death penalty Archives - Rolling Out

California is the most populous state in the country and, subsequently, has a large prison population. The state is also at the top of the list when it comes to inmates on death row. Until this week, 737 inmates faced execution by lethal injection for a variety of capital offenses. But now all of that is…

The state of Arkansas is giving the country a taste of the cold economics of the death penalty. Just like many Americans may dispose of food nearing its expiration date, Arkansas is facing the same reality when it comes to the expiration of drugs used in executions. The state reached the cold solution of increasing…

On New Year’s day of January 2006, Ricky Gray killed Bryan and Kathryn Harvey and their 9-year-old and 4-year-old daughters during a home invasion in Richmond, Virginia. The family was well known in the city and he was subsequently tried for their murder and received the death penalty. Gray is scheduled to die by lethal injection…

An understaffed U.S. Supreme Court is in session as Ohio gets ready to restart executions. The state had stopped executions in 2014 after the botched execution of Dennis McGuire, who gasped and snorted during a 26-minute procedure using a never-before-tried two-drug combination. McGuire’s death started a debate and legal battle over the drugs used in…

On Sept. 7, 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court will hear the capital appeal of 25-year-old Rodricus Crawford. I spent three months investigating his case, interviewing 10 people, including the district attorney and Crawford’s appellate attorney, as well as reading all of the appellate briefs and expert affidavits. I concluded Crawford was railroaded. At every turn…

On September 7, 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court will hear the capital appeal of 25-year-old Rodricus Crawford. I spent three months investigating his case, interviewing 10 people, including the district attorney and Crawford’s appellate attorney, as well as reading all of the appellate briefs and expert affidavits. I concluded Crawford was railroaded. At every turn…

On Sept. 7, 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court will hear the capital appeal of 25-year-old Rodricus Crawford. I spent three months investigating his case, interviewing 10 people, including the district attorney and Crawford’s appellate attorney, as well as reading all of the appellate briefs and expert affidavits. I concluded Crawford was railroaded. At every turn…

The name of cold-blooded racist killer Dylann Roof will go down in infamy. His mass shooting attack at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina shocked America and the world. Roof is a young White supremacist who methodically planned his actions and was vocal with his hate-filled message. The U.S. Justice Department, however, was…

A man who shot and killed two NYPD detectives in March 2003 has avoided a federal death sentence for the second time. Ronell Wilson was convicted of the execution style murders by two federal juries for the execution style murders of two NYPD detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin during an attempted illegal gun purchase. Wilson…

Judge-Cormac-Carney

In a landmark decision on Wednesday, July 16, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney declared the death penalty in California unconstitutional. The ruling affects hundreds of inmates currently on death row who have endured long delays. The long delays are the root of the ruling, which called the California death penalty “dysfunctional” and “arbitrary.” Judge…

Yesterday, Georgia became the first state to execute a man since national attention was drawn to a horribly failed execution in Oklahoma. Inmate Marcus Wellons was executed by lethal injection for the rape and murder of India Roberts, age 15, as she was walking to school. Wellons abducted the girl and raped and strangled her with…

McCarthy cut off her victim’s finger to steal her diamond ring.

For 30 years, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s murder conviction and pending death sentence for the shooting of Daniel Faulkner, a white police officer, have been the subject of reasonable doubt and furious debate. Abu-Jamal’s case birthed the “Free Mumia” movement, attracting hundreds of vocal supporters around the globe, many of them celebrities. Poet Maya Angelou and actors…

We have been aware of the inequities prevalent in the U.S. prison system with respect to race in terms of both incarceration and sentencing since Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in 1831 and documented the impact of racism and its role in the judicial system. Now, a new study provides even more support…

Mumia Abu-Jamal was again spared the death penalty for being a convicted cop killer, this time by the U.S. Supreme Court, who told Philadelphia prosecutors to either pursue another death penalty sentence or accept Abu-Jamal’s sentence of life in prison. Unlike Georgia’s Troy Davis, who was executed despite international support to have his death sentence…

People who work tirelessly to abolish the death penalty in America have to feel absolutely deflated when they read cases like these: According to media reports, two Hurricane Katrina survivors plotted and executed the robbery and shooting of a Georgia man in order to steal the rims from his car. Two southern Mississippi men, then…

Cory Maye was asleep next to his wife and baby daughter, when he was awakened past midnight by the sound of men breaking into his Prentiss, Mississippi home. Fearing for his life, and for the lives of his family, Maye grabbed his gun and defended his home from what he thought were criminals. In the…