Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

In Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy, author Alex Mar presents an in-depth account of a vio­lent homi­cide and its impact on a racial­ly divid­ed com­mu­ni­ty and the indi­vid­u­als involved. Mar not only dis­cuss­es the fears asso­ci­at­ed with mod­ern crime and pun­ish­ment but also address­es the human capac­i­ty for com­pas­sion and for­give­ness. In the pro­logue, Mar writes that​“this is a sto­ry that asks what any com­mu­ni­ty is will­ing to accept…

Duane Owen is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Florida on June 15, 2023. If it occurs, his exe­cu­tion will be the fourth exe­cu­tion in Florida this year, after a three year pause in exe­cu­tions due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Mr. Owen was con­vict­ed in 1986 of crimes that…

New data from AH Datalytics shows​“sharp and broad decline” in mur­der rates for 2023. In a recent arti­cle pub­lished in The Atlantic, Jeff Asher (pic­tured), a crime ana­lyst based in New Orleans and co-founder of AH Datalytics, writes that the decline in mur­der rates across the United States is​“one of the largest annu­al per­cent changes in murder…

In a recent inter­view with The Marshall Project, for­mer United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer dis­cussed his twen­­­ty-eight years of expe­ri­ence on the Court and the evo­lu­tion of his view on the death penal­ty. He explained that he did not go to the Supreme Court intend­ing to over­turn the death penal­ty, but “[i]t’s so unfair­ly admin­is­tered. There’s nei­ther rhyme nor rea­son. The whole point of this crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is fair­ness.… I’m not say­ing,​‘You’re…

Four jurors and two alter­nates from the 2010 tri­al of Michael Tisius have said in affi­davits that they would sup­port clemen­cy in his case. Mr. Tisius is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Missouri on June 6, 2023. In his clemen­cy peti­tion, and in inter­views with the New York Times, the jurors said that mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that was not pre­sent­ed at tri­al would have altered their sen­tenc­ing deci­sions. (The image to the left is art cre­at­ed by Mr. Tisius and included in…

Black-led orga­ni­za­tions are oppos­ing leg­isla­tive efforts in sev­er­al states to rein­tro­duce or expand use of the death penal­ty. Lawmakers in Illinois and New Jersey have intro­duced leg­is­la­tion to rein­state the death penal­ty, while oth­er leg­is­la­tors in Tennessee and Florida have pro­posed bills which would increase its use. Tennessee Senate Bill 1112 would require an exe­cu­tion to be car­ried out with­in 30 days of sen­tenc­ing. Governor DeSantis recently signed…

Florida’s recent deci­sion to allow death sen­tences with­out a unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion increas­es the risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son, accord­ing to con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tor Christian Schneider (pic­tured). In a May 25, 2023 col­umn for The National Review, Schneider argues that con­ser­v­a­tives should oppose the law that allows a death sen­tence to be imposed when only eight jurors…

In the lat­est episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, inter­views Dr. Sally Satel (pic­tured), a psy­chi­a­trist and senior fel­low at the American Enterprise Institute. She shares her insights on the role of severe men­tal ill­ness in death…

On May 25, 2023, 12 death-qual­i­­­fied jurors and six alter­nates were select­ed in the fed­er­al cap­i­tal tri­al of Robert Bowers, who is charged with killing 11 wor­ship­pers at a Pittsburgh syn­a­gogue in 2018. Prosecutors struck all the Black, Hispanic, and Jewish venire mem­bers. As tes­ti­mo­ny begins on May 30, some vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers have expressed sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, while others…

“[W]e have come over time to see the flaws in our nation’s jus­tice sys­tem and to view the state’s death penal­ty laws in par­tic­u­lar as legal­ly and moral­ly trou­bling,” wrote two for­mer gov­er­nors of Alabama in an op-ed for the Washington Post. Republican Robert Bentley (pic­tured, right) and Democrat Don Siegelman (pic­tured, left) agree that the 146 peo­ple whose death sen­tences were imposed by non-unan­i­­­mous juries or judi­cial over­ride should have their sentences…