Publications & Testimony

In the January 2022 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Contra Costa County, California District Attorney Diana Becton (pic­tured), speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about the rise in reform pros­e­cu­tors across the coun­try, the inher­ent flaws in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment that led her to work along­side oth­er reform pros­e­cu­tors to end the death penal­ty, and her efforts as dis­trict attor­ney to bring fair­ness and equi­ty to the criminal…

A coali­tion of dis­abil­i­ty rights groups, legal experts, and con­ser­v­a­tive advo­cates are urg­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the unique­ly harsh bur­den of proof Georgia has imposed upon defen­dants seek­ing to estab­lish their inel­i­gi­bil­i­ty for the death penal­ty because of intellectual…

An Alabama fed­er­al judge has issued an order halt­ing the sched­uled January 27, 2022 exe­cu­tion of Matthew Reeves…

As 2021 came to a close, edi­to­r­i­al writ­ers in four death penal­ty states called for leg­isla­tive and exec­u­tive action to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment or fur­ther limit its…

On January 6, 1959, Richard and Mildred Loving were con­vict­ed on felony charges of ​“mis­ce­gena­tion” under Virginia​’s Racial Integrity Act, which crim­i­nal­ized inter­ra­cial mar­riage. The tri­al court sen­tenced them to one year in prison but sus­pend­ed the sen­tence con­di­tioned upon their leav­ing Virginia and not return­ing togeth­er for 25 years. The court…

A for­mer con­ser­v­a­tive fed­er­al judge and U.S. Solicitor General has called on the United States Supreme Court to vacate a rul­ing by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) that allowed a Texas death sen­tence to stand in the face of an ear­li­er Supreme Court rul­ing that defense coun­sel had unrea­son­ably failed to present a ​“tidal wave” of ​“com­pelling mitigating…

A hos­pice-bound death-row pris­on­er has filed a motion in Idaho state court chal­leng­ing the author­i­ty of Governor Brad Little to reject a par­dons com­mis­sion rec­om­men­da­tion that his death sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life with­out possibility of…

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace lau­re­ate who described him­self as ​“pas­sion­ate­ly opposed to the death penal­ty,” died in Cape Town, South Africa on December 26, 2021. He was 90 years…

When Utah County Attorney David Leavitt (pic­tured) announced on September 8, 2021 that his office would no longer pur­sue the death penal­ty, his deci­sion to do so was emblem­at­ic of a broad­er shift in con­ser­v­a­tive think­ing on the death penal­ty. The Republican dis­trict attor­ney from ​“a deeply con­ser­v­a­tive” coun­ty that gave Donald Trump a 41-per­cent­age-point mar­gin of vic­to­ry in the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion joined what the Wall Street Journal describes as ​“a growing…

Fewer peo­ple were on death rows across the United States as of July 1, 2021 or faced con­tin­u­ing jeop­ardy of exe­cu­tion in pend­ing cap­i­tal retri­al or resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings than at any oth­er time in more than three decades, accord­ing to data com­piled by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and ana­lyzed by the Death Penalty Information…