Publications & Testimony

On October 30, 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Hampshire and the ACLU Capital Punishment Project joint­ly filed a 27-page ami­cus brief on behalf of Michael Addison, an African American man and the only remain­ing per­son under a death sen­tence in New Hampshire. Mr. Addison was con­vict­ed in 2008 of cap­i­tal mur­der for the fatal shoot­ing of a white Manchester police offi­cer. The fil­ing cites find­ings from the Capital Jury Project (CJP), which show that…

On November 13, 2025, just hours before Tremane Wood was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion, Governor Kevin Stitt accept­ed the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board and reduced Mr. Wood’s sen­tence to life with­out parole. In a state­ment, Gov. Stitt said,​“This action reflects the same pun­ish­ment his broth­er received for their mur­der of an inno­cent young man and ensures a severe pun­ish­ment that keeps a vio­lent offend­er off the streets for­ev­er. In Oklahoma, we will…

As the United States pre­pares to observe Veterans Day 2025, the Death Penalty Information Center today released a new com­pre­hen­sive report: Forgotten Service, Lasting Wounds: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty. The report reveals that approx­i­mate­ly 200 mil­i­tary vet­er­ans await exe­cu­tion on death rows across the U.S., and one in sev­en exe­cu­tions since 1972 has been a mil­i­tary vet­er­an. Many of the juries that sen­tenced these men and women to death nev­er heard about…

In 2002, a Gallup poll found that 75% of Americans opposed exe­cut­ing indi­vid­u­als who have severe men­tal ill­ness­es. Many peo­ple believe that the U.S. does not exe­cute peo­ple who suf­fer from seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. This is only par­tial­ly true. In fact, the Constitution bars the exe­cu­tion only of peo­ple who are legal­ly deemed​“insane” or men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. But the legal stan­dard for demon­strat­ing men­tal incom­pe­tence is high and exemp­tions from execution for…

During elec­tion cycles, it is not uncom­mon to see some politi­cians and elect­ed offi­cials talk­ing more about the death penal­ty than usu­al – often in an attempt to bol­ster their​“tough on crime” cre­den­tials. This phe­nom­e­non is based on the out­dat­ed assump­tion that use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is a pop­u­lar way of address­ing vio­lent crime. The data show oth­er­wise. An October 2025 Gallup poll con­firms a thir­­ty-year trend: every year since 1994, the death penalty has…

*On Veterans Day, the Death Penalty Information Center will release a new report about vet­er­ans and the death penal­ty, explor­ing the last­ing effects of mil­i­tary ser­vice and explain­ing why mil­i­tary expe­ri­ences mat­ter when vet­er­ans inter­act with the legal sys­tem. This arti­cle tells the sto­ry of Navy vet­er­an David Hosier who was sen­tenced to death with­out a jury ever learn­ing about his men­tal health strug­gles, hon­or­able mil­i­tary ser­vice, and childhood…

A new report pub­lished on the 40^th anniver­sary of the United Nation’s cre­ation of the​‘abo­li­tion­ist de fac­to’ (ADF) cat­e­go­ry, Between Retention and Abolition: Making Sense of a Death Penalty Without Executions, exam­ines the legal, polit­i­cal, and sym­bol­ic role of the death penal­ty in coun­tries that retain the death penal­ty but have either not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 10 years or have estab­lished an offi­cial mora­to­ri­um. Authored by researchers at UK-based The…

Indiana’s seem­ing­ly para­dox­i­cal resump­tion of exe­cu­tions, with three over the last year, is draw­ing scruti­ny from many cor­ners of the state. Governor Mike Braun, leg­is­la­tors from both polit­i­cal par­ties, pub­lic defend­ers and even pros­e­cu­tors have raised ques­tions about the costs of pros­e­cut­ing cap­i­tal cas­es and obtain­ing drugs for exe­cu­tions; the fail­ure of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to deter crime; and the increas­ing reluc­tance of Indiana juries to sentence…