Publications & Testimony

On December 9, 2024, the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a tem­po­rary stay for Kevin Underwood’s clemen­cy hear­ing sched­uled that same-day with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, which is lack­ing its full five-mem­ber com­pli­ment after two res­ig­na­tions in recent months and one last minute addi­tion on December 6. This deci­sion marks the sec­ond time Mr. Underwood’s clemen­cy hear­ing has been can­celed. Meanwhile, Mr. Underwood, age 44, is fac­ing a December 19 execution…

In let­ters released on December 9, 2024, hun­dreds of stake­hold­ers urged President Joe Biden (pic­tured) to com­mute all fed­er­al death sen­tences before his term ends, cit­ing racial bias, sys­temic arbi­trari­ness, and the fail­ure of the fed­er­al death penal­ty to enhance pub­lic safe­ty. This col­lec­tive request reflects broad, bipar­ti­san acknowl­edge­ment of the flaws in the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem and aligns with the nation­al down­ward trend of sup­port for the death…

The state of Indiana is sched­uled to car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion in 15 years on December 18, 2024, with the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran (pic­tured). Sentenced to death for the 1997 mur­ders of four peo­ple, includ­ing his broth­er, Mr. Corcoran has a long his­to­ry of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. He has been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia, which includes symp­toms of hal­lu­ci­na­tions and delu­sions, and mul­ti­ple experts have tes­ti­fied that he is incom­pe­tent to face…

According to num­bers report­ed by Agence France-Presse, Saudi Arabia exe­cut­ed 303 peo­ple in 2024 — the nation’s high­est ever total, and cur­rent­ly the sec­ond high­est known exe­cu­tion total world­wide for this year. November alone saw the exe­cu­tion of more than 100 for­eign nation­als, near­ly triple the num­ber in each of the past two years. UN human rights experts expressed con­cern fol­low­ing the December 3 exe­cu­tion of three Egyptian nation­als, call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to halt the pending…

For near­ly 35 years, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) has served the pub­lic, the media, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, attor­neys, and edu­ca­tors with data and analy­sis on issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the peo­ple it affects. DPI is entire­ly sup­port­ed by the gen­eros­i­ty of foun­da­tions and indi­vid­ual donors, like you. If our work is valu­able to you, please con­sid­er mak­ing a tax-deductible dona­tion here or set­ting up a recur­ring month­ly donation via…

Arizona…

Turkeys​“Peach” and​“Blossom” outside of…

In a Washington Post op-ed, Chanel Shum, a mem­ber of September 11^th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, explains her sup­port of plea agree­ments that would end decades of legal uncer­tain­ty and sen­tence three of the accused 9/​11 defen­dants to life with­out parole. Ms. Shum was start­ing preschool when her father, See Wong Shum, was killed in the September 11 terrorist…

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPI, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Beth Shelburne, a jour­nal­ist who has report­ed on the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem for over 25 years and cre­ator of the pod­cast Earwitness. Released in 2023 to crit­i­cal acclaim, Earwitness tells the sto­ry of Toforest Johnson, a death-sen­­tenced man who is fac­ing exe­cu­tion in Alabama despite strong evi­dence of his inno­cence. On November 14, 2024, Mr. Johnson filed…