Publications & Testimony

More than a dozen for­mer Alabama pros­e­cu­tors, judges, and state bar pres­i­dents have filed briefs in a Birmingham court call­ing for a new tri­al for Alabama death-row pris­on­er Toforest Johnson (pic­tured, cen­ter, with fam­i­ly mem­bers). The extra­or­di­nary fil­ings join Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr in sup­port­ing efforts by lawyers from the Southern Center for Human Rights, the University of California-Berkeley Law School Death…

DEATH SENTENCES (2012 – 2020) BY COUNTY OR…

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has void­ed the con­vic­tions of a sec­ond death-row pris­on­er who was unlaw­ful­ly tried and con­demned in the Oklahoma state courts for an offense that occurred on Native…

In the United States, the respon­si­bil­i­ty for defin­ing what is a crime and enforc­ing the crim­i­nal laws rests pri­mar­i­ly with the states. That fact, New York Times colum­nist Charles Blow (pic­tured) writes, makes action at the state lev­el “[t]he true fron­tier of crim­i­nal jus­tice equal­i­ty.” From cash bail to the death penal­ty, Blow says, “[i]f the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is to move toward racial equal­i­ty and lib­er­a­tion this change will have…

A fed­er­al appeals court has per­mit­ted a Texas dis­trict court to dis­miss a death-row prisoner’s claim that Dallas pros­e­cu­tors uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly struck Black jurors in his case with­out con­sid­er­ing evi­dence of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion that pros­e­cu­tors had with­held from the defense dur­ing state court litigation…

NEWS (3/​11/​21) — Oklahoma: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has void­ed the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence imposed on Shaun Bosse for the mur­ders of three enrolled mem­bers of the Chickasaw Nation with­in the his­tor­i­cal bound­aries of the Chickasaw…

Five civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tions have asked a California appeals court to block the efforts of three coun­ty dis­trict attor­neys to lift stays of exe­cu­tion agreed to by the state as part of a fed­er­al-court set­tle­ment of death-row pris­on­ers’ chal­lenge to California’s lethal-injec­­tion pro­to­col. [UPDATE: On March 9, 2021, the First District Court of Appeals dismissed the…

New poll results show that more Nevadans now sup­port alter­na­tives to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and repeal­ing the death penal­ty than favor its con­tin­ued use, mark­ing a major shift in opin­ion in the state in just the…

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…

Julius Jones (pic­tured) will receive a​“stage two” com­mu­ta­tion hear­ing after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board vot­ed 3 – 1 to advance his com­mu­ta­tion appli­ca­tion past the ini­tial sum­ma­ry review stage. Jones main­tains his inno­cence in the 1999 mur­der of Paul Howell, for which he was sen­tenced to death in 2002. The board’s March 8 vote means that Jones will receive a more in-depth review of his case for clemen­cy and affords him the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present witnesses…