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: 221 — 230
Aug 19, 2025
Former Illinois Death-Sentenced Prisoner Robert Melock’s Charges Dismissed, Court Acknowledges Innocence
After spending more than three decades behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Robert Melock was issued a Certificate of Innocence (COI), with a court formally clearing his name and ordering his record expunged. On April 21, 2025, the Circuit Court of the 19th Judicial Circuit issued Mr. Melock the certificate following his December 2023 release from prison after 34 years of incarceration. His case is emblematic of the many problems known to result in wrongful death sentences: a coerced…
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Aug 18, 2025
DPI’s Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Florida Attorney and Researcher Melanie Kalmanson on Recent Developments in Florida’s Death Penalty
In the August 2025 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Melanie Kalmanson, a Florida attorney and author of the Substack newsletter Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty. Ms. Kalmanson’s newsletter compiles data on legislation, capital trials, death sentences, and executions in Florida. In the podcast, she discusses how she started following those developments, key events in the recent history of Florida’s death penalty, and why Florida has…
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Aug 14, 2025
Funding Shortfall for Criminal Justice Act Could Impact Quality and Availability of Legal Representation for Indigent Defendants, Including Capital Defendants
As of July 3, 2025, the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) program has run out of funds for the current fiscal year, threatening the quality and availability of federal defense counsel for the overwhelming majority of criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire their own lawyers. The budget Congress approved for the CJA program in March is $129 million less than what was requested by the Federal Judiciary. As a consequence, CJA appointed defense teams have been denied payment for their work since…
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Aug 13, 2025
Florida Death Row Prisoners Challenge Governor DeSantis’ Secretive Execution Decisions
Over the past two weeks, two Florida death row prisoners filed fresh challenges to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ decisions to sign his tenth and eleventh death warrants of 2025. On July 29, 2025, Kayle Barrington Bates (also known as Maud Dib Al Sharif) brought a civil suit against Gov. DeSantis alleging Florida’s execution warrant process “is infected with racial discrimination and unconstitutional arbitrariness.” Included in the claim is a statistical analysis showing that “95% of the…
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Aug 12, 2025
Arkansas Death-Sentenced Prisoners File Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality of State’s New Nitrogen Gas Execution Law
On August 5, 2025, a group of ten Arkansas death-sentenced prisoners filed a lawsuit challenging a new state law that authorizes their execution using nitrogen gas. Act 302, which Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law in March 2025, went into effect on the same day the lawsuit was filed. The prisoners’ lawsuit argues that the new law is unconstitutional because it violates the state constitution’s separation of powers. All ten prisoners included in the lawsuit were sentenced to be…
Read MoreAug 11, 2025
Business Leader Calls for End to California’s “Broken” Death Penalty System
A prominent business executive and member of a larger coalition of over 500 global business leaders is calling on California Governor Gavin Newsom to commute all death sentences in California to life without parole. In a July 2025 op-ed, Matthew Stepka, a member of Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty, calls California’s death penalty system a failure of both justice and fiscal responsibility. “If any company or product I evaluated had an error rate comparable to the death penalty — where…
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Aug 07, 2025
Florida’s Executions: Troubling Patterns of Secrecy and Inadequate Legal Representation
On July 31, 2025, the state of Florida executed its ninth person this year, Edward Zakrzewski, marking the highest number of executions in a single year in Florida in modern death penalty history. The haste with which Governor DeSantis is scheduling executions has prompted many questions and additional scrutiny about a process that is cloaked in secrecy and a decision-maker who is untroubled by the serious issues in many of the cases set for execution. Executions of Prisoners with Inadequate…
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Aug 06, 2025
Facts About the Death Penalty – Has an Innocent Person Ever Been Executed?
An undeniable truth of the death penalty is that it carries the inherent risk of executing innocent individuals. Many may believe that the execution of an innocent person is an anomaly and that the criminal justice system has adequate safeguards in place to rectify wrongful convictions. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Fact: For Every 8 Individuals Executed in the Modern Era, One Other Death-Sentenced Person has been Found Innocent. Since 1973, 200 death-sentenced people have been…
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Aug 05, 2025
Unless Governor Lee Intervenes, Tennessee Will Execute Byron Black, A Man with Intellectual Disability, and Risk a Torturous Execution Due to His Heart Defibrillator
Update August 5, 2025: All (multiple) media witnesses who observed the execution report that Mr. Black was observed repeatedly lifting his head, “sighing” and “groaning” during his execution, at one point saying “It’s hurting so bad.” He demonstrated “clear, audible signs of distress” for several minutes. “It was unanimous among all of us that he was in distress.” He was declared dead at 10:43 CT. On July 31, 2025, the Tennessee Supreme Court vacated a preliminary injunction issued by the…
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Aug 04, 2025
Lethal Elections: Pro-Death Penalty Candidates Falter in Major State Races
Today’s elections feature viable candidates who criticize use of the death penalty and pledge reforms or even non-use in death penalty states, reflecting the continued decline in public support for the death penalty. Following up on its 2024 Report on elections and the death penalty, DPI canvassed a wide range of resources, drilling down on gubernatorial, court, and prosecutorial elections in the 2024 – 2025 election cycle to assess results in races that prominently featured the death penalty in…
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