Publications & Testimony

The Innocence Project and fed­er­al defend­ers have filed a motion in a Shelby County, Tennessee tri­al court seek­ing DNA test­ing of phys­i­cal evi­dence hid­den by pros­e­cu­tors for 30 years that they believe will exon­er­ate death-row pris­on­er Pervis Payne (pic­tured). Payne, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on December 3, 2020, has stead­fast­ly denied com­mit­ting the crime. The lawyers argue that his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence are the com­bined prod­uct of racial bias by…

After four unsuc­cess­ful attempts to impose the death penal­ty over the past decade and what he described as a trans­for­ma­tive vis­it to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, Santa Clara County, California District Attorney Jeff Rosen (pic­tured) has announced that his office will no longer seek the death…

Derrick Jamison sur­vived six death war­rants dur­ing his two decades on Ohio​’s death row, com­ing with­in 90 min­utes of being exe­cut­ed. After he was exon­er­at­ed, on the day he walked free, his best friend on death row was exe­cut­ed. His sto­ry, he writes in a July 11, 2020 op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times, ​“illus­trates every­thing that is wrong with the death penal­ty” and why it should be…

Calling cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment a ​“lux­u­ry” that the state can no longer afford, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon (pic­tured) told leg­is­la­tors that he is ​“very seri­ous­ly” con­sid­er­ing impos­ing a mora­to­ri­um on the state’s rarely-used death…

In the lat­est episode of Discussions With DPIC, David Fathi, the direc­tor of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, speaks with DPIC’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger about death-row con­di­tions across the coun­try. Fathi speaks about the ​“shat­ter­ing” effects of long-term death-row soli­tary con­fine­ment, the move­ment away from auto­mat­ic soli­tary con­fine­ment for death row pris­on­ers, and the impact of COVID-19 in con­gre­gate-liv­ing cir­cum­stances, such as…

NEWS (7/​17/​20) — Arizona: Former Maricopa County homi­cide pros­e­cu­tor Juan Martinez, who has repeat­ed­ly been cit­ed for mis­con­duct in death-penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions, has been dis­barred. Martinez con­sent­ed to the action by the State Bar of Arizona, avoid­ing a pub­lic hear­ing on mul­ti­ple charges of sex­u­al­ly harass­ing female co-work­ers in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. The dis­bar­ment tri­al was also expect­ed to include evi­dence that, dur­ing the high-pro­file cap­i­tal murder trial…

NEWS (7/​17/​20) — Tennessee: Citing coro­n­avirus con­cerns, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has is a reprieve post­pon­ing the sched­uled August 4, 2020 exe­cu­tion of Harold Nichols. In a state­ment to the media, Lee said he grant­ed Nichols a ​“tem­po­rary reprieve from exe­cu­tion until December 31, 2020, due to the chal­lenges and dis­rup­tions caused by the COVID-19…

The United States gov­ern­ment car­ried out its third exe­cu­tion in four days on July 17, 2020, exe­cut­ing Dustin Honken (pic­tured). The week’s exe­cu­tions dou­bled the num­ber of pris­on­ers the gov­ern­ment has put to death since Congress reau­tho­rized the fed­er­al death penalty in…

For the sec­ond time in three days, the United States gov­ern­ment has exe­cut­ed a pris­on­er after a 5 – 4 overnight deci­sion of the U.S. Supreme Court short-cir­cuit­ed judi­cial review of sig­nif­i­cant legal claims and after the orig­i­nal death war­rant set­ting his exe­cu­tion date had…

Lawyers for Wesley Purkey (pic­tured), the sec­ond of three fed­er­al death-row pris­on­ers sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed dur­ing the week of July 13, are seek­ing to halt his exe­cu­tion, argu­ing that men­tal ill­ness and demen­tia have left him men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. As Purkey chal­lenges the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his exe­cu­tion, his spir­i­tu­al advi­sor, Rev. Dale Hartkemeyer, is seek­ing to move back the exe­cu­tion until the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic sub­sides. Hartkemeyer’s lawsuit asserts…