Publications & Testimony
Testimony and Statements on the Death Penalty
FROM DPIC
For testimony by former Executive Director Robert Dunham and former Executive Director Richard C. Dieter, please visit our page DPIC Testimony.
FROM RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND ORGANIZATIONS
- News Brief: Pope Francis Calls for Prayer to Abolish the Death Penalty (September 1, 2022)
- Jewish Congregation Renews Request for Department of Justice to Drop Death Penalty in Tree of Life Synagogue Killings (June 24, 2021)
- Orthodox Church Patriarch Calls Death Penalty Incompatible with Christian Beliefs (October 20, 2020)
- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — Statement on the Federal Death Penalty (August 5, 2019)
- Louisiana Christian Faith Leaders Call for State to Abolish Death Penalty (April 25, 2019)
- Pittsburgh Rabbi’s Wife Opposes Death Penalty for Tree of Life Synagogue Killings (March 18, 2019)
- Orthodox Jewish Organization Calls for an End to Capital Punishment in the U.S. | Death Penalty Information Center (February 17, 2016)
- Baptist Theologian Says Death Penalty Does Not Fit With Christian Theology (March 8, 2016)
- Civil and Human Rights: Death Penalty — Church & Society, The United Methodist Church
- Religious Views: Over 150 Catholic Theologians Call for Repeal of the Death Penalty (September 27, 2011)
- Power Over Life and Death — The Power to Save a Life (January 15, 2005)
- Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice (November 2000)
- The Challenge of Holiness: A Sermon on the Death Penalty (January 10, 2000)
- General Assembly of the Texas Conference of Churches — Resolution Opposing the Death Penalty (February 24, 1998)
- Statement by Catholic Bishops of Texas on Capital Punishment (October 20, 1997)
- Catholic Church Expresses Strong Opposition to Capital Punishment in Catechism (September 9, 1997)
- Catholic Bishops of Iowa Issue Statement on Death Penalty (February 4, 1998)
- To End the Death Penalty: A Report of the National Jewish/Catholic Consultation
- Transcript of Dr. Pat Robertson’s Speech on the Role of Religion and the Death Penalty at The College of William and Mary
- Collection of Official Catholic Statements on the Death Penalty (1980)
FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
- UN experts call for universal abolition of the death penalty | OHCHR (October 9, 2023)
- Zambia Becomes 25th Sub-Saharan African Nation to Abolish Death Penalty (December 23, 2022)
- Belgium Wants a World Without the Death Penalty (October 20, 2022)
- As France Prepares to Assume Presidency of European Union, Emmanuel Macron Announces Initiative for Worldwide Abolition of Death Penalty (October 11, 2021)
- U.N. Secretary-General, European Union Ambassador Call for Abolition of “Barbaric” Death Penalty (October 11, 2017)
- European Union Calls for Abolition of Capital Punishment as World Coalition Hosts International Death Penalty Conference (June 27, 2017)
- U.N. Investigator Talks About the Future of Solitary and the Death Penalty (November 7, 2016)
- World Congress Against the Death Penalty Renews Call for Global Moratorium, Pope Sends Message of Support (June 27, 2016)
- Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the 400th execution in Texas from the Council of the European Union (August 21, 2007)
- Resolution Supporting Worldwide Moratorium on Executions from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (April 1999)
- Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights — Message to the Press Conference organized by the Death Penalty Information Center for the release of the report, “International Perspectives on the Death Penalty” (October 12, 1999)
- Status of the International Covenants on Human Rights from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (April 1998)
FROM ADVOCACY GROUPS
- Advocacy Group Tells Supreme Court that Negative Stereotypes Distort Perception that Latinos in Death-Penalty Cases Pose Future Danger to Society (April 15, 2022)
- Disability Rights Groups, Legal Experts, and Conservative Advocates Urge Supreme Court to Strike Down Georgia’s Uniquely Harsh Proof Requirements in Death-Penalty Intellectual Disabilities Cases (January 11, 2022)
- NAACP Reaffirms Its Support of Abolishing the Death Penalty (2022)
- More Than 80 Civil Rights and Advocacy Organizations Urge President Biden to End Federal Executions | Death Penalty Information Center (February 9, 2021)
- More Than 250 Conservative Leaders Join Call to End Death Penalty (October 29, 2019)
