Publications & Testimony

Lawyers for fed­er­al death-row pris­on­er Lisa Montgomery filed suit in fed­er­al dis­trict court in Washington, D.C. on November 12, seek­ing to stay her December 8 exe­cu­tion because the lead coun­sel in her case have contracted…

A diverse coali­tion of more than 1,000 advo­cates, includ­ing cur­rent and for­mer pros­e­cu­tors, activists fight­ing sex traf­fick­ing and domes­tic vio­lence, and men­tal health orga­ni­za­tions, have joined forces to ask President Donald Trump to halt the upcom­ing exe­cu­tion of the only woman on fed­er­al death row, Lisa Montgomery…

The United States faced harsh crit­i­cism from the world com­mu­ni­ty for its con­tin­ued use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment dur­ing a United Nations review of its human rights record on November 9, 2020. During the U.N. Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of the United States’ human rights record on November 9, 2020, coun­tries around the world crit­i­cized the U.S. for sys­temic racism, police vio­lence against civil­ians, sep­a­ra­tion of immi­grant fam­i­lies and internment of…

Lawyers for James Frazier (pic­tured), Ohio​’s old­est death-row pris­on­er, have filed a motion to pre­vent his exe­cu­tion, argu­ing that he has severe vas­cu­lar demen­tia that has ren­dered him unable to understand…

Citing the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has grant­ed a tem­po­rary reprieve to death-row pris­on­er Pervis Payne, halt­ing his sched­uled December 3, 2020 exe­cu­tion. The exe­cu­tion was the last sched­uled by any state in 2020, assur­ing that states will car­ry out few­er exe­cu­tions in 2020 than in any other…

The Death Penalty Information Center is part­ner­ing with the Veteran Advocacy Project to present a six-part webi­nar series on Veterans and the Death Penalty. The webi­na­rs, which are co-spon­­sored by Advancing Real Change, Inc. and Witness to Innocence, will address a broad range of seri­ous issues that have made vet­er­ans dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly vul­ner­a­ble to cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion. The series opens Monday, November 9, the week the nation com­mem­o­rates Veterans Day 2020, with…

The U.S. Supreme Court’s​“shad­ow dock­et” is hav­ing a grow­ing and dis­pro­por­tion­ate impact on the Court’s res­o­lu­tion of con­tro­ver­sial social issues, with some of its most pro­found effects being felt in death…

Reform pros­e­cu­tors made fur­ther inroads in the American legal sys­tem in the November 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, unseat­ing pros­e­cu­tors in sev­er­al of the most pro­lif­ic death-sen­­tenc­ing coun­ties in the United States and cap­tur­ing open seats in major Texas and Florida coun­ties, but falling short in sev­er­al other high…

A three-judge pan­el in Madison County, Ohio has acquit­ted a man pros­e­cu­tors charged with cap­i­tal mur­der for alleged­ly set­ting his car on fire to burn down his house with his wife and…

In a con­tin­u­ing diminu­tion of pro­ce­dur­al safe­guards in cap­i­tal cas­es, the Florida Supreme Court has end­ed its long-stand­ing prac­tice of inde­pen­dent­ly review­ing death penal­ty cas­es on appeal to ensure that they are not dis­pro­por­tion­ate to sen­tences imposed in…