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News and Developments 2008: Death Row

NEW RESOURCES: Death Row U.S.A. 2008 Released

Posted: July 09, 2008
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The latest version of Death Row U.S.A. has been released by the Capital Punishment Project of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.  The report contains death row and execution data for all states and federal jurisdictions as of January 1, 2008.  The report lists inmates by state, name, and race.  The report also contains information on each person executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and information on U.S. Supreme Court decisions.  The last version of DRUSA was Jan.

Costs for New California Death Row Soar to $400 Million

Posted: June 13, 2008
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A recent audit of the construction costs for a new death row facility at California’s San Quentin prison revealed that estimates have soared over 80% from previous projections. Ground still has not been broken for the project, but the new death row is likely to require nearly $400 million, instead of the $220 million originally quoted, and it will provide even fewer cells than planned. As an average of 12 new condemned inmates arrive at San Quentin annually, the new facility will be full only three years after it opens.

BOOKS: “Last Rights” by Rev. Joseph Ingle with Introduction by Mike Farrell

Posted: March 11, 2008
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Reverend Joseph B. Ingle’s book, Last Rights: Thirteen Fatal Encounters with the State's Justice, will be re-released in May with a new introduction by Mike Farrell (of M*A*S*H*) and with its original forward by William Styron.  Rev. Ingle, who has counseled inmates on death row for over 30 years, recounts his close relationships with 13 of these inmates before their executions.

DPIC Releases Interim Death Row Numbers

Posted: February 18, 2008
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The Death Penalty Information Center has conducted a survey of death row populations as reported by the various state departments of correction in January/February 2008. From that survey, the current death row population across the country is 3,263. California continues to have the highest death row population with 669 inmates. Florida follows with 388, and Texas has 370 inmates. A state-by-state breakdown appears below.

BOOKS: "The Bitter Fruit of American Justice" and "I Shall Not Die"

Posted: January 14, 2008
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Two new books address the death penalty from different perspectives: one analyzing the future of capital punishment, the other, by Billy Neal Moore, relates the experience of being on death row. Alan Clarke and Laurelyn Whitt examine two factors that are gaining importance in the debate over capital punishment.

Man on Texas Death Row for over 30 Years May Be Tried for a Fourth Time

Posted: January 08, 2008
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Ronald Curtis Chambers, who was originally sentenced to death for the 1975 murder of Mike McMahan, may be given a fourth trial following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. Chambers was 20 at the time of his crime, and has been on death row longer than any other inmate in Texas. His second trial came 10 years after his first, following a Texas court ruling that Chambers should have been told that information from a psychiatric consultation could be used against him.

Death Row News and Developments: 2007

Posted: January 08, 2008
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NEW RESOURCE: "Death Row USA" Winter 2007 Report Now Available The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's "Death Row, USA" reports that the number of people on death row in the United States rose slightly to 3,350 as of January 1, 2007, an increase of 6 inmates from October 1, 2006, but a decline of 23 inmates from a year ago. The slight increase appears to be partly the result of the relatively few executions in the last quarter of 2006. California (660), Florida (397), and Texas (393) continued to have the largest death row populations.