DPIC Podcasts

Discussions With DPIC

Published: May 29, 2018

New York Times Pulitzer Prize win­ning colum­nist Nicholas Kristof used the pow­er of his pen to focus nation­al atten­tion on the trou­bling case of California death-row pris­on­er, Kevin Cooper and to urge Governor Jerry Brown to autho­rize DNA test­ing that could resolve out­stand­ing issues of Cooper’s guilt or inno­cence. Kristof’s May 20 col­umn in the Sunday Times asked: Was Kevin Cooper Framed for Murder? Mr. Kristof joins DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham to answer that ques­tion and to dis­cuss how the Cooper case is the embod­i­ment of some of the…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Apr 30, 2018

Alfred Dewayne Brown was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2005 in Harris County, Texas, for the mur­der of a police offi­cer. Brian Stolarz, attor­ney and author of the recent nov­el Grace and Justice on Death Row, rep­re­sent­ed Brown in his post-con­vic­tion appeals and, in 2015, won his free­dom. In this pod­cast, Mr. Stolarz speaks with DPIC’s Robin Konrad about the legal issues in Brown’s case, dis­cussing the cul­ture of con­vic­tion and the pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct that led to Brown’s wrong­ful con­vic­tion. Stolarz offers sug­ges­tions that he believes can help…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Mar 30, 2018

Stephen B. Bright, the for­mer President of the Southern Center for Human Rights, dis­cuss­es the ongo­ing prob­lem of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in jury selec­tion in death-penal­ty cas­es — an issue he has argued three times in the U.S. Supreme Court. He speaks with DPIC’s Anne Holsinger about the most recent of those cas­es, Foster v. Chatman, in which the Court grant­ed Mr. Foster a new tri­al as a result of inten­tion­al dis­crim­i­na­tion by Columbus, Georgia pros­e­cu­tors. He explains how the pros­e­cu­tors’ notes, a piece of evi­dence that is rarely avail­able, were crit­i­cal in…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Jan 17, 2018

Lawyer Thomas Carver joins Robin Konrad, DPIC’s Director of Research and Special Projects, to dis­cuss the case of his client, Ulysses Jones, a ter­mi­nal­ly ill fed­er­al pris­on­er who was charged with cap­i­tal mur­der in Springfield, Missouri. Carver, who has been prac­tic­ing law in Missouri for over forty years, explains what hap­pened in his client’s case, how he and his team avoid­ed a death sen­tence for their client, and what this case says about broad­er death-penal­ty issues in Missouri and the fed­er­al court system.

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Nov 30, 2017

In 2016, both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court struck down Florida’s death-sen­tenc­ing statute. Since then, the Florida courts and leg­is­la­ture have been fig­ur­ing out how to apply those deci­sions to the near­ly 400 con­demned pris­on­ers on the state’s death row. Executive Director Robert Dunham inter­views Karen Gottlieb, the Co-Director of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University, who dis­cuss­es the court cas­es and what has hap­pened in Florida as a result, includ­ing explain­ing how the deci­sion has been inter­pret­ed to apply to only…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Nov 07, 2017

Robin Konrad, DPIC’s Director of Research and Special Projects, inter­views University of Virginia law pro­fes­sor Brandon Garrett about his new book End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice. Professor Garrett researched and ana­lyzed all the death sen­tences imposed in the U.S. dur­ing the past 25 years to deter­mine what fac­tors have led to the pre­cip­i­tous decline in the num­ber of peo­ple who are being sen­tenced to death. In this pod­cast, Professor Garrett dis­cuss­es these fac­tors, which include a decrease in mur­der rates, the creation…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Sep 12, 2017

Death penal­ty pro­po­nents have long assert­ed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment advances pub­lic safe­ty by deter­ring mur­ders, and this, they say, is espe­cial­ly true when it comes to pro­tect­ing police offi­cers. The Death Penalty Information Center recent­ly con­duct­ed an analy­sis of mur­der data from 1987 – 2015 to deter­mine whether the num­bers sup­port that claim. DPIC Fellow Seth Rose speaks with Executive Director Robert Dunham about the DPIC study and what it tells us about the rela­tion­ship between mur­der rates, killings of police offi­cers, and the death penalty.

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Jul 24, 2017

Ohio has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since the botched exe­cu­tion of Dennis McGuire in January 2014, but is sched­uled to resume exe­cu­tions on July 26, 2017. In the past sev­er­al years, the State has revised its lethal-injec­tion pro­to­col and has cre­at­ed a task force that stud­ied Ohio’s death-penal­ty sys­tem. DPIC’s Executive Director Robert Dunham talks with Michael Benza, Senior Instructor in Law at Case Western Reserve University and vet­er­an cap­i­tal defense attor­ney, about the results of the task force’s study, the con­cerns about going for­ward with exe­cu­tions, and the…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: Jun 28, 2017

Christina Swarns, lit­i­ga­tion direc­tor of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, speaks with DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham about the case of Texas death-row pris­on­er Duane Buck and the impact of racial bias on deter­mi­na­tions of future dan­ger­ous­ness in death penal­ty cas­es. Ms. Swarns rep­re­sent­ed Mr. Buck in the U.S. Supreme Court in over­turn­ing his death sen­tence after his own lawyer pre­sent­ed an expert wit­ness who gave racial­ly biased tes­ti­mo­ny that Mr. Buck posed an increased risk of future dan­ger­ous­ness to soci­ety because he is black. Ms. Swarns discusses…

Discussions With DPIC

Published: May 30, 2017

In April 2017, Arkansas sched­uled a record eight exe­cu­tions in eleven days. Four ulti­mate­ly were stayed, and four were car­ried out. DPIC staff mem­bers Robin Konrad and Anne Holsinger inter­view Scott Braden and Julie Vandiver, two of the lawyers who rep­re­sent­ed the con­demned Arkansas pris­on­ers. Scott and Julie dis­cuss the legal issues in the cas­es, describe the con­tro­ver­sial exe­cu­tions, and explain what comes next for the pris­on­ers whose exe­cu­tions were stayed. CONTENT NOTE: This episode con­tains detailed descrip­tions of exe­cu­tions, which some lis­ten­ers may find disturbing.