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Death Penalty Info Center: The Death Penalty in 2021: Year End Report

The death penalty in 2021 was defined by two competing forces: the continuing long-term erosion of capital punishment across most of the country, and extreme conduct by a dwindling number of outlier jurisdictions to continue to pursue death sentences and executions.

Opinion: Reconciling Oregon’s lynching history calls for abolishing death penalty

Alonzo Tucker

On June 19, Oregonians gathered in Coos Bay to remember Alonzo Tucker, Oregon’s only documented African American victim of lynching. A historical marker now stands outside the Coos History Museum to memorialize Tucker, who was lynched in Coos Bay in 1902 in front of a crowd of 300, and the thousands of other African Americans who were lynched in this country. At the unveiling ceremony, more than 600 people paid witness to this act of justice and meaningfully added a new chapter to Tucker’s story.

Despite the surge of executions, the collapse of capital punishment is inevitable

" To abolish the death penalty, we must create a movement that is grounded in relationship building and truth telling. The movement to abolish the death penalty is gaining ground, despite the recent rush to execute several people living on federal death row. To reach this goal, we must create a movement that is grounded in relationship building and truth telling. How we get to abolition is as important as the hopeful inevitability we will get there."
The following article was published by Friends of Reconcilation after the federal executions.

OADP Trailblazer with Governor Newsom at California Moratorium Announcement

Aba Gayle, former OADP Board member, Advisory Council member, international speaker, and murder victim family member, was invited by Governor Gavin Newsom prior to his announcement of his moratorium of California’s death penalty.

Reflecting on her visit in California, Aba Gayle said, “I am still basking in the joy of being invited by Governor Newsom to meet with him just prior to the announcement of his Moratorium to the Death Penalty.

Gov. Gavin Newsom Suspends Death Penalty In California

Updated March 13 at 3:29 p.m. ET AP Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping order on Wednesday putting an executive moratorium on California's troubled death penalty, thus ordering a reprieve for the 737 people on death row.

The action suspends any further executions in California as long as Newsom is governor. But only California voters can repeal the death penalty, something they rejected narrowly three years ago.
Our death penalty system has been — by any measure — a failure.

Opinion: Gov. Brown, it’s time to commute Oregon’s death row

On the evening of Nov. 1, as day turned into night outside the Riverbend National Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, Edmund Zagorski spoke his last words. “Let’s rock,” he said, before prison staff covered his head with a black shroud and sent thousands of volts of electricity through his body. At 7:26 p.m. he was pronounced dead.Zagorski had specifically requested to die by electrocution rather than lethal injection, which has been the standard method for many years. He wanted to avoid the seemingly torturous deaths endured when dying by lethal injection.

Opinion: America Is In The Middle Of A Death Penalty Crisis

Oregon uses lethal injection as its method of execution. Although Oregon has not executed anyone recently, the death penalty is still in its constitution and the need to obtain lethal drugs may be an issue. In the article "America Is In The Middle Of A Death Penalty Crisis" by Hannah Riley, communications manager at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta addresses this issue in her recent article in the Huffington Post. 
 

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