Publications & Testimony
Testimony and Statements on the Death Penalty
FROM DPIC
For testimony by former Executive Director Robert Dunham and former Executive Director Richard C. Dieter, please visit our page DPIC Testimony.
FROM RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND ORGANIZATIONS
- News Brief: Pope Francis Calls for Prayer to Abolish the Death Penalty (September 1, 2022)
- Jewish Congregation Renews Request for Department of Justice to Drop Death Penalty in Tree of Life Synagogue Killings (June 24, 2021)
- Orthodox Church Patriarch Calls Death Penalty Incompatible with Christian Beliefs (October 20, 2020)
- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — Statement on the Federal Death Penalty (August 5, 2019)
- Louisiana Christian Faith Leaders Call for State to Abolish Death Penalty (April 25, 2019)
- Pittsburgh Rabbi’s Wife Opposes Death Penalty for Tree of Life Synagogue Killings (March 18, 2019)
- Orthodox Jewish Organization Calls for an End to Capital Punishment in the U.S. | Death Penalty Information Center (February 17, 2016)
- Baptist Theologian Says Death Penalty Does Not Fit With Christian Theology (March 8, 2016)
- Civil and Human Rights: Death Penalty — Church & Society, The United Methodist Church
- Religious Views: Over 150 Catholic Theologians Call for Repeal of the Death Penalty (September 27, 2011)
- Power Over Life and Death — The Power to Save a Life (January 15, 2005)
- Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice (November 2000)
- The Challenge of Holiness: A Sermon on the Death Penalty (January 10, 2000)
- General Assembly of the Texas Conference of Churches — Resolution Opposing the Death Penalty (February 24, 1998)
- Statement by Catholic Bishops of Texas on Capital Punishment (October 20, 1997)
- Catholic Church Expresses Strong Opposition to Capital Punishment in Catechism (September 9, 1997)
- Catholic Bishops of Iowa Issue Statement on Death Penalty (February 4, 1998)
- To End the Death Penalty: A Report of the National Jewish/Catholic Consultation
- Transcript of Dr. Pat Robertson’s Speech on the Role of Religion and the Death Penalty at The College of William and Mary
- Collection of Official Catholic Statements on the Death Penalty (1980)
FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
- UN experts call for universal abolition of the death penalty | OHCHR (October 9, 2023)
- Zambia Becomes 25th Sub-Saharan African Nation to Abolish Death Penalty (December 23, 2022)
- Belgium Wants a World Without the Death Penalty (October 20, 2022)
- As France Prepares to Assume Presidency of European Union, Emmanuel Macron Announces Initiative for Worldwide Abolition of Death Penalty (October 11, 2021)
- U.N. Secretary-General, European Union Ambassador Call for Abolition of “Barbaric” Death Penalty (October 11, 2017)
- European Union Calls for Abolition of Capital Punishment as World Coalition Hosts International Death Penalty Conference (June 27, 2017)
- U.N. Investigator Talks About the Future of Solitary and the Death Penalty (November 7, 2016)
- World Congress Against the Death Penalty Renews Call for Global Moratorium, Pope Sends Message of Support (June 27, 2016)
- Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the 400th execution in Texas from the Council of the European Union (August 21, 2007)
- Resolution Supporting Worldwide Moratorium on Executions from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (April 1999)
- Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights — Message to the Press Conference organized by the Death Penalty Information Center for the release of the report, “International Perspectives on the Death Penalty” (October 12, 1999)
- Status of the International Covenants on Human Rights from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (April 1998)
FROM ADVOCACY GROUPS
- Advocacy Group Tells Supreme Court that Negative Stereotypes Distort Perception that Latinos in Death-Penalty Cases Pose Future Danger to Society (April 15, 2022)
- Disability Rights Groups, Legal Experts, and Conservative Advocates Urge Supreme Court to Strike Down Georgia’s Uniquely Harsh Proof Requirements in Death-Penalty Intellectual Disabilities Cases (January 11, 2022)
- NAACP Reaffirms Its Support of Abolishing the Death Penalty (2022)
- More Than 80 Civil Rights and Advocacy Organizations Urge President Biden to End Federal Executions | Death Penalty Information Center (February 9, 2021)
- More Than 250 Conservative Leaders Join Call to End Death Penalty (October 29, 2019)
- National Alliance on Mental Illness: The Death Penalty
