Publications & Testimony

A joint research project begun by two Texas uni­ver­si­ties illus­trates the con­fine­ment con­di­tions of death-row pris­on­ers, includ­ing areas such as vis­i­ta­tion, health care, attor­ney vis­its, recre­ation, food, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for work. The Capital Punishment & Social Rights Research Initiative has cre­at­ed an ini­tial info­graph­ic describ­ing the con­di­tions in…

In a let­ter to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, dat­ed January 13, 2023, nine for­mer Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC) offi­cials called atten­tion to the trau­ma expe­ri­enced by prison staff from repeat­ed exe­cu­tions. The ​“relent­less pace of exe­cu­tions means the prison nev­er real­ly returns to nor­mal oper­a­tions after the emo­tion­al and logis­ti­cal upheaval of an exe­cu­tion,” explained the offi­cials. ​“Indeed, reports from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary describe near-con­stant mock…

In an op-ed in The Tennessean, Dr. Keith Caruso, President of the Tennessee Psychiatric Association, shared the rea­sons behind the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for those with severe mental…

In a 5 – 4 deci­sion in Cruz v. Arizona on February 22, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court held that John Cruz should have been able to inform his sen­tenc­ing jury that if he were spared a death sen­tence, he nev­er would have been eli­gi­ble for parole. The Court said that its hold­ing was in direct line with its pre­vi­ous deci­sions in Simmons v. South Carolina and Lynch v. Arizona, which estab­lished this right and its spe­cif­ic applic­a­bil­i­ty to Arizona. This rul­ing not only allows…

John Huffington (pic­tured) has been exon­er­at­ed of all the charges that sent him to death row over 40 years after his ini­tial wrong­ful con­vic­tion. On January 13, 2023, out­go­ing Maryland Governor Larry Hogan grant­ed a full par­don to Huffington, stat­ing that evi­dence con­clu­sive­ly showed that his ​“con­vic­tions were in…

In the February 2023 edi­tion of Discussions with DPIC, for­mer Oregon Superintendent of Prisons Frank Thompson speaks with DPIC Managing Director Anne Holsinger about how his expe­ri­ences as a cor­rec­tions offi­cer — as well as being a mur­der victim’s fam­i­ly mem­ber — have affect­ed his views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Thompson over­saw the only two exe­cu­tions per­formed in Oregon in the past 50 years and was respon­si­ble for devel­op­ing the exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. He said the process of performing…

The cas­es of two defen­dants fac­ing immi­nent exe­cu­tion raise con­cerns about the appro­pri­ate­ness of death sen­tences for those with severe men­tal ill­ness or sharply-lim­it­ing men­tal dis­abil­i­ties. Andre Thomas is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on April 5, 2023 in Texas, despite suf­fer­ing from men­tal ill­ness so acute that he cut out both of his eyes and ate one, claim­ing that it was nec­es­sary to pre­vent the gov­ern­ment from hear­ing his thoughts. Donald Dillbeck is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Florida on…

In a 2022 arti­cle pub­lished in the Idaho Journal of Critical Legal Studies, author Sidney Balman (pic­tured), exam­ines the rela­tion­ship between racism and geo­graph­i­cal arbi­trari­ness in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in the U.S. As in oth­er areas of soci­ety, he finds that Black lives are not val­ued equal­ly with oth­ers. He cites the Supreme Court’s deci­sion in McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) as the main legal obsta­cle to revers­ing this bias affect­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. ​“Today,” he writes,…

On February 16, 2023, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced that he will con­tin­ue his predecessor’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions and called upon the Pennsylvania General Assembly to repeal the death…

Crosley Green was sen­tenced to death for mur­der in Florida in 1990 with an all-white non-unan­i­mous jury. He was removed from death row in 2009 and resen­tenced to life in prison. He has always main­tained his inno­cence and is now ask­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to over­turn his con­vic­tion because crit­i­cal evi­dence was with­held from…