Michigan

Citing the high cost of death penal­ty appeals and dif­fi­cul­ty obtain­ing cus­tody of an out-of-state pris­on­er, the Kern County, California District Attorney’s office has agreed to reduce the 1989 death sen­tence imposed upon Clarence Ray (pic­tured) to a sen­tence of life with­out parole. Ray’s lawyers had filed a peti­tion chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his California con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. The par­ties reached agree­ment that Ray’s death…

DPIC has recent­ly added four pod­casts to our new series on impor­tant facts about the death penal­ty in each state. Seven state pod­casts are now avail­able: Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, and Hawaii. We expect to add new episodes each week, with two more com­ing tomorow (Oct. 17). The series has begun with states that have abol­ished the death…

DPIC is begin­ning a new series of pod­casts based on the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in each state. The series will first present the states that have end­ed the death penal­ty. Three pod­casts, fea­tur­ing Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine, are now avail­able. These short audio clips sum­ma­rize the his­to­ry sur­round­ing the repeal of the death penal­ty in those states, includ­ing famous cas­es, issues that spurred leg­is­la­tors to take…

The Michigan Committee Against Capital Punishment has pub­lished a col­lec­tion of over 40 years of tes­ti­mo­ny, brochures, and oth­er infor­ma­tion by attor­ney and death-penal­­ty expert Eugene Wanger. The col­lec­tion begins with the res­o­lu­tion from Michigan​’s 1962 con­sti­tu­tion­al con­ven­tion ban­ning cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. It includes Wanger’s tes­ti­mo­ny at numer­ous hear­ings oppos­ing bills attempt­ing to rein­state the death penalty,…