On June 12, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) held that former death row inmate Jerry Hartfield has been held in prison for 33 years despite having no valid conviction. The court concluded: "The status of the judgment of conviction is that Petitioner is under no conviction or sentence." Hartfield, an illiterate man with an IQ of 51, had his capital conviction overturned by the same court in 1980 because his trial jury was improperly selected. The court ordered a new trial for Hartfield, but that trial was never held. In 1983, then-Governor Mark White attempted to commute Hartfield’s death sentence to life, but the CCA's recent ruling said the commutation was invalid because Hartfield had no conviction and hence, no sentence. He has remained in prison--not convicted of any crime--the entire time. The CCA's ruling was prompted by a request from the 
Paula Cooper, who was 15 years old at the time of her crime, and the youngest person ever sentenced to death in Indiana, will be released from prison on June 17, twenty-seven years after her conviction for the murder of 78-year-old Ruth Pelke. Her case received international attention, sparking a campaign that led to the commutation of her death sentence to 60 years in prison. An appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court received over 2 million signatures from around the world. Pope John Paul II asked that Cooper's sentence be reduced. Bill Pelke, the grandson of Ruth Pelke, forgave and befriended Cooper and wrote a book, Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing, about his experience with the case. 
On June 13, former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton told members of an Ohio task force reviewing the state’s capital punishment system that her views on the death penalty have moved from support to opposition. Justice Stratton, a Republican, served three terms on the Court, during which time the state executed 49 death row inmates by lethal injection. Stratton has opposed executing mentally ill defendants, but more recently explained that she is now opposed to the death penalty in general because she does not believe it deters crime, or that victims’ families gain the finality they seek when the murderer is put to death. Judge Stratton said, “I have evolved to where I don’t think the death penalty is effective. I don’t have a moral inhibition ... Overall, it’s just not the best way to deal with it on a number of different levels.” In 2011, 
On June 4, a federal magistrate ruled that the Louisiana Department of Safety and Corrections must reveal the details of the state's lethal injection protocol. The ruling rejected the argument that disclosing the protocol would raise “serious security concerns.” The ruling by Judge Stephen Riedlinger was on a motion related to the lawsuit filed by death row inmates Jessie Hoffman and Christopher Sepulvado, who contended that due process requires they be fully informed about the state’s execution process. Michael Rubenstein, defense attorney for Hoffman and Sepulvado, noted that, “Not only are lethal injection protocols widely available in other states, the courts have rejected the very argument that the Defendants seek to advance.” Texas and Mississippi, for example, have publicly disclosed their lethal injection protocols. In Texas, the protocol includes specific location of the inmate, the timing of the inmate’s transport to the location of the execution, and other information. The Department of Safety and Corrections now has 14 days to provide Hoffman and Sepulvado’s defense attorneys with the lethal injection protocol.
On June 10, three inmates on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Department of Public Safety and Corrections for “appalling and extreme conditions… as a result of extreme heat.” The inmates requested that jail officials address the unsafe conditions in the death row facility. According to the lawsuit, the conditions prisoners suffer each summer constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The heat index on death row reached 195 degrees Fahrenheit on several occasions during the summer of 2011, and was above 126 degrees on 85 days between May and August. The lawsuit describes cell bars that are hot to the touch and inmates sleeping on concrete floor because it is slightly cooler than beds. During summer months, the showers provide no relief as the water temperature sometimes exceeds 115 degrees. Nilay Vora, a lawyer involved in the case, said, “We don't expect prisons to be comfortable, but anyone who looked at these numbers or heard about the conditions would find them shocking, beyond what's conscionable.”
In a recent op-ed in the Baltimore Sun, former FBI Director William Sessions (pictured) underscored the importance of reliable FBI forensic analysis in convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent. Sessions provided the example of Willie Jerome Manning, who received a last-minute stay of execution in Mississippi in order to allow time to conduct testing on DNA evidence that could exonerate him. Manning was convicted in 1994 based on FBI testimony that has since been invalidated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Sessions also urged state prosecutors and judges to work with defense counsel in cases where the FBI provided potentially unreliable evidence. Sessions concluded, “When evidence used to convict an individual is discovered to be unreliable, justice requires that we review that case, no matter how long ago the conviction occurred.” Read full op-ed below.
UPDATE: Gov. Mary Fallin refused to grant clemency to Davis. On June 6, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency for Brian Darrell Davis, who is facing execution on June 25. The board voted 4-1 to recommend that Davis's death sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. The parole board recommended clemency after Davis took responsibility for the crime and apologized to the family of the victim. "A weight lifted off of all of us," said his mother, Yvonne Davis. "Brian does deserve a second chance." Davis was convicted of murdering his girlfriend's mother. The recommendation now goes to Governor Mary Fallin, who can approve or reject the vote. The governor also has the authority to grant a 30-day stay in order to consider the case further.
On June 5, legislators in North Carolina voted to repeal the Racial Justice Act, which had allowed death row inmates to challenge their sentences using statistical evidence of racial bias. Since the law took effect in 2009, most of the inmates facing execution in North Carolina appealed their sentence under the law. In 2012, From DPIC
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Click the above video to see the latest developments in the death penalty.
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Clustering of the Death Penalty A new section of DPIC's website demonstrates that capital punishment is actually carried out in only a small percentage of U.S. jurisdictions. For example, one map shows that less than 1% of counties in death penalty states accounted for 30% of the executions in the U.S. since 1976. Similarly, less than 1% of the counties were responsible for 27% of current death row inmates and 35% of recent death sentences. Click maps to enlarge
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LATEST NEWS (May 22): Colorado's governor indefinitely stayed the execution of 
(May 14). A bill to repeal Nebraska's death penalty was not able to overcome a filibuster vote and will not be voted on this year. The vote to end the filibuster was 28-21, but 33 votes were needed. This was the first time since 1979 that a majority of 
