Publications & Testimony

The Aprajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, which out­lines the death penal­ty for rape result­ing in the victim’s death or​“veg­e­ta­tive state,” was adopt­ed by the West Bengal gov­ern­ment in east­ern India on September 3, 2024. Under inter­na­tion­al law, it is unlaw­ful to pre­scribe the death penal­ty for a crime not meet­ing the​“most seri­ous” crime (e.g., inten­tion­al…

In an August 31, 2024, edi­to­r­i­al from The New York Times, the newspaper’s edi­to­r­i­al board writes that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is​“immoral, uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and use­less as a deter­rent to crime,” and asserts that President Joseph Biden should fol­low through with his cam­paign pledge to end the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The Times believes​“it would be an appro­pri­ate and humane finale to his pres­i­den­cy for Mr. Biden to ful­fill that pledge and try to eliminate…

In a new edi­to­r­i­al, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues that the death penal­ty is​“nev­er the jus­tice that is called for” and achieves​“noth­ing of val­ue except the sat­is­fac­tion of vengeance.” The Post-Gazette describes the death of 6‑week-old Leon Katz in June as an​“almost unfath­omable” crime and a​“vio­la­tion of pri­mor­dial inno­cence” — but argues that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s deci­sion to seek the death penalty against…

The Death Penalty Information Center has updat­ed its Death Penalty Census data­base to include new death sen­tences, exon­er­a­tions, resen­tences, removals from death row, and oth­er sta­tus changes up to January 1, 2024. DPI’s Census is a unique, com­pre­hen­sive col­lec­tion of every death sen­tence imposed since 1972, with infor­ma­tion on the coun­ty and state of pros­e­cu­tion; the year and out­come of each sen­tence; and the name, race, and gen­der of the defen­dant. It contains…

Brandonrush, CC0, via Wikimedia…

Amidst a con­tin­ued post-elec­­tion exe­cu­tion surge and increased sup­pres­sion of peace­ful prison protests, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and 67 human rights orga­ni­za­tions across four con­ti­nents expressed their sup­port for the ongo­ing​“No Death Penalty Tuesdays” week­ly hunger strike move­ment cur­rent­ly span­ning 17 Iranian pris­ons across the coun­try. The August 27, 2024 state­ment, pub­lished a day after the first pub­lic hang­ing of the year,​“call[ed] for an…

South Carolina…

In this new series, the Death Penalty Information Center will occa­sion­al­ly high­light stu­dent works on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, includ­ing master’s and PhD the­ses, and law…

On August 21, 2024, Marcellus Williams (pic­tured), who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on September 24, 2024, agreed to enter an Alford plea in exchange for a sen­tence of life with­out parole. This agree­ment would have ensured that Mr. Williams, who has always main­tained his inno­cence in the 1998 mur­der of Felicia Gayle, would not be exe­cut­ed. But hours after Judge Bruce F. Hilton accept­ed the plea agree­ment, Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the Missouri Supreme Court to…

Glynn Simmons, cen­ter, with members of…