Publications & Testimony

The Death Penalty Information Center released its Year End Report today, detail­ing the death penal­ty prac­tices of 2025. The Report notes diver­gent and con­tra­dic­to­ry trends. On one hand, pub­lic opin­ion polls record­ed his­tor­i­cal­ly low sup­port for the death penal­ty, and the high­est oppo­si­tion in 50 years. New research about death sen­tenc­ing is con­sis­tent with these find­ings. DPI found that when cap­i­tal juries were asked to choose between life and death, the majority,…

“We don’t need more death. We need more care.” — Anna Lee, vic­tim fam­i­ly mem­ber — In a December 9, 2025, opin­ion arti­cle in The Tennessean, Anna Lee, a mur­der-vic­­tim fam­i­ly mem­ber whose beloved great-uncle’s killer, Nick Sutton, was exe­cut­ed six years ago explains how the death penal­ty has not brought her fam­i­ly heal­ing or jus­tice. In the piece, Ms. Lee com­pas­sion­ate­ly describes the long-term emo­tion­al and finan­cial toll the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment system imposes…

On December 15, 2025, the Death Penalty Information Center will release its annu­al Year End Report detail­ing nation­wide death penal­ty trends, includ­ing exe­cu­tions, new death sen­tences, leg­is­la­tion, pub­lic opin­ion, and the legal chal­lenges in the Supreme Court. This arti­cle high­lights the leg­is­la­tion intro­duced this year to mod­i­fy execution protocols. This year, leg­is­la­tors in more than half of states that retain the death penal­ty pro­posed changes to their…

Mr. Menzies lacks a ratio­nal under­stand­ing that he is to be exe­cut­ed for the crime of mur­der, as he does not under­stand the State’s ratio­nale for levy­ing his pun­ish­ment in gen­er­al or to him in par­tic­u­lar.” — Dr. Michael Brooks, Utah Department of Health and Human Services In a new men­tal com­pe­ten­cy report pre­pared by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, a state med­ical pro­fes­sion­al has found death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Ralph Menzies…

On November 13, 2025, just hours before Tremane Wood was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion, Governor Kevin Stitt accept­ed the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board and reduced Mr. Wood’s sen­tence to life with­out parole. In a state­ment, Gov. Stitt said,​“This action reflects the same pun­ish­ment his broth­er received for their mur­der of an inno­cent young man and ensures a severe pun­ish­ment that keeps a vio­lent offend­er off the streets for­ev­er. In Oklahoma, we will…

As the United States pre­pares to observe Veterans Day 2025, the Death Penalty Information Center today released a new com­pre­hen­sive report: Forgotten Service, Lasting Wounds: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty. The report reveals that approx­i­mate­ly 200 mil­i­tary vet­er­ans await exe­cu­tion on death rows across the U.S., and one in sev­en exe­cu­tions since 1972 has been a mil­i­tary vet­er­an. Many of the juries that sen­tenced these men and women to death nev­er heard about…

In 2002, a Gallup poll found that 75% of Americans opposed exe­cut­ing indi­vid­u­als who have severe men­tal ill­ness­es. Many peo­ple believe that the U.S. does not exe­cute peo­ple who suf­fer from seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. This is only par­tial­ly true. In fact, the Constitution bars the exe­cu­tion only of peo­ple who are legal­ly deemed​“insane” or men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. But the legal stan­dard for demon­strat­ing men­tal incom­pe­tence is high and exemp­tions from execution for…

During elec­tion cycles, it is not uncom­mon to see some politi­cians and elect­ed offi­cials talk­ing more about the death penal­ty than usu­al – often in an attempt to bol­ster their​“tough on crime” cre­den­tials. This phe­nom­e­non is based on the out­dat­ed assump­tion that use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is a pop­u­lar way of address­ing vio­lent crime. The data show oth­er­wise. An October 2025 Gallup poll con­firms a thir­­ty-year trend: every year since 1994, the death penalty has…