DPIC Podcasts

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Mar 09, 2021

In the March 2021 edi­tion of Discussions with DPIC, Death Penalty Information Center Senior Director of Research and Special Projects Ngozi Ndulue is joined by Carine Williams — the Chief Program Strategy Officer at the Innocence Project — for a con­ver­sa­tion about inno­cence, the death penal­ty, and ​“the func­tion of free­dom.” Reflecting on the gross mis­car­riage of jus­tice exhib­it­ed in wrong­ful con­vic­tions and exon­er­a­tions, Williams stress­es two crit­i­cal themes: death is irrev­o­ca­ble and end­ing the death penal­ty is sim­ply not enough.

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Jan 21, 2021

In the January 2021 episode of Discussions With DPIC, Rudolph McCollum and Liz Ryan join DPIC Managing Director Anne Holsinger for a con­ver­sa­tion about their efforts to obtain posthu­mous par­dons for the ​“Martinsville 7,” sev­en Black men who were exe­cut­ed in Virginia for the alleged rape of a white woman in 1949. McCollum, a for­mer may­or of Richmond, is the nephew of two of the exe­cut­ed men and Ryan is the pres­i­dent and CEO of the Youth First Initiative. They dis­cuss the mis­car­riage of jus­tice in the case, what a…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Dec 09, 2020

In the December 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, anes­the­si­ol­o­gist Dr. Joel Zivot from Emory University Hospital speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about his dis­cov­er­ies from the autop­sies of more than 200 exe­cut­ed pris­on­ers that shat­tered the myth that death by lethal injec­tion was a humane and peace­ful process. Dr. Zivot also lec­tures and writes on issues relat­ed to end of life care and physi­cian-assist­ed death, and he and Dunham also dis­cuss eth­i­cal issues involv­ing physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in executions.

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Nov 25, 2020

In the November 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Gretchen Engel (pic­tured), Executive Director of North Carolina’s Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL), joins Ngozi Ndulue, Senior Director of Research and Special Projects at DPIC, for a dis­cus­sion of their orga­ni­za­tions’ recent reports on race and the death penal­ty. This fall, DPIC released Enduring Injustice: The Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Death Penalty. Less than a month lat­er, CDPL released its own report, Racist Roots: Origins of North Carolina’s Death Penalty. Though the styles of the two reports…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Oct 15, 2020

In the October 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, for­mer Illinois Governor George Ryan speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about the events that per­suad­ed him to com­mute the death sen­tences of all 167 death-row pris­on­ers in Illinois in 2003. Ryan and Dunham delve into the Governor’s jour­ney from death-penal­ty sup­port­er as an Illinois state leg­is­la­tor to death-penal­ty oppo­nent as Illinois gov­er­nor, and dis­cuss his new book, co-authored with Pulitzer-prize win­ning jour­nal­ist Maurice Possley, Until I Could Be Sure: How I Stopped the Death Penalty in…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Sep 30, 2020

In the September 2020 episode of Discussions With DPIC, Native American Rights Fund senior staff attor­ney Joel Williams joins Death Penalty Information Center exec­u­tive direc­tor Robert Dunham for a con­ver­sa­tion about trib­al sov­er­eign­ty, the death penal­ty, and the his­toric U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing in McGirt v. Oklahoma.

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Jul 20, 2020

In the July 2020 episode of Discussions With DPIC, David Fathi, the direc­tor of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, speaks with DPIC’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger about death-row con­di­tions across the coun­try. Fathi speaks about the ​“shat­ter­ing” effects of long-term death-row soli­tary con­fine­ment, the move­ment away from auto­mat­ic soli­tary con­fine­ment for death row pris­on­ers, and the impact of COVID-19 in con­gre­gate-liv­ing cir­cum­stances, such as death-row.

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Jun 26, 2020

In the June 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Henderson Hill (pic­tured), Senior Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project, speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act. Hill, who has spent decades as a pub­lic defend­er, cap­i­tal defense attor­ney, and civ­il rights advo­cate, is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ing North Carolina death-row pris­on­ers in the Racial Justice Act lit­i­ga­tion chal­leng­ing their death sentences.

Discussions With DPIC

Published: May 07, 2020

In the May 2020 edi­tion of Discussions with DPIC, Executive Director Robert Dunham speaks with Kelley Henry, a Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender in Nashville, Tennessee who has rep­re­sent­ed Tennessee death-row pris­on­ers for more than twen­ty years. They dis­cuss the effects of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic on cap­i­tal lit­i­ga­tion, espe­cial­ly the final inves­ti­ga­tions and clemen­cy efforts that take place in the months lead­ing up to an execution.

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Apr 10, 2020

In the April 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann (pic­tured) speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about Colorado’s repeal of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. McCann was elect­ed DA in 2016, as part of a nation­wide wave of reform-ori­ent­ed pros­e­cu­tors. Both as pros­e­cu­tor and in her eight years in the Colorado leg­is­la­ture, McCann has advo­cat­ed for broad crim­i­nal jus­tice reforms, includ­ing the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. In her dis­cus­sion with Dunham, she describes the major soci­etal shift away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, Colorado’s efforts…