Publications & Testimony

On May 9, 2023, the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on Senate Bill 101 that would abolish the state’s death penalty. The co-sponsors of the bill, Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio (D‑Lakewood) and Senator Stephen Huffman (R‑Tipp City), argued in favor of the bill’s passage and noted that more than one-third of Ohio’s senators have signed on as sponsors. Antonio said that the bill has received “the most bipartisan support yet” and described the death penalty as…

DPIC’s High School Curriculum on the Death Penalty, which was originally created in cooperation with Michigan State University’s Communications Technology Laboratory in 2001, has been updated and integrated into DPIC’s main website. This resource covers death penalty history, legal procedures, arguments for and against capital punishment, and narratives of real capital cases. The curriculum now includes interactive Tableau maps that allow students to explore state-level data on murder rates…

In an article for the University of Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit, Professor John Bessler discusses whether the use of the death penalty should be classified as torture under the norms of international law. Bessler argues that since psychological torture is prohibited under the most fundamental principles of international law (jus cogens norms) and since death threats are a form of psychological torture, then governmental death threats as part of the death penalty are torturous and a…

On May 3, 2023, the family of Joe Nathan James (pictured) sued the state of Alabama for the pain and suffering it caused during his three-hour-long lethal injection in 2022. It is believed to be the longest known execution in U.S. history. The suit asserts that “the execution team failed to execute Mr. James in a manner that comports with the U.S. Constitution, the Alabama Constitution, and applicable state law.” Normally, the first part of the process is supposed to take minutes, but the team…

On May 1, 2023, the state of Florida adopted legislation allowing the death penalty for sexual abuse of a child where no death occurred. This statute is unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008). Excerpts from that opinion and from an amicus brief cited by the Court follow: Excerpts from KENNEDY v. LOUISIANA (2008): Opinion of the Court STANDARDS OF DECENCY “Evolving standards of decency must embrace and express respect for the dignity of the…

(ORDER LIST: 598 U.S.) FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2023 ORDER IN PENDING CASE 22A941 GLOSSIP, RICHARD E. V. OKLAHOMA The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Kavanaugh and by him referred to the Court is granted pending the disposition of the petitions for writs of certiorari, Nos. 22 – 6500 and 22 – 7466. Should both petitions for writs of certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event either petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the…

A recent article in the The Guardian described the reactions of some of the California prisoners who have been moved from San Quentin’s death row and transferred to other facilities around the state. The prisoners are still under a sentence of death, but in 2019 Governor Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on executions and has dismantled the execution chamber. For example, Ramon Rogers, 63, who has been on death row since 1997, jumped at the opportunity for a different facility: “I was itching…

In a detailed five-part series titled “Poorly executed: How Arizona has failed at carrying out the death penalty,” the Arizona Mirror explores the last 16 years of Arizona’s use of capital punishment. The series focuses on controversies surrounding the executions themselves, including changes to the drug protocol, the use of inexperienced or unqualified personnel, and the state secrecy surrounding the process. It also looks into other major issues in capital punishment, such as innocence…

Bills to alter the state’s method of execution and to make the execution process more transparent failed in Tennessee’s legislature this year as its session concluded. In an effort to facilitate executions bogged down by the state’s problems with lethal injection, a bill was proposed to give prisoners the option of the firing squad for their execution. Following an independent investigation into Tennessee’s lethal injection protocols, Governor Bill Lee (R) had suspended executions on January 5…

The accompanying graph (click to view separately) displays the time in years since the last execution by each state as of May 1, 2023. The death penalty in the U.S. is a distinctly minority phenomena, with thirty-six states plus the District of Columbia not carrying out an execution in over 10 years. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have abolished capital punishment, and additional jurisdictions, including the federal government, have a hold on executions. Last year there were…