Publications & Testimony

Items: 111 — 120

Sep 27, 2024

United States Reaches 1600 Executions, Demonstrating Disconnect Between Elected Officials and Declining Public Support

The United States has reached a mile­stone in the admin­is­tra­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment this week. All four sched­uled exe­cu­tions in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Alabama took place, mark­ing the 1600th exe­cu­tion in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty in the U.S., despite pub­lic opin­ion polls show­ing grow­ing con­cerns about the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of the death penal­ty and declining support…

Read More

Sep 26, 2024

Oklahoma, Alabama Executions Raise Concerns About Clemency Process and Execution Methods

Executions in Oklahoma and Alabama, sched­uled just hours apart on September 26, high­light issues of pro­por­tion­al sen­tenc­ing and exper­i­men­tal meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was exe­cut­ed at 10:17am CT, had received a rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy from Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board because of con­flict­ing evi­dence about whether he or a co-defen­­dant actu­al­ly killed the vic­tim. Alan Miller, sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in the evening of September 26,…

Read More

Sep 19, 2024

Hispanic Heritage Month: Leonel Herrera and the ​“Agony of Doubt”

In hon­or of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), DPI is post­ing a week­ly fea­ture on Hispanic or Latino/​a peo­ple who have had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on the death penal­ty in the U.S. The first post in this series tells the sto­ry of Leonel Herrera, the defen­dant at the cen­ter of a key Supreme Court…

Read More

Sep 12, 2024

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Dismisses New Evidence of Innocence and Denies Robert Roberson Habeas Relief

On September 11, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) dis­missed Robert Roberson’s request for habeas relief with­out review­ing the mer­its of any of his five claims, cit­ing a fail­ure to meet pro­ce­dur­al require­ments, despite the inclu­sion of new, pre­vi­ous­ly unavail­able med­ical and sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence in the appli­ca­tion. The TCCA also denied Mr. Roberson’s motion for a stay of exe­cu­tion, which remains sched­uled for October 17, 2024.

Read More