Publications & Testimony

Henderson Hill has ded­i­cat­ed his career to plac­ing race and the death penal­ty on tri­al. This month, the Death Penalty Information Center cel­e­brates Black History Month by rec­og­niz­ing Mr. Hill’s ongo­ing con­tri­bu­tions to the modern death…

Brandonrush, CC0, via Wikimedia…

On January 16, 2025, Taiwan car­ried out its first exe­cu­tion since April 2020. Huang Linkai, who was sen­tenced to death in 2017 for the 2013 mur­ders of his ex-girl­friend and her moth­er, was exe­cut­ed at the Taipei Detention Center. Although Mr. Huang’s attor­ney filed a last-minute appeal, the execution…

On January 28, 2025, the Florida Legislature passed an immi­gra­tion bill that includes a pro­vi­sion man­dat­ing the auto­mat­ic impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty for​“unau­tho­rized aliens” con­vict­ed of a cap­i­tal offense, despite long­stand­ing U.S. prece­dent and inter­na­tion­al law pro­hibit­ing manda­to­ry death sen­tences. The bill was intro­duced dur­ing a short spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sion called by Governor Ron DeSantis (pic­tured), leav­ing lit­tle to no time for public…

Retired Federal Magistrate…

In one of his final acts before leav­ing office, out­go­ing Attorney General Merrick Garland denied a long­stand­ing request by Arizona state offi­cials for the state to be​“cer­ti­fied” so it could take advan­tage of cer­tain pro­ce­dur­al ben­e­fits in fed­er­al habeas review of cap­i­tal cas­es. These changes are avail­able only when a state sat­is­fies cer­tain require­ments, and ben­e­fit state actors by impos­ing greater restric­tions on a prisoner’s abil­i­ty to raise claims and by…

In this month’s episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with DPI Communications Associate Hayley Bedard, about The Death Penalty in 2024, which high­lights trends and events relat­ed to the death penal­ty. 2024 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…

I am Ready, Warden, a doc­u­men­tary about Texas death row pris­on­er John Henry Ramirez, was announced as a nom­i­nee for Best Documentary Short at the 2025 Academy Awards. The film tells the sto­ry of the days lead­ing up to Mr. Ramirez’s 2022 exe­cu­tion. It fea­tures inter­views with Mr. Ramirez and his son, Israel, as well as Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez, who oppos­es the death penal­ty and sought to halt Mr. Ramirez’s exe­cu­tion. It also cen­ters the expe­ri­ence of Aaron Castro, the son…