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

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY 

FROM ADVOCACY GROUPS

FROM JUDGES, LEGISLATORS, AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

FROM MURDER VICTIMSFAMILY MEMBERS

Items: 31 — 40


May 13, 2025

Lawyers Raise Concern as Autopsy Finds South Carolina’s Second Firing Squad Execution May Have Been Botched

On May 8, 2025, Mikal Deen Mahdi’s lawyers sub­mit­ted to the South Carolina Supreme Court the state pathol­o­gy report in his case which sug­gests that Mr. Mahdi’s exe­cu­tion last month by fir­ing squad did not go as planned. Pathologists report­ed that not only did Mr. Mahdi have two wounds as opposed to the antic­i­pat­ed three wounds from three South Carolina Corrections Department (SCDC) shoot­ers, but also that they missed the intend­ed tar­get over his heart, prolonging his…

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May 12, 2025

Iran Sees 75% Increase in Executions During First Four Months of 2025 over 2024

According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), there have been at least 343 exe­cu­tions in Iran in the first four months of 2025 — a 75% increase over the same peri­od in 2024, when 195 exe­cu­tions were record­ed. Secrecy remains an issue with less than 4%, or only 13 of the 343 exe­cu­tions, report­ed by offi­cial sources. In April alone, there were at least 110 exe­cu­tions, the high­est month­ly total yet this year. Trends iden­ti­fied in recent years appear to be sustained into…

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May 08, 2025

New Analysis: Capital Cases Overturned At Least Four Times Illustrate How Pervasive Prosecutorial Misconduct Contributes to High Cost of Death Penalty

The sin­gle most com­mon out­come for a death sen­tence in the mod­ern era is for it to be reversed on appeal due to a con­sti­tu­tion­al vio­la­tion. Most peo­ple whose sen­tences are reversed get resen­tenced to life in prison or less, but some pros­e­cu­tors per­sist in seek­ing new death sen­tences even after mul­ti­ple rever­sals. A Death Penalty Information Center analy­sis of the 14 peo­ple sen­tenced to death four or more times for the same crime finds that prosecutorial…

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May 06, 2025

New Analysis: How Race Affects Capital Charging and Sentencing of 18- to 20-Year-Olds

In com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 20th anniver­sary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s land­mark deci­sion end­ing the juve­nile death penal­ty, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) has released a new report: Immature Minds in a​“Maturing Society”: Roper v. Simmons at 20, detail­ing the grow­ing sup­port for the idea that indi­vid­u­als ages 18, 19, and 20 should receive the same age-appro­pri­ate con­sid­er­a­tions that juve­niles now receive in death penal­ty cas­es. The report also reveals…

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May 01, 2025

DPI’s Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Experts Discuss the Legacy of Roper v. Simmons

In this month’s pod­cast episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Professors Craig Haney and Frank Baumgartner, and DPI’s Staff Attorney Leah Roemer about the lega­cy of the US Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Roper v. Simmons and the legal and sci­en­tif­ic land­scape sur­round­ing the use of the death penal­ty for young adults ages 1820. Professors Baumgartner and Haney, along with fel­low researcher Karen Steele,…

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Apr 30, 2025

New DPI Report Examines the Legacy of Roper v. Simmons and Its Implications for 18- to 20-Year-Olds in Death Penalty Cases

In com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 20th anniver­sary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s land­mark deci­sion end­ing the juve­nile death penal­ty, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) today released a new report: Immature Minds in a​“Maturing Society”: Roper v. Simmons at 20, detail­ing grow­ing sup­port that indi­vid­u­als ages 18, 19, and 20 should receive the same age-appro­pri­ate con­sid­er­a­tions that juve­niles now receive in death penal­ty cas­es. > [T]here is no bright line regarding…

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Apr 24, 2025

Two New Law Review Articles Highlight Cause and Effect of Brady Violations

One fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ple of fair­ness upon which our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem relies is the notion that pros­e­cu­tors must dis­close excul­pa­to­ry, mate­r­i­al evi­dence favor­able to defen­dants. This Constitutional oblig­a­tion, estab­lished in Brady v. Maryland (1963), rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal safe­guard against wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Nevertheless, Brady vio­la­tions remain dis­turbing­ly com­mon, with dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for defen­dants who may spend years or…

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Apr 17, 2025

Guantanamo Judge Rules Government Cannot Use Confession Obtained Through Torture in 9/​11 Capital Case

On April 11, 2025, Judge Colonel Matthew McCall ruled that con­fes­sions elicit­ed from Ammar al-Baluchi, accused of con­spir­ing in the September 11th ter­ror­ism attacks, were the result of tor­ture car­ried out by the CIA and as a result can­not be used against Mr. al-Baluchi in any legal pro­ceed­ing. According to Col. McCall, Mr. al-Baluchi invol­un­tar­i­ly incrim­i­nat­ed him­self in 2007 after exten­sive​“psy­cho­log­i­cal con­di­tion­ing” through tor­ture and abuse during his…

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Apr 14, 2025

Amnesty International Global Report (2024): Lowest Number of Countries Carried Out Highest Number of Recorded Executions in a Decade

According to Amnesty International’s Annual Death Penalty Report, 15 coun­tries car­ried out 1,518 known exe­cu­tions in 2024, con­sti­tut­ing the low­est num­ber of exe­cut­ing coun­tries for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year and the high­est record­ed exe­cu­tion fig­ure since 2015, dri­ven by increas­es in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. 46 coun­tries imposed 2,087 new death sen­tences in 2024, a 14% decrease from the pri­or year; how­ev­er, changes in the acces­si­bil­i­ty of information…

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Apr 10, 2025

A Retreat from the Harshest Punishments for Emerging Adult Defendants

To com­mem­o­rate the 20th anniver­sary of the United States Supreme Court deci­sion that end­ed the juve­nile death penal­ty, DPI will release a report exam­in­ing the lega­cy of this deci­sion and its impli­ca­tions for emerg­ing adults. This arti­cle exam­ines one area of focus in the report: recent state courts deci­sions that have extend­ed legal pro­tec­tions to emerg­ing adults ages 18 to 20. In 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court empha­sized that​“youth matters”…

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