Testimony and Statements

Christian church lead­ers from Catholic and Protestant denom­i­na­tions across Louisiana have called upon state law­mak­ers to pass leg­is­la­tion to end the death penal­ty in the Bayou State. On April 25, 2019, the Louisiana Interchurch Conference and two dozen faith rep­re­sen­ta­tives held a press con­fer­ence on the steps of the state capi­tol in Baton Rouge advo­cat­ing for leg­is­la­tion to abol­ish the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law and pledg­ing their sup­port for as long as it…

In the past few years, the gov­er­nors of California, Pennsylvania, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon have put a halt to exe­cu­tions in their states because of prob­lems in the death penal­ty sys­tem. Below are some of the rea­sons they gave for for…

Judiciary Committee, Nebraska Unicameral Legislature: Testimony on LB 238 – A Bill Relating to Witnessing Executions by Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center (Lincoln, March…

Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, New Hampshire House of Representatives: Testimony on HB 455 – Changing the penal­ty for cap­i­tal mur­der to life impris­on­ment with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty for parole by Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center (Concord, February 19, 2019). Exhibits to Mr. Dunham’s tes­ti­mo­ny can be accessed…

“The death penal­ty is dying in the United States, and Republicans are con­tribut­ing to its demise,” con­cludes a new report, The Right Way, released on October 25 by the advo­ca­cy group Conservatives Concerned About the Death…

Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice, Louisiana House of Representatives: Testimony on HB 101 – Eliminating the death penal­ty for offens­es com­mit­ted on or after August 1, 2017 by Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center (Baton Rouge, May…

Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, New Hampshire House of Representatives: Testimony on HB 351 – Making the Killing of a Person Under Age 18 a Capital Offense by Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center (Concord, February…

Calling racial bias in the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty​“an undis­put­ed fact,” the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL), a group of 320 Hispanic leg­is­la­tors, has passed a res­o­lu­tion urg­ing leg­isla­tive action in all state and fed­er­al juris­dic­tions to repeal the death penal­ty across the United States. The leg­is­la­tors note that the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem sub­jects​“Black, Latino, Native Americans, and all peo­ple of col­or” to…

The State of the Death Penalty in the United States (visu­als) by Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center at the Sixth World Congress on the Death Penalty (Oslo, Norway, June…

Judiciary Committee, Colorado Senate: Testimony on SB 64 — Non-unan­i­­mous Juries in Capital Sentencing by Richard C. Dieter, Senior Program Director, Death Penalty Information Center (February…