Publications & Testimony

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Judge Elsa Alcala, who served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 2011 to 2018. In addi­tion to serv­ing as a judge at the appeals and tri­al lev­el, she worked as a pros­e­cu­tor, crim­i­nal defense attor­ney, and most recent­ly as a jus­tice-reform lob­by­ist dur­ing her three-decade career in crim­i­nal law. She shares how these expe­ri­ences have informed her per­spec­tive on the death penal­ty and iden­ti­fies rec­om­men­da­tions for crim­i­nal legal reforms. 

On March 19, 2024, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole denied clemen­cy for Willie Pye (pic­tured), who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on March 20, despite argu­ments that he has an intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty and is there­fore inel­i­gi­ble for exe­cu­tion, per Georgia state law and U.S. Supreme Court prece­dent. Convicted in 1996 for the 1993 mur­der of his ex-girl­friend, Alicia Yarbrough, Mr. Pye has spent the last 28 years on Georgia’s death row. Mr. Pye’s case has also gen­er­at­ed pub­lic con­cern due to the noto­ri­ous racism of his tri­al attorney,…

This week marks the 15^th anniver­sary of the repeal of the death penal­ty in New Mexico. On March 18^th, 2009, Governor Bill Richardson signed the repeal act (HB2085), end­ing the death penal­ty in the state. The bill came into force on July 1^st, 2009. New Mexico fol­lowed New Jersey to become the sec­ond state in the 21^st Century to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment through leg­isla­tive means.

On February 16, 2024, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed Senate Bill 109, Corrections Modifications, into law, ​“amend[ing] pro­vi­sions relat­ed to the [Utah] Department of Corrections.” S.B. 109, described as an ​“uncon­tro­ver­sial” leg­isla­tive mea­sure, was belat­ed­ly amend­ed to include a pro­vi­sion pre­vent­ing the pub­lic dis­clo­sure of ​“iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion” about indi­vid­u­als involved in car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions, the pro­cure­ment of drugs and sup­plies need­ed for exe­cu­tions, and any iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion about those involved in the man­u­fac­tur­ing or pro­duc­ing of the drugs and sup­plies. The new secre­cy pro­vi­sion will now make it almost impossible…

This month, DPIC cel­e­brates Women’s History Month with week­ly pro­files of notable women whose work has been sig­nif­i­cant in the mod­ern death penal­ty era. The sec­ond entry in this series is Sarah Belal, founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion in Lahore, Pakistan. 

On Friday, March 8, 2024 a Johnston County tri­al court con­clud­ed a his­toric hear­ing regard­ing the claims of Hasson Bacote, a death-sen­tenced pris­on­er in North Carolina, that racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in jury selec­tion played a role in his 2009 cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing. The case, which is being reviewed pur­suant to North Carolina’s 2009 Racial Justice Act (RJA), could have impli­ca­tions for more than 100 oth­er death row pris­on­ers who have pend­ing claims under the Act.

Jessie Dotson, a man sen­tenced to death for killing six peo­ple in 2008 in the Binghampton neigh­bor­hood of Memphis, Tennessee, has filed a peti­tion for a writ of a habeas cor­pus ask­ing a judge to vacate his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. His peti­tion alleges that he is inno­cent, that police coerced him to false­ly con­fess, and that a num­ber of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al and defense errors occurred at tri­al. Mr. Dotson has been on death row since 2008, when he was sen­tenced to death for the mur­ders of four adults, includ­ing his…

As more states con­sid­er nitro­gen hypox­ia as an exe­cu­tion method, three of the largest man­u­fac­tur­ers in the U.S. have barred their prod­ucts intend­ed for life-sav­ing mea­sures from use in executions. 

In May 1990, Jonathan Eig, then a reporter for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, wit­nessed the elec­tric-chair-exe­cu­tion of Dalton Prejean at Angola State Penitentiary for the 1977 mur­der of a Louisiana state troop­er. Mr. Eig watched Mr. Prejean’s exe­cu­tion through an obser­va­tion win­dow, and report­ed see­ing ​“his chest heave, his fists clench and his right wrist twist out­ward. A spark and a puff of smoke shot from the elec­trode attached to his left leg.” In the years fol­low­ing the exe­cu­tion, Mr. Eig regret­ted his deci­sion to wit­ness Mr. Prejean’s exe­cu­tion, writing…

This month, DPIC cel­e­brates Women’s History Month with week­ly pro­files of notable women whose work was sig­nif­i­cant in the mod­ern death penal­ty era. The first entry in this series is U.S. District Court Judge Natasha Merle.