Publications & Testimony

This month, DPIC celebrates Black History Month with weekly profiles of notable Black Americans whose work affected the modern death penalty era. The first in the series is retired Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers. As a trailblazing figure in Nebraska politics, Ernest “Ernie” Chambers is best known for his unwavering commitment to justice and equality. Elected in 1970, Chambers served in the Nebraska state legislature for 46 years. Throughout his career, Chambers championed a variety of…

Today, February 8, marks the 100-year anniversary of the first lethal gas execution in the United States, exactly two weeks after Alabama carried out the first execution using nitrogen gas. On February 8, 1924, Nevada executed Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of killing the owner of a laundromat, using cyanide gas. A fellow prisoner, Thomas Russell, was also scheduled to be executed the same day but was resentenced to life by the Board of Pardons and Parole the previous evening. The gas…

The January 25, 2024 execution of Kenneth Smith in the state of Alabama with nitrogen gas received widespread international condemnation. The European Union reiterated its commitment to abolishing the death penalty and called the execution method a “particularly cruel and unusual punishment.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, stated: “I deeply regret the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama despite serious concerns that this novel and untested method of suffocation…

On February 6, 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Owens v. Stirling, a case in which death-sentenced prisoners challenged the state’s electrocution and firing squad execution methods as unconstitutional. A South Carolina trial court had previously held an extensive evidentiary hearing and issued an injunction against use of those methods based on the state’s constitutional prohibition against “cruel,” “unusual,” or “corporal” punishments. For almost 90 minutes the…

Two of the 196 people who have been exonerated from death row in the U.S. died in a two-week span in January 2024. Their cases highlight the human costs of wrongful convictions and the challenges faced by exonerees. Clifford Williams, Jr. (pictured, left), who was wrongfully incarcerated for 42 years in Florida, died January 11, less than five years after he was freed. Michael Graham, Jr. (pictured, below), who spent 14 years on death row in Louisiana before being exonerated in 2000, died…

On Tuesday, January 30, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced new legislation to authorize the use of nitrogen gas in executions in the state. Joined by several Republican state representatives and Louis Tobin of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, AG Yost said that he is seeking to “kickstart” Ohio’s death penalty after a six-year pause in executions due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs. “The status quo is unacceptable,” he said. According to the text of the…

On January 26, 2024, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in the St. Louis County Circuit Court, asking the Court to vacate Marcellus Williams’ death sentence. Mr. Williams was sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 killing of local newspaper reporter, Felicia Gayle, but has maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration. No physical evidence tied Mr. Williams to the crime and the trial court judge refused to allow DNA testing of some of the evidence…

In a new article from Bolts, journalist Daniel Nichanian writes about the dearth of candidates in Ohio’s county prosecutor elections. “Of the 27 counties with more than 100,000 residents in Ohio, 70 percent drew just one candidate” to run for election or reelection as county prosecutor. Only 15 of Ohio’s 88 prosecutor elections this year drew multiple candidates by the December deadline, according to Bolts’ research: “This means that the vast majority of the state’s prosecuting attorneys are…

On January 26, 2024, the Louisiana Supreme Court granted a new trial to death-sentenced prisoner Darrell Robinson based on egregious prosecutorial misconduct. The Court held that Mr. Robinson “did not receive a fair trial, or a verdict worthy of confidence.” Mr. Robinson’s quest to prove his innocence advances at the same time that Governor Jeff Landry seeks to expand the state’s methods of execution and restart executions. During a tumultuous 2023 in which outgoing Governor John Bel Edwards…

On January 23, 2024, attorneys for Utah death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies, who has been diagnosed with a major neurocognitive disorder known as vascular dementia, filed a petition in state court alleging he is incompetent to be executed. Mr. Menzies, who uses a walker to navigate the prisons, has been on Utah’s death row for nearly 36 years. On January 17, 2024, Utah’s attorney general’s office filed a motion with courts to set an execution date for him and indicated it will use the firing…