Publications & Testimony

Texas’ old­est death-row pris­on­er, Carl Wayne Buntion (pic­tured), has filed a peti­tion with the state Board of Pardons and Parole seek­ing com­mu­ta­tion of his death sen­tence to life with­out parole. Buntion is cur­rent­ly sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 21,…

In the March 2022 episode of Discussions With DPIC, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Senior Lecturer Meredith Rountree speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about her study of the types of evi­dence that influ­ence juror deci­sion-mak­ing at the sen­tenc­ing stage of capital…

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the case of an Arizona death-row pris­on­er whose sen­tence was upheld by the state’s appel­late courts even though his tri­al judge uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly refused to inform the jury that he would be inel­i­gi­ble for parole if sen­tenced to life in prison. In an order issued March 28, 2021, the Court grant­ed John Montenegro Cruz​’s peti­tion to hear his case, but lim­it­ed its review to the ques­tion of whether the…

After more than a cen­tu­ry of efforts by civ­il rights lead­ers to make lynch­ing a fed­er­al crime, President Joe Biden on March 29, 2022 signed into law historic anti-lynching…

Idaho Governor Brad Little on March 25, 2022, signed into law an exe­cu­tion secre­cy bill that con­ceals from the pub­lic and the courts infor­ma­tion on the pro­duc­ers and sup­pli­ers of drugs used in exe­cu­tions in the…

The Kentucky State Senate has giv­en final leg­isla­tive approval to a bill that would make the Commonwealth the sec­ond U.S. state to bar the exe­cu­tion of peo­ple with serious mental…

Nearly 90 mem­bers of the Texas House of Representatives from across the ide­o­log­i­cal spec­trum have issued a bipar­ti­san call for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Greg Abbott to grant clemen­cy to death-row pris­on­er Melissa…

On March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed low­er court orders that had denied a Texas death-row prisoner’s request for his pas­tor to touch him and audi­bly pray dur­ing his exe­cu­tion. In rul­ing for John Henry Ramirez (pic­tured), the Court empha­sized Texas’ abil­i­ty to pre­vent any delay of his exe­cu­tion by sim­ply cre­at­ing rea­son­able pro­ce­dures to allow Ramirez the accom­mo­da­tions he seeks. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opin­ion of the…

An Ohio appeals court has ordered that death-row pris­on­er Tyrone Noling (pic­tured) be grant­ed access to pros­e­cu­tors’ and law enforce­ment files that may con­tain excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence that has been hid­den for decades from the…