Publications & Testimony

Black-led organizations are opposing legislative efforts in several states to reintroduce or expand use of the death penalty. Lawmakers in Illinois and New Jersey have introduced legislation to reinstate the death penalty, while other legislators in Tennessee and Florida have proposed bills which would increase its use. Tennessee Senate Bill 1112 would require an execution to be carried out within 30 days of sentencing. Governor DeSantis recently signed legislation that nullified jury unanimity…

Florida’s recent decision to allow death sentences without a unanimous jury recommendation increases the risk of executing an innocent person, according to conservative commentator Christian Schneider (pictured). In a May 25, 2023 column for The National Review, Schneider argues that conservatives should oppose the law that allows a death sentence to be imposed when only eight jurors agree. “For every case in which guilt is a foregone conclusion, there are many others in which the facts are…

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s (pictured) decision to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 on May 29 has drawn widespread international criticism. The new law prescribes that people convicted of “aggravated homosexuality” may now be punished with a death sentence. Although same-sex relationships were already illegal in the country, the new law, which passed with the support of 341 out of 389 members of parliament, includes harsher punishments for “promoting” homosexuality and engaging in…

In the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, interviews Dr. Sally Satel (pictured), a psychiatrist and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She shares her insights on the role of severe mental illness in death penalty cases. Dr. Satel discusses the reasons that permit death sentences and executions for individuals with severe mental illness, which she wrote about in an op-ed for the National Review. “I don’t think it’s civilized to…

On May 25, 2023, 12 death-qualified jurors and six alternates were selected in the federal capital trial of Robert Bowers, who is charged with killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. Prosecutors struck all the Black, Hispanic, and Jewish venire members. As testimony begins on May 30, some victims’ family members have expressed support for capital punishment, while others have objected. Seven of the nine families who lost a relative expressed support for the death penalty in a…

“[W]e have come over time to see the flaws in our nation’s justice system and to view the state’s death penalty laws in particular as legally and morally troubling,” wrote two former governors of Alabama in an op-ed for the Washington Post. Republican Robert Bentley (pictured, right) and Democrat Don Siegelman (pictured, left) agree that the 146 people whose death sentences were imposed by non-unanimous juries or judicial override should have their sentences commuted. “We missed our chance to…

Former federal Oklahoma prosecutors Patrick Ryan and Daniel Webber co-authored an editorial in The Oklahoman on May 17, 2023 expressing serious concerns about Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence. The writers noted that a prosecutor’s duty “is not to win a case, but to ensure justice is done,” and concluded that “the state did not follow these fundamental principles in obtaining Richard Glossip’s 1998 and 2004 convictions and death sentences.” The former prosecutors collectively…

Iran continues to use the death penalty in violation of international law, including death sentences for crimes failing to meet the “most serious” crime threshold, the use of torture, and performing public executions. According to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), there have been at least 277 executions thus far in 2023, with at least 106 executions in the first 20 days of May, constituting the “bloodiest month” in more than five years. “What we’re witnessing in Iran are not executions, but…

A May 20, 2023 editorial in a leading medical academic journal concludes that physician participation in executions “goes against the ethical foundation of the physician’s role” and argues that doctors and medical associations should oppose capital punishment. The editorial in The Lancet describes how many physicians currently participate in executions: Doctors “clinically assess mental competence for execution; physically examine and monitor vital signs before, during, and after execution…

The number of people sentenced to death or facing the possibility of a death sentence in pending capital retrial or resentencing proceedings continued its more than two-decade decline in the third quarter of last year, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) Summer 2022 quarterly census of death rows across the United States. In its recently issued Summer 2022 edition of Death Row USA (DRUSA), LDF reported that the number of people on U.S. state, federal, or military…