- National Alliance on Mental Illness: The Death Penalty
- Florida League of Women Voters Calls for Halt to Executions (May 28, 2007)
- Victims Organizations Issue Joint Statement for National Victims’ Rights Week (April 19, 2007)
FROM JUDGES, LEGISLATORS, AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
- Republican-led Oklahoma committee considers pause on executions amid death case scrutiny (October 5, 2023)
- Former Pro-Death Penalty District Attorney Explains Why He Now Supports Abolition, and Fears Political Promises to Expand the Use of the Death Penalty (August 20, 2023)
- Pressley, Durbin Reintroduce Bill to End the Federal Death Penalty (July 13, 2023)
- The Lancet Editorial: Physician Involvement in Executions Violates Medical Ethics | Death Penalty Information Center (May 20, 2023)
- APA calls for extending ineligibility for the death penalty to adolescent offenders younger than age 21 (August 4, 2022)
- Why some Republicans are turning against the death penalty | Ron Ferguson | Ohio House of Representatives (March 8, 2022)
- Eight years on Texas’ highest criminal court turned Elsa Alcala into a death penalty skeptic. How will the court change without her? (January 26, 2019)
- AMA to Supreme Court: Doctor participation in executions unethical (August 22, 2018)
- Former Governor Bill Richardson: Death Penalty Is Bad for Business, Out of Step With World’s Views (June 16, 2017)
- Capital Punishment and Nurses’ Participation in Capital Punishment (2016)
- Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro Says Death Penalty Unfixable, “Not Worth It Any More” (September 12, 2016)
- Resolution Supporting Repeal of the Death Penalty, National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (August 11, 2016)
- Retired Police Captain Says Repealing Death Penalty Is “Smart on Crime” (November 24, 2014)
- Resolution Supporting Abolition of the Death Penalty, Natl. Assoc. of Black Psychologists (2012)
- The Road to Justice and Peace by New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak (February 1, 2009)
- Statement On The Federal Death Penalty System by Senator Feingold (June 7, 2001)
- Statement on the Need for a Federal Moratorium on the Death Penalty Senator Feingold (October 29, 2000)
- Death Penalty: The Torah and Today (August 23, 2000)
- Press Release for Senator Russ Feingold’s Introduction of Senate’s First Death Penalty Moratorium Bill (April 20, 2000)
- Amnesty International Southern Regional Conference: Orlando, Florida Remarks by Former Florida Chief Justice Gerald Kogan (October 23, 1999)
- American Bar Association Resolution on the Death Penalty (February 3, 1997)
FROM MURDER VICTIMS’ FAMILY MEMBERS
Items: 4401 — 4410
Mar 26, 2010
Georgia High Court Allows Death Penalty Case to Proceed Despite Lack of Funding
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled on March 25 that the capital prosecution of Jamie Ryan Weis could proceed despite the defendant’s claims that a lack of state funding for capital defense has deprived him of effective representation and a speedy trial. Weis, who was arrested 4 years ago, was first appointed two defense lawyers with death penalty experience but the agency that funds defense lawyers in capital cases could not pay them. They were replaced by salaried public defenders who…
Read MoreMar 25, 2010
FOREIGN NATIONALS: British National Faces Execution in Texas
When citizens of other countries are arrested in the U.S., special notification procedures are required under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a treaty that the U.S. has signed and ratified. These same procedures apply to U.S. citizens arrested in other countries. There are over 130 people on death row in the U.S. from other countries, and many of them were not afforded their notification rights under the Vienna Convention. Linda Carty is a British national on Texas’ death row from…
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Mar 23, 2010
Texas Execution Approaches Without Critical DNA Testing (UPDATE: EXECUTION STAYED BY SUPREME COURT)
Texas is moving closer to carrying out the execution of Henry Skinner on March 24, despite the fact that critical evidence from the crime scene, which could point to a different suspect, has not been subjected to DNA testing . Many of the major state newspapers in Texas have editorialized for a delay to the execution to allow for the DNA testing. On March 22, the Texas Board of Parole and Pardons refused to recommend clemency for Skinner. Attorneys at the Capital Punishment Center at the…
