Entries by Ava Boris

DPI​’s​“What to Know” series exam­ines cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from mul­ti­ple angles, one top­ic at a time. Each install­ment pro­vides essen­tial facts and data on spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penal­ty. This install­ment looks at junk sci­ence: how flawed or over­stat­ed foren­sic evi­dence has con­tributed to wrong­ful cap­i­tal con­vic­tions, and what hap­pens when the under­stand­ing of evi­dence under­ly­ing a con­vic­tion changes. Why this Matters: Forensic evidence is…

In the July 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI​’s Executive Director Robin M. Maher speaks with Samuel Spital, Associate Director Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). To mark the 50^th anniver­sary of the Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Gregg v. Georgia, they explore the his­to­ry of the land­mark case, the piv­otal role played by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the lit­i­ga­tion, and the endur­ing lega­cy of leg­endary LDF attor­ney Anthony Amsterdam. They…