Publications & Testimony

Beginning February 28, 2024, a Johnston County, North Carolina, trial court will hear death row prisoner Hasson Bacote’s claims that racial discrimination in jury selection played a role in his capital sentencing. In 2009, North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act (RJA), which allowed death-sentenced prisoners to challenge their sentences if they could demonstrate that race played a role in their sentencing and jury selection. Sentenced to death in 2009 by a nearly all-white jury, Mr.

This month, DPIC celebrates Black History Month with weekly profiles of notable Black Americans whose work affected the modern death penalty era. The third in this series is former Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, who died on December 12, 2023. Craig Watkins, a former defense attorney, was elected as Texas’ first Black district attorney and was the creator of the nation’s first Conviction Integrity Unit. He served two terms as Dallas County District Attorney, from 2007 – 2015.

Ivan Cantu is scheduled to be executed on February 28, 2024, although Texas courts have refused to consider new evidence in his case that may prove he was wrongfully convicted. Mr. Cantu was sentenced to death in Collin County for the murder of his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée in November 2000. Texas scheduled an execution date for Mr. Cantu in April 2023, but a last-minute appeal describing new evidence of false witness testimony provided grounds for a stay of execution. However, the Texas…

Florida death-row exoneree Robert DuBoise (pictured) will receive $14 million from the city of Tampa as compensation for the 37 years he was incarcerated for a rape and murder he did not commit. On February 15, 2024, the Tampa City Council unanimously voted to approve the settlement. The settlement resolved a 2021 suit Mr. DuBoise filed against the City of Tampa, four Tampa police officers, and the forensic odontologist who testified against him. The suit alleged that the officers and…

In a February 14, 2024 op-ed published in the Washington Post, the longtime defense lawyer, former director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, and law professor Stephen Bright highlights the continued illegal exclusion of Black jurors in violation of Batson v. Kennedy (1986). The op-ed titled, “Struck from a jury for being Black? It still happens all too often,” uses the case of Georgia death-sentenced prisoner Warren King, whose petition the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to review on…

This month, DPIC celebrates Black History Month with weekly profiles of notable Black Americans whose work affected the modern death penalty era. The second in the series is Professor Jennifer Eberhardt. Jennifer Eberhardt, a professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant,” studies the relationship between race and sentencing. Her book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, uncovers implicit biases in all…

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Keri Blakinger, a journalist at the Los Angeles Times and former reporter for the Marshall Project — a nonprofit news organization focused on the U.S. criminal justice system. At the Marshall Project, Ms. Blakinger wrote stories about the human beings in the criminal justice system — a focus that is still a priority in her reporting with the Los Angeles Times. Ms. Blakinger’s personal experience with…

On February 13, 2024, the 3^rd District Court of Salt Lake City, Utah ruled that evidence presented by Ralph Menzies’ attorneys of his dementia and cognitive decline requires a formal assessment of his competency to face execution by firing squad. With its decision, the court also vacated a hearing scheduled for February 23, at which the state of Utah intended to request an execution warrant for Mr. Menzies. As explained in his request for a competency hearing, Mr. Menzies has been diagnosed…

On February 9, 2024, the Idaho Supreme Court unanimously dismissed two state appeals for 73-year-old Thomas Creech, thereby denying his requests for a stay of execution. Mr. Creech, who has been on death row for more than 40 years, has also requested a new clemency hearing. He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on February 28, which would be Idaho’s first execution since 2012. The justices upheld the district court’s denial, agreeing that both appeals were not filed in a timely…

Robert Badinter, a fierce defender of human rights, defense lawyer, and former French justice minister who led the effort to abolish the death penalty in his country, died on February 9, 2024. Mr. Badinter influenced many legal changes, including laws that decriminalized homosexuality, improved prison conditions, and advocated for his own particular concept of justice. As a defense lawyer, Mr. Badinter witnessed the execution of one of his clients, and vividly recalled the horrors involved with…