American Civil Liberties Union

Death Penalty:
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of civil liberties. In the past 35 years, 130 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row. The ACLU Capital Punishment Project is fighting for the end of the death penalty by supporting moratorium and repeal movements through public education and advocacy. We are engaged in systemic reform of the death penalty process, and case-specific litigation highlighting some of its fundamental flaws.


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Death Penalty : General : Press Releases

ACLU Welcomes Supreme Court Review of Florida's Gruesome Electric Chair Executions (10/27/1999)
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to review the use of the electric chair in executions and said that it will likely file a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.

ACLU of Ohio Sues to Prevent State From Censoring Last Words of Death Row Prisoners (07/06/1999)
COLUMBUS -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed suit today in federal court, seeking to overturn a corrections department regulation that would effectively silence condemned inmates during their final moments.

Michigan House Nixes Death Penalty Bill (04/22/1999)
With a two-thirds majority vote needed to advance the bill to put capital punishment on the 2000 ballot, the House did not come close to the number of votes needed as House Joint Resolution H was sent back to committee where it is not expected to surface again during this legislative session. 

ACLU Opposes Death Sentence for Mentally Ill Inmate, First Ohio Execution in 35 Years (02/11/1999)
CLEVELAND--The American Civil Liberties Union today strongly urged Ohio's governor to commute the death sentence of Wilford Berry to a sentence of life imprisonment.

ACLU Opposes Death Penalty for Anti-Gay Attackers in Matthew Shepard Case (01/21/1999)
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the death penalty for those who murdered Matthew Shepard just as we oppose the death penalty for all people -- because our system of justice is incapable of imposing it equally, because our system makes mistakes and always will, and because the ACLU believes the state simply should not have the power to take away human life.

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