Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

May 212025

DPIs Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Author Corinna Barrett Lain on the Untold Story” of Lethal Injection

In this month’s pod­cast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPIs Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Corinna Barrett Lain, the S.D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law and author of the recent­ly pub­lished book, Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection. Ms. Lain’s new book chal­lenges a wide­ly held assump­tion that lethal injec­tion is a pain­less, reg­u­lat­ed, and medically-sound…

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News 

May 192025

District Court Judge Calls Kansas Death Penalty Racially Biased, Costly, and Ineffective as a Deterrent

On April 16, 2025, Wyandotte County District Judge Bill Klapper issued his order in the com­bined cas­es of Hugo Villaneuva-Morales and Antoine Fielder, broad­ly con­demn­ing the Kansas death penal­ty as cost­ly, racial­ly biased, and inef­fec­tive as a deter­rent. Judge Klapper’s order fol­lows an exten­sive evi­den­tiary hear­ing and pro­vides thor­ough and detailed find­ings on an array of con­sti­tu­tion­al ques­tions relat­ed to the use of the death penal­ty in the state. Mr.

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News 

May 062025

New Analysis: How Race Affects Capital Charging and Sentencing of 18- to 20-Year-Olds

In com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 20th anniver­sary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s land­mark deci­sion end­ing the juve­nile death penal­ty, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) has released a new report: Immature Minds in a​“Maturing Society”: Roper v. Simmons at 20, detail­ing the grow­ing sup­port for the idea that indi­vid­u­als ages 18, 19, and 20 should receive the same age-appro­pri­ate con­sid­er­a­tions that juve­niles now receive in death penal­ty cas­es. The report also reveals…

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News 

May 012025

DPIs Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Experts Discuss the Legacy of Roper v. Simmons

In this month’s pod­cast episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPIs Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Professors Craig Haney and Frank Baumgartner, and DPIs Staff Attorney Leah Roemer about the lega­cy of the US Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Roper v. Simmons and the legal and sci­en­tif­ic land­scape sur­round­ing the use of the death penal­ty for young adults ages 1820. Professors Baumgartner and Haney, along with fel­low researcher Karen Steele,…

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News 

Apr 302025

New DPI Report Examines the Legacy of Roper v. Simmons and Its Implications for 18- to 20-Year-Olds in Death Penalty Cases

In com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 20th anniver­sary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s land­mark deci­sion end­ing the juve­nile death penal­ty, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) today released a new report: Immature Minds in a​“Maturing Society”: Roper v. Simmons at 20, detail­ing grow­ing sup­port that indi­vid­u­als ages 18, 19, and 20 should receive the same age-appro­pri­ate con­sid­er­a­tions that juve­niles now receive in death penal­ty cas­es. > [T]here is no bright line regarding…

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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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