12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Aug 24, 2022

Former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and for­mer U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester, who co-chaired the bipar­ti­san Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, join DPIC exec­u­tive direc­tor Robert Dunham in the August 2022 *Discussions With DPIC* pod­cast. Governor Henry, a Democrat, and Judge Lester, a Republican, dis­cuss the find­ings of the commission’s review that led them to call for a halt to the state’s planned exe­cu­tions of 25 pris­on­ers, at least until sig­nif­i­cant reforms have…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Jul 20, 2022

In the July 2022 episode of *Discussions with DPIC*, Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham and 2021 – 2022 DPIC Data Fellow Aimee Breaux dis­cuss the mak­ing of DPIC’s ground­break­ing Death Penalty Census data­base and some of its key find­ings. The project, the cul­mi­na­tion of near­ly five years of work, tracks the demo­graph­ics and sta­tus of more than 9,700 death sen­tences imposed across the U.S. since the Supreme Court struck down exist­ing death penalty…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: May 11, 2022

In the May 2022 episode of *Discussions With DPIC*, Professor Alexis Hoag (pic­tured) of Brooklyn Law School joined DPIC Deputy Director Ngozi Ndulue for a wide-rang­ing con­ver­sa­tion mark­ing the 35^th anniver­sary of *McCleskey v. Kemp*, a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court deci­sion that reject­ed a con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenge to the death penal­ty that showed strong sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence of racial dis­par­i­ties in cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions and death sen­tences. Professor Hoag, formerly an…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Mar 31, 2022

In the March 2022 episode of *Discussions With DPIC*, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Senior Lecturer **Meredith Rountree** speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about her study of the types of evi­dence that influ­ence juror deci­­sion-mak­ing at the sen­tenc­ing stage of cap­i­tal cas­es. Rountree and her co-author Dr. Mary Rose of the University of Texas, reviewed and ana­lyzed 176 ver­dict forms com­plet­ed by juries in fed­er­al death penalty…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Mar 30, 2022

New Hampshire State Representative Renny Cushing passed away ear­li­er this month. In mem­o­ry of Cushing’s life and lega­cy, DPIC is reis­su­ing the June 2019 pod­cast in which Cushing spoke with DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham. Cushing described the life-alter­ing expe­ri­ence of hav­ing a close fam­i­ly mem­ber mur­dered and his jour­ney from being a mur­der-fam­i­­ly sur­vivor to spear­head­ing New Hampshire’s repeal of the death…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Feb 25, 2022

In the February 2022 episode of *Discussions with DPIC*, fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er, **Amanda Bass** (pic­tured, right) and Justice for Julius advo­cate **Cece Jones-Davis** (pic­tured, left) speak with Death Penalty Information Center Managing Director Anne Holsinger about the ques­tion­able con­vic­tion and near exe­cu­tion of for­mer **Oklahoma** death-row pris­on­er, **Julius Jones**. They dis­cuss how incom­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct sent Jones to…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Jan 12, 2022

In the January 2022 episode of *Discussions with DPIC*, Contra Costa County, California District Attorney Diana Becton, speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about the rise in reform pros­e­cu­tors across the coun­try, the inher­ent flaws in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment that leads her to work along­side oth­er reform pros­e­cu­tors to end the death penal­ty, and her efforts as dis­trict attor­ney to bring fair­ness and equi­ty to the criminal legal…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Dec 02, 2021

In the December 2021 episode of *Discussions with DPIC,* Death Penalty Information Center Deputy Director Ngozi Ndulue inter­views State Representative Jean Schmidt about her work as a pri­ma­ry spon­sor of a bill in the Ohio House of Representatives that would abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. A long-time Republican elect­ed offi­cial, Rep. Schmidt also served in the U.S. House of Representatives for ten years. She avid­ly sup­port­ed the death penal­ty ear­ly in her career but…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Nov 08, 2021

In the November 2021 episode of *Discussions with DPIC*, Daniel Chen, coun­sel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, speaks with DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham about the Supreme Court case *Ramirez v. Collier* and death-row pris­on­ers’ rights to reli­gious free­dom. John Ramirez has chal­lenged Texas’ restric­tions on audi­ble prayer and phys­i­cal touch by his spir­i­tu­al advi­sor dur­ing his exe­cu­tion. Allowing such pas­toral com­fort in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber, Chen says,…

12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Published: Sep 29, 2021

In the September 2021 episode of *Discussions With DPIC,* University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill polit­i­cal sci­en­tist Frank Baumgartner (pic­tured), one of the nation’s lead­ing aca­d­e­m­ic author­i­ties on the death penal­ty, joins Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham to dis­cuss what research has shown about the impact of race, gen­der, and geog­ra­phy in cap­i­tal cas­es and the cur­rent his­tor­i­cal­ly low lev­el of pub­lic sup­port for capital…