Death Penalty Information

Are you an attorney who needs approved training to become Criminal Rule 24 Death Penalty Certified?

Click this LINK to see the list of courses approved by the Indiana Public Defender Commission to be certified, under Criminal Rule 24, to represent an individual charged with a capital offense in Indiana.

Important facts about the death penalty charge in the United States

• Seventy percent of the world’s nations have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, including 36 since 2000.
• 29 states, plus the federal government and the military, have a death penalty statute on their books. 21 states do not.
• New York’s death penalty statute was struck down by its state supreme court on procedural grounds in 2004 and it has not been replaced.
  • New Jersey repealed its death penalty in 2007, New Mexico followed suit in 2009, Illinois in 2011, Connecticut in 2012, Maryland in 2013, and New Hampshire in 2019.
  • The Nebraska legislature repealed its death penalty in 2015, but a ballot measure struck down the ban in 2016.
  • In 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court struck down its state's death penalty, and in 2018, the Washington Supreme Court did the same.
  • Four additional states have governor-imposed moratoria on executions: California, Oregon, Colorado, and Pennsylvania.

  To download a quick reference fact sheet summarizing this information, click here

  

  • Overview
  • Death Penalty Cases in Indiana
  • Training for Attorneys
  • Links & Resources

  

  County Filed In

  Defendant

  Date Death Penalty Filed

  Current Status

  Pending trial. Found incompetent to stand trial on October 2000

  Sentenced

  Inmate

  Current Status

  Cert. from Federal Habeas denial denied.

  Cert. from Federal Habeas denial denied.

  MIchael Dean Overstreet

  Cert. from Federal Habeas denial denied.

  Cert. from Federal Habeas denial denied. Lethal injection litigation pending on transfer.

  Pending Federal Habeas Corpus Review

  Pending Federal Habeas Corpus Review

  William Clyde Gibson III

  Pending Federal Habeas Corpus Review

  William Clyde Gibson III

  Pending Federal Habeas Corpus Review

  No training is scheduled at this time. Please check back at a future time .

  • Death Penalty Information Center
  • Indiana Abolition Coalition
  • Indiana Public Defender Commission
  • In the Face of Death, by Alex Kotlowitz, New York Times, July 6, 2003
  • ABA Death Penalty Representation Project
  • Other States moving towards moratorium due to expense. The Wyoming governor has announced he is moving towards a moratorium on the death penalty. He says it is too expensive to have it, especially due to budget cuts in our current economic landscape (July 13, 2020). LINK HERE
  • Death Penalty Legislation in Other States, this cite lists death penalty legislation in all states: Click Here
  • There have been two innocence cases -- men on death row for a crime they did not commit -- in Indiana. Larry Hicks (acquitted 1980) and Charles Smith (acquitted 1991). Nationally, those acquitted after sentenced to death row is up to 170 since 1973. The National Registry of Exonerations (University of Michigan) keeps those catalogued here: Click Here
  • Article re: death penalty adverse effects on victims' and defendants' families (DPIC) Click Here

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