Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Apr 222025

Pope Francis, Responsible for Catholic Church’s Anti-Death Penalty Teachings, Dies at 88

On April 21, 2025, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis, 88, died fol­low­ing a series of health fail­ures. Pope Francis, the first Roman Catholic pon­tiff from Latin America, was an out­spo­ken advo­cate for abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. In August 2018, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis for­mal­ly changed the offi­cial Catholic Church teach­ing on the death penal­ty, call­ing the prac­tice​“an attack on the invi­o­la­bil­i­ty and dig­ni­ty of the per­son,” adding that it is…

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News 

Apr 212025

A.C.L.U. Lawsuit Seeks to Prevent Transfer of Former Federally Death-Sentenced Prisoners to Supermax” Prison

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and sev­er­al oth­er orga­ni­za­tions rep­re­sent­ing a group of for­mer­ly fed­er­al­ly death-sen­­­tenced pris­on­ers filed a fed­er­al law­suit on April 16, 2025 seek­ing to pre­vent their trans­fer to the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, known as​“ADX.” The trans­fers were threat­ened by the Department of Justice in response to President Donald Trump’s January 20th Executive Order 14164, which…

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News 

Apr 102025

A Retreat from the Harshest Punishments for Emerging Adult Defendants

To com­mem­o­rate the 20th anniver­sary of the United States Supreme Court deci­sion that end­ed the juve­nile death penal­ty, DPI will release a report exam­in­ing the lega­cy of this deci­sion and its impli­ca­tions for emerg­ing adults. This arti­cle exam­ines one area of focus in the report: recent state courts deci­sions that have extend­ed legal pro­tec­tions to emerg­ing adults ages 18 to 20. In 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court empha­sized that​“youth matters”…

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News 

Apr 092025

Paul House, Death Row Exoneree and Activist, Dies at 63

Paul​“Greg” House, who spent twen­­­ty-two years on Tennessee’s death row before his exon­er­a­tion in 2009, died at the age of 63 on March 25, 2025, from com­pli­ca­tions of pneu­mo­nia fol­low­ing years of liv­ing with mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis. His case was one of the rare cas­es to meet the strin­gent​“actu­al inno­cence” excep­tion to habeas rules that today pre­vent many oth­er peti­tion­ers from even pre­sent­ing their claims of inno­cence in court. Mr. House was sen­tenced to death in…

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News 

Mar 312025

Article of Interest: Spiritual Adviser Reflects on Relationship with Executed Death Row Prisoner

A March 25, 2025, sto­ry in Religion News Service details the spir­i­tu­al jour­ney of Rev. Hillary Taylor, a United Methodist min­is­ter who served as a spir­i­tu­al advis­er to Brad Sigmon, the South Carolina death row pris­on­er exe­cut­ed by fir­ing squad on March 7, 2025. Rev. Taylor, exec­u­tive direc­tor of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, reveals the pro­found human con­nec­tion she devel­oped with Mr. Sigmon, high­light­ing how​“he loved to share with…

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News 

Mar 112025

Former Chair of Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Speaks Out Against the Death Penalty as Pending Moratorium Bills Gain Support in Legislature

Adam Luck (pic­tured), the for­mer Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole and for­mer mem­ber of the Oklahoma Board of Corrections, is now speak­ing out against the death penal­ty in Oklahoma. Explaining his change of heart, Mr. Luck cites to his first-hand expe­ri­ence with flaws in Oklahoma’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem, includ­ing botched exe­cu­tions, and his deep Christian faith.​“Having the unique expe­ri­ence of vot­ing on the life of anoth­er human being forced me to…

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News 

Mar 102025

Georgia House of Representatives Unanimously Passes Bill to Ease Threshold to Prove Intellectual Disability Ahead of Capital Trials

On March 4, 2025, the Georgia House of Representatives, in a 172 – 0 vote, unan­i­mous­ly passed HB 123, which would pro­vide pre­tri­al hear­ings for cap­i­tal defen­dants to raise intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claims and would low­er the stan­dard of proof for those claims from beyond a rea­son­able doubt” to a pre­pon­der­ance of evi­dence,” in line with oth­er the oth­er 26 states that still retain the death penal­ty. The bill was orig­i­nal­ly intro­duced by Republican Representative Bill Werkheiser dur­ing Georgia’s…

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News 

Mar 052025

Public Officials and Advocates Respond to SCOTUS’ Decision to Overturn Richard Glossip’s Conviction

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s deci­sion to vacate Richard Glossip’s 2004 death sen­tence, pub­lic offi­cials and advo­cates have expressed strong reac­tions. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond acknowl­edged the sig­nif­i­cance of the rul­ing, stat­ing,​“Our jus­tice sys­tem is great­ly dimin­ished when an indi­vid­ual is con­vict­ed with­out a fair tri­al, but today we can cel­e­brate that a great injus­tice has been swept away.” While main­tain­ing his belief that Mr.

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News 

Mar 032025

Alabama Governor Grants Clemency to Robin Rocky’ Myers, Sparing Him from Execution

On February 28, 2025, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Robin​‘Rocky’ Dion Myers to Life Without Parole (LWOP). Myers was con­vict­ed in the 1991 mur­der of Ludie Mae Tucker in Decatur, Alabama. His jury rec­om­mend­ed that he be sen­tenced to LWOP, but the judge in his case over­rode the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion and hand­ed down a death sen­tence. The prac­tice of judi­cial over­ride was abol­ished in Alabama in 2017. In her state­ment, Gov. Ivey repeated her…

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News 

Feb 272025

New Podcast: The Past, Present, and Future of the California Racial Justice Act

In the February 2025 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with three experts on California’s Racial Justice Act (RJA). Natasha Minsker, an attor­ney and con­sul­tant, for­mer­ly of the ACLU, speaks on the his­to­ry of the RJA and the impe­tus for its pas­sage. Genevie Gold, research and writ­ing fel­low at the Office of the State Public Defender (OSPD), describes the process that an RJA claim fol­lows through the legal sys­tem, and…

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