Publications & Testimony

Items: 21 — 30


Jan 14, 2025

New Analysis: Marion Bowman’s Scheduled Execution in South Carolina Raises Concerns About Youth Culpability, Fits Pattern of Disproportionate Executions of Young Black Men

When Marion Bowman was arrest­ed at age 20 for the mur­der of Kandee Martin, soci­ety did not con­sid­er him mature enough to drink alco­hol, rent a car, or enter a casi­no. Yet he was deemed old enough to be sen­tenced to death. Now 44, he has spent over half his life on South Carolina’s death row and is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on January 31. Retribution is not pro­por­tion­al if the law’s most severe penal­ty is imposed on one whose cul­pa­bil­i­ty or blame­wor­thi­ness is dimin­ished, to a substantial degree…

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Jan 13, 2025

Connecticut Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Prohibit the Production and Manufacturing of Lethal Injection Drugs and Other Materials for Executions

On January 10, 2025, three Connecticut law­mak­ers intro­duced a bill that would make it ille­gal to man­u­fac­ture and sell any drugs or med­ical devices in the state meant to car­ry out the death penal­ty. In 2024, Connecticut-based com­pa­ny Absolute Standards was iden­ti­fied as the source of lethal injec­tion drugs used in 13 fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in 2020 and 2021. In a let­ter to the bill’s spon­sors, John Criscio, President of Absolute Standards, said the com­pa­ny ceased production…

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Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

Jan 07, 2025

Aaron Gunches Asks for February Execution Date, Raising New Concerns About Arizona’s Lethal Injection Protocol and the Execution of Volunteers”

No jury has ever learned about Aaron Gunches’ life his­to­ry and expe­ri­ences, noth­ing about his child­hood, men­tal and phys­i­cal health, or trau­ma — the mit­i­ga­tion evi­dence that the Supreme Court has said is essen­tial to a con­sti­tu­tion­al death sen­tence. Arizona courts judged Mr. Gunches com­pe­tent to rep­re­sent him­self in two sep­a­rate tri­als for the mur­der of his ex-girlfriend’s hus­band, and he pre­sent­ed no defense in either pro­ceed­ing. Jurors twice sentenced him…

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Jan 06, 2025

Military Appeals Court Rules 9/​11 Defendants Can Plead to Avoid Death Sentences

On December 30, 2024, a mil­i­tary appeals court upheld a low­er court rul­ing reject­ing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to throw out plea deals reached for three men charged in the September 11 ter­ror­ism attacks. The court affirmed Judge Colonel Matthew N. McCall’s rul­ing in November 2024 that the plea agree­ments reached in July 2024 are valid. Col. McCall stat­ed at the time that he would pro­ceed with the…

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Jan 03, 2025

Tennessee to Resume Executions with Single-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol

On December 27, 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) com­plet­ed a mul­ti-year lethal injec­tion pro­to­col review and announced that instead of the pre­vi­ous three-drug cock­tail, lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions will use a sin­­gle-drug bar­bi­t­u­ate, pen­to­bar­bi­tal. Ohio was the first state to use pen­to­bar­bi­tal, in the March 2011 exe­cu­tion of Johnnie Roy Baston. State offi­cials now use sin­gle drug pro­to­cols in 14 states, includ­ing Tennessee, as well as in…

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Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

Jan 02, 2025

In Wake of President Biden’s Federal Commutations, North Carolina Governor Cooper Grants Clemency to 15 Death-Sentenced Prisoners, the Largest Grant of Capital Clemency in State History

On December 31, 2024, dur­ing his last day in office, out­go­ing North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of 15 men on the state’s death row to life in prison with­out parole.​“These reviews are among the most dif­fi­cult deci­sion a Governor can make and the death penal­ty is the most severe sen­tence that the state can impose,” said Gov. Cooper in a state­ment fol­low­ing the announce­ment of the com­mu­ta­tions.​“After thor­ough review, reflec­tion, and prayer,…

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Dec 20, 2024

Texas Attorney General’s Office Refuses to Cooperate with Committee Subpoena for Robert Roberson, Blocking His Testimony for the 2nd Time

On December 17, 2024, a bipar­ti­san group of Texas leg­is­la­tors in the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence issued a new sub­poe­na for death-sen­­tenced Robert Roberson to tes­ti­fy in per­son on December 20 about the state’s junk sci­ence law, under which he failed to receive relief. Gretchen Sween, attor­ney for Mr. Roberson, said that he was​“eager to tes­ti­fy and grate­ful for the chance to be heard.” But just two days after the issuance of the sub­poe­na, and a day ahead of Mr.

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Dec 19, 2024

DPI Year End Report 2024: Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence

This year marked the tenth con­sec­u­tive year dur­ing which few­er than 30 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed (25) and few­er than 50 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death (26), while high pro­file cas­es of death-sen­­tenced peo­ple attract­ed sig­nif­i­cant atten­tion and new, unex­pect­ed sup­port­ers. In most U.S. states, the death penal­ty is a rel­ic of anoth­er era. According to DPI’s 2024 Year End Report, just four states (Alabama, Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma) were respon­si­ble for more than…

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