- Florida League of Women Voters Calls for Halt to Executions (May 28, 2007)
- Victims Organizations Issue Joint Statement for National Victims’ Rights Week (April 19, 2007)
FROM JUDGES, LEGISLATORS, AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
- Republican-led Oklahoma committee considers pause on executions amid death case scrutiny (October 5, 2023)
- Former Pro-Death Penalty District Attorney Explains Why He Now Supports Abolition, and Fears Political Promises to Expand the Use of the Death Penalty (August 20, 2023)
- Pressley, Durbin Reintroduce Bill to End the Federal Death Penalty (July 13, 2023)
- The Lancet Editorial: Physician Involvement in Executions Violates Medical Ethics | Death Penalty Information Center (May 20, 2023)
- APA calls for extending ineligibility for the death penalty to adolescent offenders younger than age 21 (August 4, 2022)
- Why some Republicans are turning against the death penalty | Ron Ferguson | Ohio House of Representatives (March 8, 2022)
- Eight years on Texas’ highest criminal court turned Elsa Alcala into a death penalty skeptic. How will the court change without her? (January 26, 2019)
- AMA to Supreme Court: Doctor participation in executions unethical (August 22, 2018)
- Former Governor Bill Richardson: Death Penalty Is Bad for Business, Out of Step With World’s Views (June 16, 2017)
- Capital Punishment and Nurses’ Participation in Capital Punishment (2016)
- Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro Says Death Penalty Unfixable, “Not Worth It Any More” (September 12, 2016)
- Resolution Supporting Repeal of the Death Penalty, National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (August 11, 2016)
- Retired Police Captain Says Repealing Death Penalty Is “Smart on Crime” (November 24, 2014)
- Resolution Supporting Abolition of the Death Penalty, Natl. Assoc. of Black Psychologists (2012)
- The Road to Justice and Peace by New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak (February 1, 2009)
- Statement On The Federal Death Penalty System by Senator Feingold (June 7, 2001)
- Statement on the Need for a Federal Moratorium on the Death Penalty Senator Feingold (October 29, 2000)
- Death Penalty: The Torah and Today (August 23, 2000)
- Press Release for Senator Russ Feingold’s Introduction of Senate’s First Death Penalty Moratorium Bill (April 20, 2000)
- Amnesty International Southern Regional Conference: Orlando, Florida Remarks by Former Florida Chief Justice Gerald Kogan (October 23, 1999)
- American Bar Association Resolution on the Death Penalty (February 3, 1997)
FROM MURDER VICTIMS’ FAMILY MEMBERS
Items: 1521 — 1530
Aug 19, 2020
In Move Raising Race, Gender, and Political Issues, Missouri Governor Seeks Authority for Attorney General to Prosecute St. Louis Homicide Cases
In a political maneuver that further injected issues of race, gender, and political disenfranchisement into local law enforcement policy, Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson has asked state lawmakers to grant Republican state attorney general Eric Schmitt authority to prosecute murder cases in the city of St. Louis. The proposal targeted cases that are currently under the exclusive purview of Democratic St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, the state’s only Black female…
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Aug 18, 2020
Nebraska Legislature Passes, Governor Vetoes Execution Transparency Bill
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts has vetoed a bill that would have increased transparency in the state’s execution process. LB 238, which passed the state’s unicameral legislature on August 13, 2020 by a vote of 27 – 10 with 12 members present but not voting, would have allowed witnesses to see the execution from the moment the prisoner enters the death chamber until the prisoner is declared dead or the execution is halted. In his August 17 veto message to the legislature, Ricketts claimed that…
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Aug 17, 2020
North Carolina Supreme Court Restores Racial Justice Act Ruling Taking Marcus Robinson Off Death Row
In a ruling imbued with historic significance, the North Carolina Supreme Court has for the first time acknowledged pervasive discrimination in the state’s use of capital punishment and vacated a death-row prisoner’s death sentence under the since-repealed Racial Justice Act (RJA). By a vote of 4 – 3, it held that Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks ’ April 2012 finding that race was a substantial factor in sentencing Marcus Robinson to death was tantamount to an acquittal of…
