hearing about...
by Kathleen Lucas | Oct 23, 2013 | Marshall Dayan
From Marshall Dayan, Board Chair of Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty I just learned that the committee on law of the Conservative Jewish movement, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, reaffirmed the movement’s opposition to capital...
by Kathleen Lucas | Oct 7, 2013 | Brian Evans, Director of Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign
By Brian Evans, Amnesty International Georgia authorities continue to pursue the execution of Warren Hill despite the fact that: The victim’s family opposes the execution Several jurors from the trial now object to the execution All 7 doctors who have...
by Kathleen Lucas | Sep 20, 2013 | Kathleen Lucas
Pennsylvania, I’d like to wish you an Unhappy 100th. Yesterday, you reached a noteworthy milestone in your tireless quest to kill your citizens. David Ramtahal was resentenced to life without the possibility of parole AFTER being sentenced to death. He became...
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 26, 2013 | Andy Hoover
Last week, after 21 years on Pennsylvania’s death row, James Dennis of Philadelphia finally had his moment of justice. Federal district court Judge Anita Brody ruled that the 1992 conviction of Dennis for the murder of Chedell Ray Williams was “a grave miscarriage...
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
District Attorney Seth Williams says he’s “upset and disgusted†at the Judge Anita Brody’s ruling in Jimmy Dennis’s case.  He should be. His solution is to “appeal it to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals or just retry the case.†But he needs to go...
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 21, 2013 | Kathleen Lucas
It looks like Jimmy Dennis may finally be freed. Today, Senior US District Judge Anita Brody overturned his conviction and ordered his release. Unless, that is, the District Attorney’s office finds a way to retry him. Following a long string of cases involving...
by Kathleen Lucas | Aug 5, 2013 | Cantor Michael Zoosman
 I often hear the usual justifications for ending capital punishment. Deterrence is a fallacy. Innocents and the mentally ill are killed off all the time. Racial inequality is rampant in sentencing. The detrimental impact on the executioners is immeasurable. Closure...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jul 26, 2013 | Uncategorized
John Hanger, one of the Democratic candidates for Governor of Pennsylvania, announced his opposition to the death penalty at an event in Pittsburgh Thursday morning. Members of the Pittsburgh chapter of PADP were there to welcome the news. Mr. Hanger’s remarks...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jul 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
Make that several problems.There’s a first degree murder trial happening right now. The accused could be sentenced to death if he is found guilty. For a capital trial (one where the prosecution has chosen to seek the death penalty), the prospective jurors must be...
by Kathleen Lucas | Jun 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
This is HUGE news! After spending 33 years on death row, Kelvin Morris is now at home. He maintained his innocence the whole time, and the evidence pointed away from him and toward his brother, Artie. He was represented at trial by a lawyer who was also...
by Kathleen Lucas | May 26, 2013 | Uncategorized
The prosecution is determined to keep Justin in prison, despite a court ruling that vacated his conviction and ordered his release. The prosecution cheated and he has to pay the price. They cheated so much that several judges believe it would be impossible for him to...
by Kathleen Lucas | May 23, 2013 | Uncategorized
Off-duty police officer Donald Williams was shot on Christmas Day, 1997 and later died. Timothy Mckinney was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death for it. This, despite a lack of physical evidence, conflicting eyewitness testimony and more. On...
by Kathleen Lucas | May 8, 2013 | Authors
May 8, 2013 · by Alyssa Röhricht · in Uncategorized Image from AP. On Tuesday afternoon in Mississippi, Willie Jerome Manning was granted a last-minute stay of execution by the Supreme Court of Mississippi, just hours before his lethal...
by Kathleen Lucas | Mar 15, 2013 | Authors
by Alyssa Röhricht After a series of votes through the Maryland House and Senate, SB 276 was passed through the Maryland House of Delegates on March 15, 2013, to repeal the state’s death penalty and replace it with life without parole. It is widely accepted...
