Publications & Testimony

On March 28, Judge Michael Hogan of Pittsburg County ruled that James Ryder is incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed after a hear­ing where experts estab­lished Mr. Ryder’s seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. “[We are] relieved the court reached the only log­i­cal con­clu­sion… James has no ratio­nal under­stand­ing of why Oklahoma plans to exe­cute him,” said Mr. Ryder’s attor­ney, Emma Rolls, fol­low­ing the deci­sion. ​“James has suf­fered from schiz­o­phre­nia for near­ly 40 years and has lit­tle con­nec­tion to objec­tive reality.”…

On March 27, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) resen­tenced death row pris­on­er Randall Mays to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after an expert for the state con­ced­ed that the evi­dence pre­sent­ed by Mr. Mays’ attor­neys indi­cates he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, and thus inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. Originally sen­tenced to death in 2008 for the mur­der of two Henderson County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies, Mr. Mays’ attor­neys have long argued that he should be…

This month, DPIC cel­e­brates Women’s History Month with week­ly pro­files of notable women whose work has been sig­nif­i­cant in the mod­ern death penal­ty era. The fourth and final entry in this series is Miriam Krinsky, a for­mer fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor and the Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution. Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) is an orga­ni­za­tion of elect­ed pros­e­cu­tors ​“com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing a jus­tice sys­tem ground­ed in fair­ness, equi­ty, com­pas­sion, and fiscal…

In a March 26, 2024, op-ed pub­lished in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Patricia McTier, a Georgia nurse, recounts her expe­ri­ence being removed from a jury pool in 1998 for what she calls a ​“ques­tion­able rea­son” relat­ed to her race. Born and raised in Appling County, Georgia, Ms. McTier grew up in the Jim Crow era and writes that she ​“enter[ed] adult­hood dur­ing a time of great social change,” where she grew to ​“cher­ish our American sys­tem of jus­tice and the Constitution that endows…

On March 21, 2024, the 1^st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the judge who presided over Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s (pic­tured) tri­al to inves­ti­gate his defense attor­neys’ claims of juror bias and deter­mine whether Mr. Tsarnaev’s death sen­tence should be over­turned because of this bias. In a 2 – 1 deci­sion, the 1^st Circuit declined defense attor­ney requests to over­turn Mr. Tsarnaev’s death sen­tence for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the April 2013 Boston Marathon bomb­ing but found that the tri­al judge ​“fell…

“It is long past time to abol­ish the death penal­ty in the U.S.,” write the edi­tors for the Scientific American. In a March 19, 2024 op-ed titled ​“Evidence Does Not Support the Use of the Death Penalty,” the authors cite an abun­dance of stud­ies demon­strat­ing that the death penal­ty is not a deter­rent to crime, but is a flawed, racial­ly biased, and cost­ly prac­tice respon­si­ble for sen­tenc­ing inno­cent lives to…

This week, The National Registry of Exonerations pub­lished its annu­al report on exon­er­a­tions that took place in 2023. According to the report, ​“The Registry record­ed 153 exon­er­a­tions last year, and near­ly 84% (127/​153) were peo­ple of col­or. Nearly 61 per­cent of the exonerees (93/​153) were Black,” while the most fre­quent fac­tor in their wrong­ful con­vic­tion was offi­cial mis­con­duct. ​“Seventy-five homi­cide cas­es — 85% of homi­cide exon­er­a­tions in 2023 — were marred by offi­cial mis­con­duct.” Three out…

This month, DPIC cel­e­brates Women’s History Month with week­ly pro­files of notable women whose work has been sig­nif­i­cant in the mod­ern death penal­ty era. The third entry in this series is Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker, a renowned edu­ca­tor and influ­en­tial death penalty…

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Judge Elsa Alcala, who served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 2011 to 2018. In addi­tion to serv­ing as a judge at the appeals and tri­al lev­el, she worked as a pros­e­cu­tor, crim­i­nal defense attor­ney, and most recent­ly as a jus­tice-reform lob­by­ist dur­ing her three-decade career in crim­i­nal law. She shares how these expe­ri­ences have informed her per­spec­tive on the death penal­ty and…

On March 19, 2024, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole denied clemen­cy for Willie Pye (pic­tured), who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on March 20, despite argu­ments that he has an intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty and is there­fore inel­i­gi­ble for exe­cu­tion, per Georgia state law and U.S. Supreme Court prece­dent. Convicted in 1996 for the 1993 mur­der of his ex-girl­friend, Alicia Yarbrough, Mr. Pye has spent the last 28 years on Georgia’s death row. Mr. Pye’s case has also gen­er­at­ed pub­lic con­cern due to…