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Aug 17, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of August 10, 2020
NEWS (8/14/20) — Alabama: The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling granting a new trial to death-row prisoner Steven Petric based upon his lawyer’s ineffective representation at trial. Petric had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2009 for a rape and murder in suburban Birmingham two decades earlier. Prosecutors said DNA evidence from semen and cigarette butts linked Petric to the crime, and they presented extensive evidence arguing that Petric had raped…
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Aug 14, 2020
Legislators in Virtual Forum Say Economic Impact of Coronavirus Adds to Conservatives’ Concerns About the Death Penalty
Legislators in an August 13, 2020 virtual forum on capital punishment say that the economic impact of the coronavirus on state budgets adds to their concerns about the viability and desirability of the death penalty as a social policy. In an internet news conference sponsored by Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, three Republican state representatives who have sponsored bills to abolish their states’ death penalty laws characterized the death penalty as a waste of taxpayer money…
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Aug 13, 2020
U.S. May Drop Death Penalty to Obtain Evidence on British ISIS Detainees
Attorney General William Barr has promised victims’ family members that, in exchange for information necessary to bring two British ISIS detainees believed responsible for the murders of four Americans, two British aid workers, and more than twenty others to trial in the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not seek the death penalty against them. The Washington Post reported on July 31, 2020 that Barr told “senior administration officials” at a July 29 White House meeting that…
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Aug 12, 2020
New Resources: Capital Punishment and the State of Criminal Justice 2020
The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section has released The State of Criminal Justice 2020, its annual report on issues, trends, and significant changes in America’s criminal justice system. The ABA book includes a chapter on significant capital punishment developments over the past year, authored by Ronald J. Tabak, chair of the Death Penalty Committee of the ABA’s Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice. Tabak’s analysis highlights the continuing long-term downward trend in…
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Aug 11, 2020
Spring 2020 Death Row Report Documents Continuing Erosion of Death Row
The slow but steady erosion of U.S. death row continued in the first quarter of 2020, data from the latest quarterly death-row census by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) has revealed. The Spring 2020 edition of Death Row USA (DRUSA), released August 10, reports that 2,603 people were on death row or facing resentencing as of April 1, 2020. That marked a decline of 17 since the January 1, 2020 report and a 2.6% drop from the 2,673 LDF reported for April 1, 2019. The death-row…
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Aug 10, 2020
Orleans Parish D.A. Will Not Run for Re-Election, Tenure Tainted By Office Misconduct in Death-Penalty Cases
After 12 years as Orleans Parish, Louisiana District Attorney, Leon Cannizzaro (pictured) has announced that he will not seek re-election and will be retiring as D.A. at the end of this term. Cannizzaro’s tenure in office was marked by his aggressive defense of prior official misconduct in capital cases, misconduct by his office while he was District Attorney, and revelations that Orleans Parish prosecutors had routinely issued fake subpoenas and threatened imprisonment to coerce victims and…
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Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of August 3, 2020
NEWS (8/6/20) — Connecticut: The Connecticut Supreme Court granted a new trial to former death-row prisoner Lazale Ashby. The court ruled that the prosecution had violated Ashby’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel “by using a jailhouse informant … to deliberately elicit certain incriminating statements from the defendant.” The court said that the informant, who had a past history of providing assistance to prosecutors, had been acting as an agent of the state when he extracted incriminating…
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