Publications & Testimony

The Harris County District Attorney​’s office has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to over­turn the death sen­tence imposed on Raymond Riles (pic­tured), the nation’s longest-serving death-row…

NEWS (2/​4/​21) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has issued two opin­ions deny­ing relief to death-row…

With two his­toric votes, the Virginia General Assembly has moved the com­mon­wealth to the cusp of becom­ing the first Southern state to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, approv­ing sep­a­rate bills that would end the state’s death penal­ty and resen­tence the two men on death row to life with­out parole. On February 3, 2021, the Virginia State Senate vot­ed along par­ty lines, 21 – 17, in favor of abol­ish­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Two days lat­er, three Republicans joined…

Lawyers for the daugh­ter of a man exe­cut­ed by Tennessee have asked a state appeals court to per­mit DNA test­ing that could prove…

The Virginia Senate moved the com­mon­wealth one step clos­er to becom­ing the first Southern state to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, vot­ing 21 – 17 on February 3, 2021 to approve a bill that would end the state’s death penal­ty and resen­tence the two men on death row to life…

The Federal Bureau of Prisons spent near­ly $4.7 mil­lion dol­lars on the first five exe­cu­tions car­ried out by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion in July and August 2020, accord­ing to redact­ed gov­ern­ment finan­cial records recent­ly obtained by the…

A major­i­ty of Ohioans sup­port repeal of the state’s death penal­ty, a new­ly released statewide…

Despite being under fed­er­al court order to under­take pro­tec­tive mea­sures against the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) took no action after being alert­ed that two reporters who had been media wit­ness­es to the fed­er­al exe­cu­tions at the Federal Correctional Complex at Terre Haute, Indiana in January 2021 had contracted…

Throughout January, DPIC ran an 11-part info­graph­ic series look­ing back on The Death Penalty in 2020. The graph­ics cov­ered sub­jects includ­ing sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion trends, death-penal­­ty repeal, exon­er­a­tions, prob­lem­at­ic exe­cu­tions, the elec­tion of reform pros­e­cu­tors, and the fed­er­al exe­cu­tion spree, among oth­ers. You can see the entire series on the Death Penalty Information Center Facebook page at this…

NEWS (1/​28/​21) — California: The California Supreme Court has upheld the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence imposed on Salvadoran nation­al Irving Ramirez for killing a San Leandro police officer…