Publications & Testimony

In the October 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Amy Bergquist, a member of the Steering Committee of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. She discusses her work with the Coalition and as Associate Program Director at the Advocates for Human Rights, an organization dedicated to implementing international human rights standards to promote civil society and reinforce the rule of law. Their conversation begins with…

On October 7, 2026, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the execution of Nidal Hasan — a man of Middle Eastern descent sentenced to death for the 2009 mass killing on the Fort Hood military base — would be livestreamed for the public. The announcement echoes an era where executions — particularly for Black men — functioned as public celebratory gatherings. Public executions in the United States, especially in southern states, have a painful and racialized history. The last widely…

On October 7, a Tennessee judge issued a broadly worded order requiring the state to preserve all evidence from the failed September 30 execution attempt of Christa Pike. Her attorneys reported on October 6 that she has regained consciousness and is speaking, although her overall prognosis remains uncertain. Davidson County Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles granted a motion filed by Ms. Pike’s legal team, which sought to prevent the loss of records and physical evidence from the botched…

The U.S. Army has set an execution date of December 3 for Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people in a mass shooting on the Fort Hood military base in 2009. The announcement comes after President Donald Trump approved Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s recommendation to put Mr. Hasan to death by firing squad. The execution will take place at Fort Hood in Texas. However, Mr. Hasan is constitutionally entitled to pursue appellate review of his death sentence in civilian federal courts…

Justin Wolfe (pictured, center, with his mother and uncle) was released from prison on September 28, 2026 after pleading guilty to marijuana distribution and entering an Alford plea on charges of solicitation of robbery. He had been sentenced to death nearly 25 years ago for the murder-for-hire of Daniel Petrole, Jr., his marijuana supplier. Owen Barber IV, who admitted to shooting Mr. Petrole, had implicated Mr. Wolfe in order to avoid a death sentence himself. Mr. Barber later recanted his…

The attempted execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee has drawn national and international attention after Tennessee Department of Correction officials administered two doses of lethal-injection drugs but Ms. Pike survived. Christa Pike, sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer when Ms. Pike was 18, remains in critical condition and is receiving life-saving treatment at a hospital as of October 5, according to her attorneys. The case is unprecedented in the modern era of…

Christa Pike remained alive more than an hour after the state of Tennessee began its attempt to execute her on September 30, 2026. It was the latest in a series of troubled executions by the Tennessee Department of Corrections. At a press conference outside the prison, media witnesses sharing their observations were interrupted by emergency vehicles arriving to take Ms. Pike to a local hospital. As outlined in the new execution protocol, Tennessee prison officials administered two doses of…