Lest we forget ...

On the sidebar here, I've added a permanent counter to remind readers that executions continue in many states. If the Marshall Project's Next to Die coding works as intended, the counter will always show the next scheduled execution. Visit the page for more on the racial and geographical breakdown of executions.

The diligent work of defense lawyers has stymied the death penalty in California for the time being.

California continues to send convicts to death row at San Quentin prison, 746 inmates at present, 14 of them last year. No prisoner has actually been killed since 2006. In 2014 federal judge Cormac J. Carney described California death sentences as actually amounting to "life in prison, with the remote possibility of death." But the ultimate penalty remains in place.