Read MoreMar 22, 2010
Historical North Carolina Exoneration Almost Never Happened
Gregory Taylor recently became the first person exonerated by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run agency in the country with the power to overturn convictions based on claims of innocence. Taylor had been convicted of the brutal murder of a prostitute, a crime for which he might have been executed in many states. In 1993, prosecutors relied partly on a lab report indicating that blood was found in Taylor’s SUV, which was found parked near the victim’s body. The…
Read MoreMar 19, 2010
Georgia’s Chief Justice Says Budget Cuts Threaten “Basic Constitutional Rights” of Defendants
The Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court recently warned that cuts to the state budget are making it increasingly difficult for courts to carry out their constitutionally mandated duties. Chief Justice Carol Hunstein stated that the court’s backlog has grown as money has dwindled. “The consequences of these cuts … hit everyone, threatening the basic constitutional rights of civil litigants and criminal defendants as core court functions go by the wayside.” Death penalty cases, which are…
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Mar 18, 2010
EDITORIAL: “Death Row’s Elimination Would Save State Money”
A recent editorial in the Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review called for elimination of the death penalty in light of its high costs and the state’s tight budget. Executions are uncertain and delayed by the necessity of appeals to ensure the constitutionality of the trial. The editorial cited a study by the Washington Bar Association that identified over $600,000 in additional costs for a capital case: “death penalty cases are estimated to generate roughly $470,000 in additional costs to the…
Read MoreMar 17, 2010
NEW RESOURCES: Slide Presentation of Police Chiefs’ Views on the Death Penalty
The results of a poll of police chiefs recently featured in DPIC’s report “Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis” is now available in the form of a slide presentation on the Web, suitable for use in workshops or discussion groups. The poll, commissioned by DPIC and conducted by R.T. Strategies of Washington, DC, surveyed a national sample of 500 randomly selected U.S. police chiefs on questions regarding the death penalty and reducing violent crime.
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Mar 16, 2010
LAW REVIEWS: Challenging the Constitutionality of the Federal Death Penalty
A recent article in the Akron Law Review asks whether the Federal Death Penalty Act (FDPA) is in compliance with the Sixth Amendment’s right to confront witnesses because it allows hearsay evidence in determining whether a defendant is eligible for the death penalty. During a typical criminal trial, the accused has the right to challenge and cross examine the testimony of state witnesses who must appear in person. But in a death penalty case, the FDPA allows statements of witnesses not present…
Read MoreMar 15, 2010
REPRESENTATION: Underfunded Georgia Capital Case Still Waiting for Trial After Five Years
Lawyers for Khanh Dinh Phan asked the Georgia Supreme Court to dismiss the charges against him or to bar the state from seeking the death penalty because the state has been unable to pay for Phan’s defense. After his arrest in 2005, Chris Adams and Bruce Harvey were appointed to represent Phan. “The state of Georgia has made Mr. Harvey and myself potted plants,” Adams recently said. “We are lawyers in name only. … The state of Georgia has failed, and failed miserably, in this case.” The case…
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Mar 12, 2010
INTERNATIONAL-NEW VOICES: Taiwan Justice Minister Resigns Rather Than Sign Death Warrants
Taiwan’s Minister of Justice, Wang Ching-feng, recently resigned from her post after expressing her strong opposition to the country’s death penalty. Since her position was essential to her beliefs but incompatible with those of Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou and some members of her own political party, she decided not to continue in office. “I would rather step down than sign any death warrant,” she said. “If these convicts can have an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves, I would be very…
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