The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2021 Date of execution Name No. of years in death row189 Ethnic group Age Sex State Method 19/05/2020 Walter Barton 29 White 64 Male 08/07/2020 Billy Joe Wardlow 25 White 45 Male Missouri Lethal injection Texas Lethal injection 14/07/2020 Daniel Lewis Lee 21 White 47 Male Federal Lethal injection Lethal injection 16/07/2020 Wesley Ira Purkey 16 White 68 Male Federal 17/07/2020 Dustin Lee Honken 15 White 52 Male Federal Lethal injection 26/08/2020 Lezmond Mitchell 19 Native American 38 Male Federal Lethal injection Lethal injection 28/08/2020 Keith Dwayne Nelson 19 White 45 Male Federal 22/09/2020 William Emmett LeCroy 16 White 50 Male Federal Lethal injection 24/09/2020 Christopher Andre Vialva 20 Black 40 Male Federal Lethal injection 19/11/2020 Orlando Hall 10/12/2020 Brandon Bernard 25 Black 49 Male Federal Lethal injection 20 Black 40 Male Federal Lethal injection 11/12/2020 Alfred Bourgeois 17 Black 56 Male Federal Lethal injection 13/01/2021 Lisa Montgomery 12 White 52 Female Federal Lethal injection 14/01/2021 Corey Johnson 30 Black 52 Male Federal Lethal injection 16/01/2021 Dustin Higgs 20 Black 48 Male Federal Lethal injection Promising developments (in chronological order) During the reporting period, there were significant rulings and some new legislation that seek to mitigate racial biases in death penalty cases. In June 2020, the North Carolina Supreme Court in North Carolina v. Ramseur, restored the full protections of the Racial Justice Act. This ruling enables individuals on death row to challenge their death sentences based on racial discrimination under the Racial Justice Act, passed in 2009.190 In California, the state with the country’s largest death row, three racial justice reform bills were passed in September 2020, which are hoped to reduce the influence of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic bias in the administration of the death penalty. 191 The first bill bans the imposition of the death penalty on defendants who have intellectual disabilities, and incorporated the prevailing medical definitions of intellectual and developmental disability rather than a fixed age by when these disabilities 189 The figures have been ascertained from news reports and other open source information. 190 ACLU, North Carolina Supreme Court Finds the Repeal of Racial Justice Act Unconstitutional, 5 June 2020 and Equal Justice Initiative, North Carolina Supreme Court Requires Review of Racial Bias in Death Penalty Cases, 8 June 2020. 191 Death Penalty Information Center, California Legislature Passes Racial Justice Package Affecting DeathPenalty Practices, 4 September 2020 47