DPI’s new series focus­es on aca­d­e­m­ic research and arti­cles in the field of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. This month’s arti­cle is ​“Sacred Victims: Fifty Years of Data on Victim Race and Sex as Predictors of Execution,” in The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, co-authored by Professors Scott Phillips (Department of Sociology & Criminology), Justin Marceau, Sam Kamin, and a J.D. pro­gram alum­na, Nicole King, from the Sturm College of Law at the University of…

The Aprajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, which out­lines the death penal­ty for rape result­ing in the victim’s death or ​“veg­e­ta­tive state,” was adopt­ed by the West Bengal gov­ern­ment in east­ern India on September 3, 2024. Under inter­na­tion­al law, it is unlaw­ful to pre­scribe the death penal­ty for a crime not meet­ing the ​“most seri­ous” crime (e.g., inten­tion­al murder)…

In an August 31, 2024, edi­to­r­i­al from The New York Times, the newspaper’s edi­to­r­i­al board writes that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is ​“immoral, uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and use­less as a deter­rent to crime,” and asserts that President Joseph Biden should fol­low through with his cam­paign pledge to end the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The Times believes ​“it would be an appro­pri­ate and humane finale to his pres­i­den­cy for Mr. Biden to ful­fill that pledge and try to elim­i­nate the death penal­ty for federal…

In a new edi­to­r­i­al, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues that the death penal­ty is ​“nev­er the jus­tice that is called for” and achieves ​“noth­ing of val­ue except the sat­is­fac­tion of vengeance.” The Post-Gazette describes the death of 6‑week-old Leon Katz in June as an ​“almost unfath­omable” crime and a ​“vio­la­tion of pri­mor­dial inno­cence” — but argues that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty against Nicole Virzi, Leon’s alleged…