Publications & Testimony

A June 2024 petition filed in the Prince William County, Virginia Circuit Court, accuses former Commonwealth Attorney (CA) Paul Ebert of withholding exculpatory evidence during the trial of Louis Jefferson Dukes Jr., who, along with his nephew Lonnie Weeks Jr., was convicted of murdering a state trooper in 1994 during a traffic stop. Mr. Dukes was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, while Mr. Weeks was found guilty, received the death penalty, and was executed in 2000. In the petition…

On June 4, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court set a September 24, 2024, execution date for death-sentenced prisoner Marcellus Williams (pictured), despite serious doubts that he was not involved in the murder for which he is incarcerated. The announcement came just hours after the state Supreme Court ruled that Governor Mike Parson did not violate any rules when he dissolved a board of inquiry established in June 2023 by his predecessor, Eric Greitens, to investigate Mr. William’s claim of…

On June 1, 2024, an Idaho jury sentenced Chad Daybell to death for the 2019 murders of his first wife and his second wife’s two youngest children. Mr. Daybell pleaded not guilty to multiple first-degree murder, fraud, and conspiracy charges, but after being found guilty, he chose to waive his right to present mitigating evidence during his sentencing hearing. With this decision, Mr. Daybell declined the opportunity to provide the jury with reasons why he should not be sentenced to death.

On May 7, 2024, Harm Reduction International (HRI) released a special global overview report on the use of the death penalty for drug offenses, which is a violation of international law because drug offenses do not meet the “most serious” crimes threshold. HRI found that by the end of 2023, there were 34 countries which still retained the death penalty for drug-related offenses; Pakistan was the only country to recently eliminate the death penalty for such offenses – the first country in more…

In April 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that lowered the threshold for juries to recommend death sentences from a unanimous vote to a vote of 8 – 4 in favor of death, and experts allege this law has resulted in a “quintessential game of chance” for those awaiting capital resentencing or trial. An amicus brief, or friend-of-the-court brief, submitted to the Florida Supreme Court argues that this change to the state’s death penalty process violates capital defendants’ rights…

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Lamont Hunter (pictured), a former Ohio death-sentenced prisoner who was wrongfully convicted of causing the death of his three-year-old son. After nearly 18 years of incarceration, Mr. Hunter was released from Ohio’s death row on June 15, 2023, after pleading guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his freedom. Since his release, Mr. Hunter has spoken widely about his experience with the criminal…

According to Amnesty International’s annual death penalty report for 2023, 16 countries carried out the 1,153 known executions last year, constituting the lowest number of executing countries on record with the organization but the highest recorded execution numbers since 2015. The 31% global increase in recorded executions is attributable to the 48% rise in executions in Iran (at least 853 executions), which accounted for 74% of recorded executions worldwide. Saudi Arabia came in second with…

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the impact of mental illness is keenly felt on death row: at least two in five people executed have a documented serious mental illness, and research suggests that many more death-sentenced prisoners are undiagnosed. A national majority, 60% of Americans, opposes executing people with serious mental illness. In the past two decades, science and medicine have contributed to a much better understanding of how serious mental illness, which refers to…

On May 3, 2024, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals announced its decision in the case of Christopher Henderson, a death-sentenced man who had been tried by an all-white jury in Madison County, Alabama, where the population is 24.6% Black. Prosecutors in his capital trial used peremptory strikes to remove six of the 10 qualified Black potential jurors and all remaining jurors of color. Mr. Henderson’s counsel from the Equal Justice Initiative identified evidence that the prosecutor’s strikes…

In a May 23, 2024 op-ed published in The Dallas Morning News, Brian Wharton, the retired supervising detective in Robert Roberson’s case, urged Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell to reexamine the case and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reexamine a pending motion on Mr. Roberson’s innocence claims, which have previously been denied. “It would be a terrible legacy for all of us to be associated with executing an innocent man based on a rush to judgment and bad science,”…