DPIC Podcasts

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Oct 31, 2022

In the October 2022 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Death Penalty Information Center Deputy Director Ngozi Ndulue and Data Storyteller Tiana Herring dis­cuss DPIC’s recent­ly released report Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty. The report looks at the racial his­to­ry, present, and future of Oklahoma’s death penal­ty. Ndulue and Herring explore Oklahoma’s unique his­to­ry, the key find­ings of the report, its rela­tion­ship to DPIC’s ear­li­er work, and lessons from Oklahoma’s expe­ri­ence that are applic­a­ble nationwide.

Discussions With DPIC

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 been adopted.

Discussions With DPIC

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 statutes in 1972. The data, Dunham says, reveal ​“a sys­tem that is rife with error, filled…

Discussions With DPIC

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 attor­ney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”), describes the deci­sion as ​“crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant to our under­stand­ing of the…

Discussions With DPIC

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 cas­es, focus­ing on three legal­ly con­tro­ver­sial areas of mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that juries found to be impor­tant to their…

Discussions With DPIC

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 penalty.

Discussions With DPIC

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 death row in Oklahoma County, how advo­ca­cy on his inno­cence and about racial bias in his case led to the com­mu­ta­tion of his death sen­tence four hours before it was…

Discussions With DPIC

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 system.

Discussions With DPIC

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 now is an advo­cate of crim­i­nal jus­tice reform. Ndulue and Schmidt dis­cuss the Republican party’s…

Discussions With DPIC

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, is about ​“fun­da­men­tal human dignity.”