Publications & Testimony

In July 2023, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) released its report and position statement on mental health and the death penalty. The issues addressed in the report include: the imposition of the death penalty on prisoners with mental illness or developmental and intellectual disabilities, the overrepresentation of death-sentenced prisoners who have been socioeconomically marginalized, and the role of psychiatrists in death penalty cases. In alignment with the principles established in…

On September 26, 2023, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that he would not seek the death penalty in the case of slain Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer. “If I thought that the death penalty was going to stop people from committing brutal murders, I would seek it. But we know that it won’t,” said Gascón at a news conference, “The reality is that the death penalty doesn’t serve as a deterrent, and the death penalty does not bring people back. …What I can assure you…

A recent analysis by Bloomberg Law concluded that death-sentenced prisoners have fewer avenues to relief at the Supreme Court than ever before. Bloomberg identified 270 emergency requests to stay executions since 2013 and found that the Court agreed to block an execution just 11 times. Since 2020, when the Court shifted to a 6 – 3 conservative majority following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Court has granted just two stays of…

On October 2, the first day of its new term, the Supreme Court denied review in two high-profile death penalty cases: Toforest Johnson and Robert Roberson. Both men have long maintained their innocence and have garnered broad bipartisan support for their innocence claims. In Alabama, Mr. Johnson’s conviction was largely based on an “earwitness” who received a monetary award after her testimony, a fact that was not revealed until seventeen years later. Mr. Johnson was convicted of the 1995…

On September 28, 2023, the Western District Court of Texas ruled that the state cannot execute Scott Panetti (pictured), a death row prisoner with a decades-long history of serious mental health issues and a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Despite a state expert conceding Mr. Panetti’s serious mental illness, Texas argued that he is competent to face execution because he has “some degree” of rational understanding. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled, however, that “[Mr.] Panetti is not sane…

On September 21, 2023, a military judge in Guantanamo Bay ruled that Ramzi Bin al Shibh, one of five defendants in the 9/11 case for whom the death penalty is being sought, is mentally incompetent to stand trial. Mr. Bin al Shibh, who has been detained for 21 years, will remain in custody at Guantanamo as authorities attempt to treat the post-traumatic stress disorder caused when he was forced to undergo “enhanced interrogations” by the U.S. government. “[T]he totality of the facts…

On September 18, 2023, former Texas death-sentenced prisoner Clinton Young filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the Western District of Texas, accusing two Midland County district attorneys, the prosecutor on his case, and Midland County itself, for violating his constitutional right to a fair trial. Just four months after his 18^th birthday in 2001, Mr. Young and two others, David Page and Darnell McCoy, went on a drug-induced spree that resulted in the deaths of two individuals. In 2003…

In the September 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, speaks with Pastor Rich Nathan (pictured), founding pastor of Vineyard Columbus, an evangelical Christian church based in Ohio. Mr. Nathan shares how religious teachings inform his position on the death penalty. “For me, the opposition to capital punishment has just been a natural extension of our pro-life position of building an inclusive society, a society that welcomes everyone into the human…

On September 26, 2023, the New York Metropolitan Opera will premiere “Dead Man Walking” created by American composer Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally and featuring a new staging by Ivo van Hove. The opera is based on Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 memoir which details her journey as a pen pal and spiritual adviser to a death-sentenced prisoner at Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. It is the most performed contemporary opera in the world. “I can only think that somehow we told this human drama very…

On September 19^th, 2023, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and the South Carolina Department of Corrections issued a joint statement informing the public that the state is “now prepared” to carry out lethal injection executions, as they have retained the drug needed to do so. Gov. McMaster and Department of Corrections officials filed a brief with the South Carolina Supreme Court, notifying the courts of their procurement of pentobarbital, a sedative that can be lethal in high doses, and…