Death Penalty

Although African Americans make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population, we account for 33 percent of the missing in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s database. Cases involving African Americans also tend to receive less media coverage than missing Whites, with missing men of color getting even less attention. NewsOne has partnered with the […]

  James Herard, 25, was convicted by a Fort Lauderdale jury in May of murdering two people. The jury recommended a death sentence. Well, during a sentencing hearing Friday, Herard, who did not testify during his trial, took the opportunity to dare the judge to take the recommendation and sentence him to death. “Honestly and truly, I’m not […]

Podcast: Download Two North Carolina men were exonerated for a brutal murder 30 years ago. One was on death row. Is it time for a national moratorium on the death penalty? Roland Martin takes your calls during this edition of “NewsOne Now.” Attorney General Eric Holder will launch a civil rights investigation into the Ferguson Police […]

Monday on “NewsOne Now,” guest host TJ Holmes and the panel debated the death penalty on the heels of the botched Oklahoma execution. Be sure to listen to “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 7 a.m. EST and watch at 9 a.m. EST on TV One.   

UPDATED (December 17, 2014): Seventy years after 14-year-old George Stinney became the youngest person in American history to be executed, he was “exonerated” today by a South Carolina judge who vacated his conviction. Judge Carmen T. Mullen wrote that her court “finds fundamental, Constitutional violations of due process exist in the 1944 prosecution of George Stinney, Jr. […]

On Monday, the Supreme Court announced it will oversee a Florida death row case involving a mentally challenged man who was convicted of killing a pregnant woman in 1978. The justices will look to see how judges in the state determined an inmate’s mental state, and how that figures in calling for execution. Eleven years […]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland lawmakers approved a measure abolishing the death penalty on Friday, and the bill is expected to be signed by the Democratic governor who has long pushed for banning capital punishment in the state. RELATED: Maryland Senate Repeals the Death Penalty: The House of Delegates Up Next! If the measure is signed […]

One of the nation’s oldest civil rights groups is optimistic that Maryland is a step closer to repealing the death penalty, after the Senate voted this week to repeal what the head of the NAACP called an “immoral, ineffective, racially biased, and fiscally wasteful practice.” SEE ALSO: Enough Of ‘The Good, Racist People’ “Today’s Senate […]

Before Troy Davis became known to the country and later the world, Mumia Abu-Jamal gained international support after  he was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and sentenced to death. Abu-Jamal was called the “world’s best-known death row inmate.” 1. MEANING BEHIND THE NAME Abu-Jamal was born Wesley Cook. He […]

UPDATED (December 17, 2014): Seventy years after 14-year-old George Stinney became the youngest person in American history to be executed, he was “exonerated” today by a South Carolina judge who vacated his conviction. Judge Carmen T. Mullen wrote that her court “finds fundamental, Constitutional violations of due process exist in the 1944 prosecution of George Stinney, Jr. […]

In the wake of several high-profile capital punishment cases, the death penalty is once again becoming a hot button political issue. And while the number of death sentences per year has dropped over the last decade, the data paints an interesting picture that demands heavy analysis from both sides of the issue. See also: Do You Agree […]

Rev. Al Sharpton will call upon the U.S. Justice Department to take the lead in capital punishment cases across the country, and strip states from prosecuting them. Check out our Troy Davis Execution coverage Top 5 most wrongful executions ever Sharpton, who called the execution of Troy Davis, a “bleak day in the American justice […]