Publications & Testimony

Both executions and new death sentences in the United States are on pace for significant declines to their lowest levels in a generation, Reuters reports. With 25 executions conducted so far this year, and only two more scheduled, the United States could have its lowest number of executions since 1991, significantly below the peak of 98 executions in 1999. Only 8 states have carried out executions in the last two years, down from a high of 20, also in 1999. New death sentences, which peaked at…

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit has overturned a California federal district court decision that had declared California’s death penalty unconstitutional, saying that the issue presented “a novel constitutional rule” that was beyond the power of the federal courts to address in a habeas corpus proceeding. The appeals court did not address the constitutionality of California’s death penalty, saying that because of technical procedural rules “we may not assess…

Robert Patton (pictured), the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections who oversaw the botched execution of Clayton Lockett, the use of the wrong third drug in the execution of Charles Warner, and the failed execution of Richard Glossip, was also involved in a number of Arizona executions that violated that state’s execution protocol, a BuzzFeed investigation revealed. Lockett was Oklahoma’s first execution under Patton, just two months after he became corrections director. For the…

In an op-ed for USA Today, three retired generals call for systemic review of the status of veterans on death row nationwide and urge decision-makers in capital cases to seriously consider the mental health effects of service-related PTSD in determining whether to pursue or to impose the death penalty against military veterans. Calling DPIC’s new report, “Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty,” “a wake-up call for an issue that few have focused on,” Brigadiers General (Ret.)

On November 10, on the eve of Veterans’ Day, the Death Penalty Information Center released a new report, Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty. The report examines the plight of U.S. military veterans who have been sentenced to death, estimating that about 300 veterans are currently on death row. Many of these veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other mental disabilities caused or exacerbated by their time in combat. Often when these veterans were on…

On November 8, 1965, 50 years ago, the United Kingdom abolished capital punishment. On that date, Parliament transmitted to Queen Elizabeth II for royal assent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act of 1965. The Act, which ended capital punishment in England, Wales, and Scotland subject to Parliamentary review after 5 years, took effect on November 9, 1965. When Parliament confirmed the Act in December 1969, the abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom became permanent. The…

Calling the punishment “simply wrong,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has vowed to “never stop calling for an end to the death penalty.” Speaking at the launch of a new book by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Moving Away from the Death Penalty: Arguments, Trends and Perspectives,” the Secretary-General highlighted the worldwide decline of capital punishment, noting that “more and more countries and States are abolishing the death penalty.” Data from the…

Oklahoma County has executed 41 prisoners since 1976, the third highest in the country, and is among the 2% of American counties responsible for 56% of the men and women currently on the nation’s death rows. A ThinkProgress report chronicles the decades-long pattern of misconduct committed under its long-time District Attorney “Cowboy Bob” Macy (pictured). Macy sent 54 people to death row during his 21 years as District Attorney, more than any other prosecutor in the U.S. in that period. “Macy…

Prisoners sentenced to death in the small number of U.S. counties that most aggressively pursue the death penalty often suffer the “double whammy” of getting “both the deadliest prosecutors in America and some of the country’s worst capital defense lawyers,” according to an article in Slate by Robert L. Smith. In reviewing the the unusually high numbers of death verdicts from 3 counties that are near the top of the nation in disproportionately producing death sentences over the last 5 years…