Publications & Testimony

Latest


Feb 07, 2025

Judge Finds Race Plays a Significant Role” in Death Sentences in Three North Carolina Counties

On February 7, 2025, Johnston County Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons ruled “[r]ace was a sig­nif­i­cant fac­tor” in both jury selec­tion and the deci­sion to impose death in the case of Hasson Bacote and grant­ed relief for Mr. Bacote from his death sen­tence under the pro­vi­sions of North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act (RJA). Judge Sermons also found racial dis­crim­i­na­tion taint­ed all death sen­tences in Johnston County and neigh­bor­ing Harnett and Lee Counties, potentially…

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Feb 06, 2025

Worldwide Monthly Roundup: Taiwan Carries Out First Execution in Five Years; Singapore Cracks Down on Abolition Group; Iranian Prisoners Continue Peaceful Abolition Protest as at Least 87 Executed in January

On January 16, 2025, Taiwan car­ried out its first exe­cu­tion since April 2020. Huang Linkai, who was sen­tenced to death in 2017 for the 2013 mur­ders of his ex-girl­friend and her moth­er, was exe­cut­ed at the Taipei Detention Center. Although Mr. Huang’s attor­ney filed a last-minute appeal, the execution…

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Feb 05, 2025

Focus on Race: Alameda County Resentencings Illustrate Long History of Excluding Jurors of Color from the Jury Box

When Ernest Dykes was brought to tri­al on death penal­ty charges in Alameda County, California in the mid-1990s, it was rea­son­ably expect­ed that pros­e­cu­tors and defense attor­neys alike would work hard to shape the jury to their ben­e­fit. What Mr. Dykes (who is Black) didn’t know until recent­ly, how­ev­er, was just how far the pros­e­cu­tion would go to curate…

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Feb 04, 2025

Florida Legislature Passes Unconstitutional Bill that Mandates the Death Penalty for Unauthorized Aliens”

On January 28, 2025, the Florida Legislature passed an immi­gra­tion bill that includes a pro­vi­sion man­dat­ing the auto­mat­ic impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty for​“unau­tho­rized aliens” con­vict­ed of a cap­i­tal offense, despite long­stand­ing U.S. prece­dent and inter­na­tion­al law pro­hibit­ing manda­to­ry death sen­tences.. The bill was intro­duced dur­ing a short spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sion called by Governor Ron DeSantis (pic­tured), leav­ing lit­tle to no time for public…

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Feb 03, 2025

Fired Federal Judge Raises Serious Concerns About Arizona’s Lethal Injection Protocol

Retired fed­er­al mag­is­trate Judge David Duncan, who was hired and then abrupt­ly fired by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs to review the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, con­tin­ues to raise sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns about the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. In an inter­view with ABC15, Judge Duncan high­light­ed issues with the chain of com­mand for lethal injec­tion drugs, trans­paren­cy, and the state doc­u­men­ta­tion process.​“It’s shock­ing irony that one of my tasks was…

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Jan 30, 2025

Arizona’s Hourly Compensation for Post-Conviction Capital Counsel Found Inadequate for Certification by Outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland

In one of his final acts before leav­ing office, out­go­ing Attorney General Merrick Garland denied a long­stand­ing request by Arizona state offi­cials for the state to be​“cer­ti­fied” so it could take advan­tage of cer­tain pro­ce­dur­al ben­e­fits in fed­er­al habeas review of cap­i­tal cas­es. These changes are avail­able only when a state sat­is­fies cer­tain require­ments, and ben­e­fit state actors by impos­ing greater restric­tions on a prisoner’s abil­i­ty to raise claims and by…

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Jan 29, 2025

12:01: The Death Penalty in Context — The Death Penalty in 2024

In this month’s episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with DPI Communications Associate Hayley Bedard, about The Death Penalty in 2024, which high­lights trends and events relat­ed to the death penal­ty. 2024 marked the tenth con­sec­u­tive year dur­ing which few­er than 30 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed (25) and few­er than 50 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death (26), while high pro­file cas­es of death-sen­­tenced people attracted…

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Jan 28, 2025

Death Penalty Documentary Nominated for Academy Award

I am Ready, Warden, a doc­u­men­tary about Texas death row pris­on­er John Henry Ramirez, was announced as a nom­i­nee for Best Documentary Short at the 2025 Academy Awards. The film tells the sto­ry of the days lead­ing up to Mr. Ramirez’s 2022 exe­cu­tion. It fea­tures inter­views with Mr. Ramirez and his son, Israel, as well as Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez, who oppos­es the death penal­ty and sought to halt Mr. Ramirez’s exe­cu­tion. It also cen­ters the expe­ri­ence of Aaron Castro, the son…

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Jan 27, 2025

Federal Appeals Court Allows Arizona to Limit Victim Contact

On January 23, 2025, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lift­ed an injunc­tion enjoin­ing the enforce­ment of an Arizona statute, Victim Contact Limits, which pro­hibits crim­i­nal defense teams from con­tact­ing crime vic­tims and their fam­i­ly mem­bers direct­ly. The restric­tions are found in Arizona’s Victim Rights Implementation Act (Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13- 4433(B)) and also apply to death penal­ty cas­es. The deci­sion means that pris­on­ers and their lawyers may no longer engage directly…

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Jan 24, 2025

State Spotlight: Texas Death Penalty Declining in Use — 2024 in Review

According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s annu­al Year in Review, Texas’ death row con­tin­ued to shrink in 2024, reflect­ing pros­e­cu­tors’ increas­ing reluc­tance to bring new cap­i­tal cas­es and juries’ grow­ing reluc­tance to sen­tence indi­vid­u­als to death. Texas juries imposed just six new death sen­tences in 2024, mark­ing the tenth con­sec­u­tive year of sin­­gle-dig­it death sen­tences. Five of those six involved defen­dants of col­or, following…

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