Publications & Testimony

“Commission members unanimously recommend that the current moratorium on the death penalty be extended,” said a nearly 300-page report published by the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission in 2017. More than six years later, almost none of the 45 recommendations have been implemented. Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester, one of three co-chairs of the Commission, reiterated the call for a moratorium in a November 27, 2023 letter to the editors of nondoc.com. “Whether you support…

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sandra Babcock (pictured), Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School, Faculty Director, and founder of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. Ms. Babcock’s clinic currently represents death sentenced women in the United States, Malawi, and Tanzania and is focused on providing defense teams in retentionist countries with training and consultation in order to provide the best possible legal…

On November 20, Florida Circuit Judge Heidi Davis sentenced Joshua McClellan to life in prison after a non-unanimous jury returned a recommendation of death in September by a 10 – 2 vote. Judge Davis noted the mitigation evidence presented by Mr. McClellan’s defense, including mental health evaluations and testimony regarding his traumatic upbringing, as an explanation for her decision. Mr. McClellan was one of the first defendants to receive a non-unanimous death recommendation under a new law…

U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released its latest report for the year 2021, confirming a continued decrease in the number of people on death rows in the United States. The BJS report, Capital Punishment, 2021 – Statistical Tables, released in November 2023, indicates that 2,382 people were under sentence of death in the custody of states and the federal government in 2021, a 3% decrease in the national death row population from 2020. This total marks the first…

The Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole will consider at least two additional applications for clemency on November 27, following a tumultuous year in which nearly all Louisiana death row prisoners sought clemency in response to outgoing Governor John Bel Edwards voicing his personal opposition to the death penalty. Under the Louisiana Constitution, Governor Edwards cannot grant clemency without a recommendation from the Board; he asked the Board to set hearings so that he could…

On November 13, 2023, officials announced that the U.S. Army had overturned the convictions of 110 Black soldiers of the 3^rd Battalion, 24^th Infantry Regiment, who were charged with mutiny in connection with the racial violence that occurred during the 1917 Camp Logan rebellion. Nineteen Black soldiers were hanged following the court-martial ruling on December 11, 1917, which was the largest execution of military soldiers in history. In her statement, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth…

Victims’ families, retired Judge James Brogan, and former Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Gary Mohr have publicly expressed support for legislation pending in both the state Senate and House that would abolish the death penalty in Ohio. Dozens of victims’ family members signed onto a letter sent to Ohio legislators describing a “broken system” that “fails victims’ families.” The letter states: “In Ohio, the death penalty is a false promise that goes unfulfilled, leaving…

A death-sentenced prisoner whose appeal was lost for thirty years was resentenced to life with parole on November 14, 2023, when the Harris County, Texas District Attorney’s office said it is no longer pursuing the death penalty. Syed Rabbani, a Bangladeshi national, has been on death row since 1988 for a fatal Houston shooting. Mr. Rabbani filed his appeal in 1994, but it remained pending in the Harris County Court system until 2022, when the Harris County District Clerk’s Office rediscovered…

A recent article in the Post and Courier details research into the reasons why 18 death sentences have been overturned in South Carolina, finding one of the main reasons to be prosecutorial misconduct. Research found that 11 of the 18 prisoners received new sentences because of prosecutorial misconduct, while the other seven received new sentences after the decision in Atkins v. Virginia because they had intellectual disability. The Post and Courier’s research indicates that four of the 18 men…

Death-row exoneree Walter Ogrod’s federal lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia and members of the Philadelphia Police Department was settled for $9.1 million on November 3, 2023. Mr. Ogrod, who was exonerated in 2020 after 23 years on death row, was initially convicted in 1996 based on a coerced confession and false testimony from jailhouse informants in a case further tainted by police and prosecutorial misconduct and inadequate legal representation at trial. In a statement confirming the…