Publications & Testimony

The University of Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with sev­er­al human rights non­prof­its, recent­ly launched a data­base of for­eign nation­als sen­tenced to death or exe­cut­ed from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2021 in Asia and the Middle East. They found that Saudi Arabia leads the Middle East in sen­tenc­ing for­eign nation­als to death (385 peo­ple) and drug-traf­fick­ing (283), close­ly fol­lowed by mur­der (257), are the top crimes for which for­eign nation­als in the region are cap­i­tal­ly con­vict­ed. Among the for­eign nation­als sen­tenced to the death in the…

On December 18, 2023, attor­neys for Warren King, an intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled black man sen­tenced to death in Georgia in 1998, filed a peti­tion for a writ of cer­tio­rari in the United States Supreme Court, ask­ing the Court to review the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ rul­ing deny­ing Mr. King relief. The peti­tion states that ​“abun­dant evi­dence demon­strates that the pros­e­cu­tor dis­crim­i­nat­ed against Black and female jurors in select­ing [Mr.] King’s jury,” which vio­lates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Former Appling County pros­e­cu­tor John…

On January 22, the Supreme Court grant­ed cer­tio­rari to Richard Glossip, sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma, whose inno­cence case has received inter­na­tion­al atten­tion. Mr. Glossip’s exe­cu­tion had been sched­uled for May 18, 2023, before the Court issued a stay on May 5 pend­ing the out­come of his peti­tions for cer­tio­rari. Mr. Glossip’s case is unusu­al in that the State of Oklahoma con­ced­ed error and sup­ports his request for a new tri­al. However, Mr. Glossip was forced to peti­tion the Supreme Court when the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reject­ed a…

On January 16, 2024, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that pros­e­cu­tors reached a plea deal with Anderson Aldrich, the indi­vid­ual respon­si­ble for killing five and wound­ing dozens of oth­ers in the November 19, 2022, shoot­ing of Colorado’s Club Q, an LGBTQ+ bar in Colorado Springs. The United States Attorney’s Office ​“alleges that Aldrich com­mit­ted this attack because of actu­al or per­ceived sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion and gen­der iden­ti­ty of any per­son.” Aldrich will plead guilty to fifty fed­er­al hate crime charges and twen­ty-four firearm vio­la­tion charges in exchange for…

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with for­mer death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Anthony Graves. Exonerated from Texas’ death row in 2010, Mr. Graves has since become an advo­cate for crim­i­nal jus­tice reform, cre­at­ing the Anthony Graves Foundation, work­ing with the ACLU and Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and tes­ti­fy­ing before the U.S. Senate on prison con­di­tions. Mr. Graves has also authored an auto­bi­og­ra­phy titled Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul.

The Missouri Supreme Court is con­sid­er­ing how to apply a rarely used state law intend­ed to pre­vent wrong­ful exe­cu­tions. Marcellus Williams (pic­tured), a death row pris­on­er who main­tains his inno­cence, could face exe­cu­tion if the state’s high court allows Governor Mike Parson to dis­solve a board of inquiry that for­mer Governor Eric Greitens formed to exam­ine Mr. Williams’ inno­cence claims. Mr. Williams’ attor­neys argue that state law requires the board to pro­vide a report and rec­om­men­da­tion to the gov­er­nor, while Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey argues that Gov. Parson’s clemency…

On January 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will seek a death sen­tence for Payton Gendron, the then-18-year-old who killed 10 Black peo­ple at a Tops super­mar­ket in Buffalo, New York in 2022. This is the first cap­i­tal case autho­rized by Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Biden Administration’s DOJ. The announce­ment came twen­ty months after the mass shoot­ing and eleven months after Mr. Gendron pled guilty to state first degree mur­der charges and was sen­tenced to mul­ti­ple sen­tences of life with­out parole. Although New…

The first month of 2024 marks the start of new leg­isla­tive ses­sions for many states and a num­ber of new pro­pos­als per­tain­ing to the death penalty.

On January 10, 2024, U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker denied Kenneth ​“Kenny” Smith’s chal­lenge to Alabama’s intend­ed use of nitro­gen gas to exe­cute him. Although Mr. Smith plans to appeal, the rul­ing cur­rent­ly autho­rizes Alabama to use its new, untest­ed method of nitro­gen hypox­ia to exe­cute Mr. Smith on January 25.

In 2018, Pope Francis for­mal­ly revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church — its core teach­ings — to oppose the death penal­ty. Characterizing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as ​“an attack on the invi­o­la­bil­i­ty and dig­ni­ty of the per­son,” he wrote that the Catholic Church ​“works with deter­mi­na­tion for its abo­li­tion world­wide.” This revi­sion updat­ed a 1997 Catechism edit by Pope John Paul II that per­mit­ted the death penal­ty in rare cas­es where it was deemed ​“the only pos­si­ble way of effec­tive­ly defend­ing human lives against the unjust aggres­sor.” In the five years since Pope Francis affirmed…