The exonerated "Central Park Five", wrongly convicted of felony 35 years ago, took to the #DNC stage to testify Trump's cruel execution sprees and pursuit of the death penalty. Yusef Salaam, activist against the death penalty, was one of them.
Meanwhile Dems have re-popularized using "felon" as an insult and silently dropped opposition to the death penalty from their platform
https://theintercept.com/2024/08/23/dnc-democrats-death-penalty-executions
A prosecutor contaminated key evidence before the trial and rejected multiple Black people from the jury pool, noting that one "looked very similar" to the defendant.
The judge, prosecutor, and victim's husband all agreed not to seek the death penalty
But the attorney general Andrew Bailey intervened to insure #MarcellusWilliams will be executed on September 24
https://theintercept.com/2024/09/12/marcellus-williams-missouri-conviction-innocence
https://theintercept.com/2024/08/31/marcellus-williams-murder-weapon-gloves-missouri-andrew-bailey
Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, previously known as Freddie Owens, is due to be executed in South Carolina this week despite an absence of forensic evidence and despite a key witness saying he made false remarks during the trial at the instruction of prosecutors
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/18/freddie-owens-south-carolina-execution
Texas will execute Robert Roberson on October 17 for a crime that never happened, based on discredited pseudo-science, and ignoring Texas' "junk science law" meant to prevent such use of flawed forensics and miscarriages of justice
https://undark.org/2024/08/06/texas-junk-science-law-not-keeping-up-with-science
South Carolina carried out it's first execution in 13 years on Friday.
Khalil Allah's attorney said "the legal errors, hidden deals, and false evidence that made tonight possible should shame us all"
Five others remain on death row in South Carolina
https://www.newsweek.com/freddie-owens-south-carolina-execution-lethal-injection-final-words-1957285
Marcellus Williams condemned to die today despite serious flaws in trial
"The execution is opposed both by Gayle’s family and the prosecutor’s office that put Williams on death row — an unprecedented combination"
https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-williams-8be20e2f252992610a30fa0cfef4185a
Alabama's execution team includes men accused of violently abusing and mistreating prisoners, misconduct, domestic violence, and submitting dubious testimony suggesting painless executions which contradict statements from media witnesses. A federal magistrate judge found it plausible that the execution team leader maliciously and sadistically harmed a prisoner
https://theintercept.com/2024/09/24/alabama-execution-team-misconduct-death-row
Blood on their hands
A.G. Andrew Bailey and Governor Mike Parson pushed to execute a wrongly convicted man, going against the explicit wishes of the victim's family, jurors, and even the prosecutor's office
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/24/missouri-executes-marcellus-williams
“We must all question any system that would allow this to occur. The execution of an innocent person is the most extreme manifestation of Missouri’s obsession with ‘finality’ over truth, justice, and humanity, at any cost [and with Williams' execution] we all bear witness to Missouri’s grotesque exercise of state power. Let it not be in vain. This should never happen, and we must not let it continue”
-Tricia Rojo Bushnell, Williams’ attorney
“I know people who say: ‘We shouldn’t kill innocent people, but other than that, I believe in the death penalty.’ But if you believe in the system at all, that means you’re OK with innocent people being killed, because the system isn’t perfect. It is going to kill innocent people.”
-Michelle Smith, co-director of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty
“Innocent until proven guilty” is the ideal. The reality— for far too many judges, prosecutors, and jurors— is the opposite: an indictment or arrest makes a person guilty and places the burden on them to prove their innocence. When the system gets rigged through police or prosecutorial misconduct, it’s almost impossible to overturn this presumption of guilt [like in] the case of Richard Glossip"
The latest State killing spree has begun, including new experimental execution methods, and at least one conviction secured with a bribed witness.
"Prejean [refers to] three pillars of the death penalty [and says] those three factors – slavery, religion, poverty – have recently all combined to generate a fourth pillar [which is] a culture in which a strong man, a politician, can come along and say, ‘We’re going to execute people to show we’re really tough on crime’.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/11/executions-death-penalty-upcoming