Publications & Testimony

In this month’s Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Margot Ravenscroft (pic­tured), Director of AMICUS UK, a British char­i­ty whose vol­un­teers sup­port the cap­i­tal defense effort in the United States. Ms. Ravenscroft describes how AMICUS was found­ed by a British woman who became a pen friend to a Louisiana death row pris­on­er Andrew Lee Jones. Jane Officer, a retired school­teacher, spent many years exchang­ing let­ters with Mr. Jones and returned to the UK after…

Though the Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution for­bids the death penal­ty for a per­son who is ​“insane” at the time of exe­cu­tion, it has nev­er held that the exe­cu­tion of peo­ple with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Experts have found that two in five peo­ple exe­cut­ed between 2000 and 2015 had a men­tal ill­ness diag­no­sis such as bipo­lar dis­or­der, schiz­o­phre­nia, or PTSD. Since 2017, at least eleven states have attempt­ed to strength­en pro­tec­tions for vul­ner­a­ble pris­on­ers by…

On October 23, 2023, 38 indi­vid­u­als were sen­tenced to death for the mob killing of Jamal Ben Ismail, who had been mis­tak­en­ly iden­ti­fied as the arson­ist respon­si­ble for the August 2021 fires that killed 90 peo­ple in the north­west region. Despite the death sen­tences, all pris­on­ers will be resen­tenced to life impris­on­ment due to the nation­wide mora­to­ri­um in place since 1993 when the last executions…

On October 30, 2023, the United States Supreme Court denied Texas death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Brent Brewer’s (pic­tured) peti­tion for cer­tio­rari, clear­ing the way for his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on November 9^th. Mr. Brewer’s attor­neys argue that unre­li­able ​“future dan­ger­ous­ness” junk sci­ence tes­ti­mo­ny from a psy­chi­a­trist who nev­er even met Mr. Brewer result­ed in his death sen­tence. Following the Supreme Court’s deci­sion, attor­neys for Mr. Brewer sub­mit­ted a clemen­cy appli­ca­tion, detail­ing the fact…

On October 26, 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion for William Speer, who was set to be exe­cut­ed the same evening for the killing of anoth­er pris­on­er 26 years ago. Mr. Speer has been sched­uled to die by lethal injec­tion, but his attor­neys asked the TCCA to pause his exe­cu­tion over alle­ga­tions that pros­e­cu­tors failed to dis­close evi­dence at tri­al, know­ing­ly pre­sent­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny, and that his tri­al lawyers pro­vid­ed inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion by…

On October 22, 2023, Vic Fischer, the last sur­viv­ing sign­er of the Alaskan state con­sti­tu­tion, died at age 99. Mr. Fischer, along with Rep. Warren Taylor, spon­sored the death penal­ty abo­li­tion bill that passed in the Alaska territory’s leg­is­la­ture in 1957, two years before Alaska gained state­hood. The bill read: ​“The death penal­ty is and shall here­after be abol­ished as pun­ish­ment in Alaska for the com­mis­sion of any…

In August 2023, Alabama released the first-ever exe­cu­tion pro­to­col for nitro­gen hypox­ia, an untest­ed exe­cu­tion method in which pris­on­ers will be put to death by suf­fo­ca­tion as they are forced to breathe pure nitro­gen gas. Alabama’s heav­i­ly redact­ed pro­to­col pro­vides that pris­on­ers will be fit­ted with a mask and breath­ing tube to con­trol the gas, which will slow­ly deprive them of oxy­gen. However, use of this untest­ed method may also pose dan­gers to spir­i­tu­al advi­sors and prison staff in the…

In July 2020, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, under the direc­tion of Attorney General Bill Barr, resumed fed­er­al exe­cu­tions for the first time in 17 years. Over the course of the fol­low­ing six months, 13 fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed. During those six months, the WFIU News team was grant­ed the oppor­tu­ni­ty to report on and wit­ness all 13 exe­cu­tions at United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute in Indiana. In the time since these exe­cu­tions, the WFIU News team collected…

The Death Penalty Information Center has updat­ed its Death Penalty Census, a data­base of every death sen­tence imposed since 1972. The data­base now con­tains infor­ma­tion accu­rate as of January 1, 2022, inclu­sive of the 50^th year of the mod­ern death penal­ty. The Census con­tains infor­ma­tion on 9,820 death sen­tences imposed on 8,842 defen­dants. It includes the name, race, and gen­der of each defen­dant, along with the region, state, coun­ty, and year in which the sen­tence was…

On October 18, 2023, the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole delayed the sched­uled exe­cu­tion for Thomas Creech in order to pro­vide him with a full clemen­cy hear­ing. A date for the hear­ing has not yet been sched­uled. An Ada County, Idaho judge pre­vi­ous­ly issued a death war­rant for Mr. Creech, who has been on death row for near­ly 44 years, set­ting his exe­cu­tion for November 8, 2023. The Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) announced that they have secured the appro­pri­ate drugs to car­ry out…