Publications & Testimony

Recent police and vig­i­lante killings of Black Americans have ignit­ed a nation­al call for sys­temic reform of law enforce­ment across the coun­try, high­light­ing the link between extra­ju­di­cial abuse of force and wide­spread dis­crim­i­na­to­ry appli­ca­tion of unnec­es­sar­i­ly harsh legal pun­ish­ments against peo­ple of col­or. In the wake of these mur­ders, Maryland pub­lic defend­er Kristina Leslie (pic­tured) writes, “[m]eaningful and equitable criminal…

Nebraska may have exe­cut­ed Carey Dean Moore in August 2018 using drugs sup­plied by a phar­ma­cy in vio­la­tion of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal man­u­fac­tur­ers’ dis­tri­b­u­tion poli­cies, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS)…

When Attorney General William Barr announced in July 2019 that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment planned to resume fed­er­al exe­cu­tions by putting to death Daniel Lewis Lee, the Department of Justice press release announc­ing the death war­rants trum­pet­ed that​“we owe it to the vic­tims and their fam­i­lies to car­ry for­ward the sen­tence imposed by our jus­tice sys­tem.” But the fam­i­ly of Nancy Mueller (pic­tured) and her eight-year-old…

NEWS (7/​21 & 7/​22/​20) — Texas: Split pan­els of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit have upheld the con­vic­tions and death sen­tences imposed on Erica Sheppard (pic­tured) and Anibal…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…