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: 11 — 20
Sep 15, 2026
California Supreme Court Decisions on Racial Justice Act Claims Limit Relief from Racial Bias
Recent decisions from California’s Supreme Court have narrowed the scope of the state’s Racial Justice Act (RJA), limiting a law aimed at eliminating racial bias from the judicial system and potentially making it harder for those on death row to seek relief through the statute moving forward. Though the court overturned the death sentence of Anthony Bankston, who was repeatedly referred to as a “thug” and compared to a Bengal tiger by the prosecutor, this opinion, along with three other…
Read MoreSep 14, 2026
Christa Pike Requests Clemency Ahead of September 30 Execution Date; Experts’ Amicus Brief Points to ‘Substantial Risk’ of Re-traumatization
For updates on the September 30, 2026 failed execution attempt of Christa Pike, please see our full story here. Lawyers for Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, filed a 226-page clemency petition with Governor Bill Lee, asking him to commute her death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole ahead of her September 30 execution date. Ms. Pike’s clemency petition outlines the case her team has built over decades of appeals: her actions at 18 years old cannot…
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Sep 11, 2026
Set for Execution in Georgia September 16, Stacey Humphreys’ New Appeals Highlight Clemency Conflict of Interest, Juror Misconduct
For the second time in less than a year, Stacey Humphreys faces execution in Georgia. His initial execution date last December was postponed when a state court agreed that a member of the clemency board had a conflict of interest. Now the state has set his execution for September 16, arguing the problem has been resolved because the board member recused herself — even though no one has been appointed in her place. In new court filings, Mr. Humphreys argues that the U.S. Constitution requires his…
Read MoreSep 10, 2026
California Governor Candidate Xavier Becerra Vows to Extend Execution Moratorium, Despite Record Defending Death Sentences
Xavier Becerra, the Democratic front-runner in California’s 2026 gubernatorial race, has pledged to extend Governor Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on executions if elected in November. This is a marked shift from his previous record as the state’s attorney general, when his office defended capital convictions and pursued new death sentences. While in office, AG Becerra said he considered capital punishment as a legitimate option for crime victims, and during his 2017 confirmation hearing, he told…
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Sep 09, 2026
In New Filing, DNA Expert’s Recanted Testimony Further Undermines the Conviction and Death Sentence of Texas Prisoner Jeffery Prible
A forensic DNA analyst whose trial testimony helped secure the 2002 conviction and death sentence of Ronald “Jeffery” Prible has now disavowed that testimony, adding new weight to Mr. Prible’s long-standing innocence claim in a case marked by serious allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. In an August 28 declaration filed as part of continued efforts to overturn Mr. Prible’s conviction, DNA expert William Watson wrote that developments in forensic science and his own professional opinion…
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Sep 08, 2026
Former Kansas Corrections Officials Call for Governor to Commute Death Sentences
In a September 2, 2026, op-ed published in the Topeka Capital-Journal, Roger Werholtz, who served as Kansas Secretary of Corrections from 2003 to 2010, calls on Governor Laura Kelly to commute the sentences of the nine men on Kansas’ death row to life without parole. Writing as a former corrections official with experience in both Kansas and Colorado, Mr. Werholtz notes that the state has not carried out an execution since 1965, yet “Kansas has not been plagued by crime despite conducting no…
Read MoreSep 04, 2026
Japan Hangs Man in First Execution of 2026, Joining U.S. as Only G7 Nations to Execute
On August 21, 2026, Japan hanged Sunao Takami for the killing of five people. The execution is not only the first of the year for the nation but also the first carried out under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government. Aside from the United States, Japan is the only other G7 country to retain use of the death penalty. In 2009, Mr. Takami was convicted of setting fire to a pachinko parlor in Osaka, killing five people and injuring 10. Despite his defense team arguing that Mr. Takami was…
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Sep 03, 2026
International Comparison: Capital Punishment in the US and Pakistan in 2025
In 2025, the United States executed 47 people, the highest total in over fifteen years, while public support for the death penalty fell to a fifty-year low and juries rejected death sentences in a majority of capital trials. That same year, Pakistan held 3,394 people on death row — one of the largest condemned populations in the world — while maintaining a de facto moratorium on executions that has been in place since December 2019 and failing to implement legal protections its own Supreme…
Read MoreSep 02, 2026
Articles of Interest: Former Death Row Prisoner Jimmie Duncan, Declared Factually Innocent, Describes His Experience Since Release and the Threat to Return Him to Prison
Jimmie “Chris” Duncan was released from Louisiana’s death row in 2025 but is still facing the possibility of a retrial for the 1993 death of his girlfriend’s daughter, 23-month-old Haley Oliveaux. Mr. Duncan has consistently maintained his innocence, and in June 2026, the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a lower court’s decision finding him factually innocent. But in an interview with ProPublica and Verite News, he describes the “hopeless” feeling of trying to fight his conviction…
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Aug 31, 2026
California’s Landmark Racial Bias Challenge to the Death Penalty Moves Forward
A first-of-its-kind lawsuit challenging California’s death penalty on systemic racial grounds has cleared an initial hurdle at the California Supreme Court and is now headed to an evidentiary hearing in Sacramento Superior Court, according to reporting from the Washington Post. The suit, filed by the ACLU, the Legal Defense Fund, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Equal Justice Society, and the Office of the State Public Defender, argues that California’s capital punishment statute is…
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