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: 681 — 690
Aug 01, 2023
8th Circuit Lift Stay of Execution for Death-Sentenced Missouri Prisoner with Schizophrenia
On July 29, 2023, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a temporary stay of execution that had been issued for Johnny Johnson, a death-sentenced prisoner in Missouri. Mr. Johnson’s attorneys allege that he is insane and therefore ineligible for execution. Barring a last-minute stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Johnson will be executed by lethal injection on August 1, 2023, for the 2002 killing of 6‑year-old Casey Williamson. Attorneys for Mr. Johnson assert that his longstanding, severe…
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Jul 31, 2023
RESOURCE HIGHLIGHT: New Restorative Justice Webpage
The Death Penalty Information Center has created a webpage dedicated to restorative justice, a sentencing alternative in criminal cases, including limited use in death penalty cases. This resource highlights the foundations of restorative justice, common approaches, recent studies related to the practice, and examples of its use. As discussions surrounding the death penalty have shifted away from moral arguments, the comparison of capital punishment to its viable alternatives has conversely…
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Jul 28, 2023
Louisiana Pardon Board Declines to Consider 56 Death Row Clemency Petitions Without Merits Review
On July 24, 2023, the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Parole set aside all 56 clemency applications filed by nearly every death-sentenced prisoner in Louisiana last month without reviewing the merits of a single one of them. The prisoners asked for their sentences to be commuted to life without parole, but the Board made its decision to return the applications based on an advisory, nonbinding opinion from the Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. Attorneys for death row prisoners have…
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Jul 27, 2023
Alabama executes James Barber as SCOTUS denies a stay
On July 21, 2023, Alabama death row prisoner James Barber was executed two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his motion for a stay in a 6 – 3 decision. This marks the state’s first execution since a series of three botched executions in 2022 and an internal investigation into the Alabama Department of Corrections’ (ADOC) execution protocol. Mr. Barber’s lawyers initially requested discovery into ADOC’s internal review but were denied. They subsequently filed a motion to stay the…
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Jul 26, 2023
NEW RESOURCES: Capital Punishment and the State of Criminal Justice 2023
The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section has announced its forthcoming annual report, The State of Criminal Justice 2023, examining the state of the American criminal legal system. The annual publication includes a chapter devoted to significant developments in capital punishment, authored by Ronald J. Tabak, co-chair of the Death Penalty Committee of the ABA’s Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice and a longtime member of the Steering Committee of the ABA’s Death Penalty…
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Jul 25, 2023
New DPIC Podcast: Kirk Bloodsworth, Thirty Years After His Exoneration
In the July 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, speaks with Kirk Bloodsworth (pictured), the first person exonerated from death row by DNA evidence. Mr. Bloodsworth reflects on the thirty years since his exoneration and discusses the experience of being wrongfully convicted. He also describes the work he and other exonerees have done, and how the issue of innocence has affected legislation on the death penalty. Though DNA testing has become more…
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Jul 24, 2023
Florida Man with Severe Mental Illness Waives Appeals, Faces August 3rd Execution Date
A week after Governor Ron DeSantis scheduled his execution, Florida death-sentenced prisoner James Barnes (pictured) discharged his lawyers and waived his appeals. His execution will now proceed on August 3, 2023. Since February 23, 2023, Florida has executed four prisoners. Mr. Barnes will be the fifth prisoner executed by Florida this year and the tenth volunteer executed. In 2007, Mr. Barnes was sentenced to death for the murder and rape of Patsy Miller. He was serving a life sentence…
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Jul 21, 2023
Texas Jury Sentences ex-USBP Agent Who Committed Two Murders to Life Without Parole Instead of Death
On July 18, 2023, after about nine hours of deliberation, a Texas jury sentenced former Supervisory United States Border Patrol agent Ronald Anthony Burgos-Aviles, age 34, to life without parole (LWOP) instead of death for the 2018 double murder of Grizelda Hernandez, age 27, and their son Dominic Alexander, age 1. This sentencing verdict occurred in a high-use death penalty state; Texas has carried out the greatest number of executions, at 583, of any state since 1976. But over the last two…
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Jul 20, 2023
Judge Rules Tennessee Statute Which Expands Attorney General Authority in Death Penalty Cases is Unconstitutional
On July 17, 2023, a Shelby County Criminal Court judge struck down a new statute, passed by the Tennessee Legislature in April 2023, to expand authority of the appointed state attorney general in death penalty cases. Judge Paula Skahan ruled that the law unconstitutionally removes the power of the locally elected district attorney. Some attorneys and lawmakers who disagreed with the new statute earlier expressed concerns that the new law targeted progressive district attorneys who were…
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Jul 19, 2023
Alabama Plans to Resume Executions After Series of Botches; Oklahoma Execution Scheduled for Same Day
Two of the nation’s highest-use death penalty states have scheduled executions for July 20, 2023. Alabama is set to execute James Barber (pictured, left), resuming executions after Governor Kay Ivey halted them in November 2022 in response to three consecutive botched executions. Oklahoma plans to execute Jemaine Cannon (pictured, right), one of the 25 people included in the two-year execution spree announced in 2022. If Alabama proceeds with the execution of James Barber, it will be the first…
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