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: 41 — 50
Jul 23, 2026
Death-Sentenced Prisoner Asks Tennessee Supreme Court to Conditionally Stay Execution as State Refuses to Disclose Whether it Will Use Same Physician from Botched May Execution
On July 20, 2026, attorneys for death-sentenced prisoner Darrell Hines, in a new filing, asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to conditionally stay Mr. Hines’ August 13 execution date because the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) has refused to identify whether it will use the same physician involved in the state’s failed execution attempt of Tony Carruthers. Pointing to an extreme risk of pain and suffering, as evidenced by Mr. Carruthers’ botched execution, counsel for Mr. Hines has…
Read MoreJul 22, 2026
Idaho Death-Sentenced Prisoners Challenge “Arbitrary” and “Capricious” Firing Squad Protocol
In March, the Idaho legislature passed a law exempting execution procedures from administrative oversight requirements — seemingly designed to undermine a pending lawsuit filed by death-sentenced prisoner Gerald Pizzuto. After the firing squad took effect as Idaho’s primary execution method on July 1, Mr. Pizzuto, alongside fellow prisoner Thomas Creech, again sued the state on July 6 for alleged administrative violations. Mr. Pizzuto initially sued the state in 2024 based on a lethal injection…
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Jul 21, 2026
What to Know: Prosecutorial Misconduct and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: More than 600 capital convictions or death sentences have been overturned or led to exonerations because of prosecutorial misconduct, and researchers say the true scope of the problem is likely far greater. DPI has identified more than 600 instances in which a capital conviction or death…
Read MoreJul 20, 2026
Florida Sets Two Executions for the Same Day, Ignoring Serious Concerns About the Innocence of One Man and Elderly Status of the Second Man
On July 14, 2026, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the rescheduling of James Duckett’s execution for July 28 — the same day the state is set to carry out the execution of Dominick Occhicone. If both executions go forward, it would be the first time in the modern era of the death penalty that Florida has carried out two executions in one day, and make Mr. Occhicone the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history, breaking the record set by Dennis Sochor’s execution just two weeks…
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Jul 16, 2026
What to Know: Innocence and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: The death penalty is an irreversible punishment, and the United States has convicted, condemned, and in some cases executed people despite credible evidence of their innocence. 203 people have been exonerated from death row since 1973, across 30 states. A peer-reviewed study estimated…
Read MoreJul 15, 2026
Murder Victim’s Daughter and Faith Leaders Urge Kansas Governor to Commute Death Sentences
In a July 8, 2026 op-ed published in the Kansas Reflector, Celeste Dixon, a retired U.S. Navy reservist and National Park Service employee who lives in Pawnee County, Kansas, calls on Governor Laura Kelly to commute the sentences of the nine men on Kansas’ death row to life without parole. Writing from personal experience, Ms. Dixon notes that nearly 40 years ago, her mother, Marguerite, was murdered in Texas; almost 19 years ago, the individual who killed her mother was executed. Ms. Dixon…
Read MoreJul 14, 2026
Nearly 71 Years After Her Execution, Ruth Ellis, the Last Woman Executed in the UK, Receives Conditional Pardon from King Charles
On July 8, 2026, King Charles, following the advice of Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, granted a posthumous conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis, converting her death sentence to a term of life imprisonment. Ms. Ellis was originally sentenced to death for the April 10, 1955 murder of her romantic partner David Blakely, and she was the last woman hanged in the United Kingdom on July 13, 1955. A press release from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice explains that this decision represents “an…
Read MoreJul 13, 2026
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee Says Lethal Injection Executions Will Proceed as Scheduled, Despite Recent Botch and Mounting Concerns
On July 7, 2026, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told members of the media that the state’s scheduled executions will proceed without any changes to the lethal injection protocol, despite the state’s failed attempt to execute Tony Carruthers in May. Gov. Lee stated that the execution team followed the proper protocol during the attempted execution and that the problem was with locating a suitable vein for an IV line, rather than with the protocol itself. “I think, as we have observed, everything…
Read MoreJul 09, 2026
Article of Interest: A Close Look at Florida’s Execution Spree
A June 30 article by Pamela Colloff, co-published in ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, investigates Florida’s record-setting pace of executions over the past 18 months, even as the rest of the country largely “abandons” the death penalty. Ms. Colloff uses data from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) to emphasize Florida’s outlier status, while exploring the political implications of the execution spree and its impact on the people involved. As DPI has documented, executions…
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Jul 08, 2026
DPI’s 2026 Mid-Year Update: Jurors Continue to Reject Death Sentences Amidst Increased Secrecy and Disinformation
Introduction False statements by government officials. Media witnesses banned from viewing executions. New laws passed to evade judicial review. During the first six months of 2026, the Death Penalty Information Center documented new efforts to conceal critical details about the death penalty — even as some government officials sought to increase and expand its use. These efforts are best understood when the truth about the death penalty and executions is viewed as a threat to its acceptance — an…
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