Death Penalty Information Center

DPI’s ​“What to Know” series exam­ines cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from mul­ti­ple angles, one top­ic at a time. Each install­ment pro­vides essen­tial facts and data on spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penal­ty. This install­ment looks at junk sci­ence: how flawed or over­stat­ed foren­sic evi­dence has con­tributed to wrong­ful cap­i­tal con­vic­tions, and what hap­pens when the und...

The cas­es of eight men exe­cut­ed between 1986 and 1998 will be part of a Virginia State Crime Commission review into the prac­tices of Mary Jane Burton, a foren­sic sci­en­tist who alleged­ly mis­han­dled DNA evi­dence and gave inac­cu­rate tes­ti­mo­ny in court. The cas­es are among more than 7,000 cas­es linked to Ms. Burton that are being assessed after jour­nal­ist Tessa K...

DPI’s ​“What to Know” series exam­ines cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from mul­ti­ple angles, one top­ic at a time. Each install­ment pro­vides essen­tial facts and data on spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penalty. **Why it mat­ters:** More than 100 cit­i­zens of oth­er coun­tries are under sen­tences of death in the United States, and in near­ly every report­ed case, arrest­ing author­...

On July 23, 2026, Delaware Superior Court Judge Calvin Scott ordered a Certificate of Innocence be issued to Jermaine ​“Marlow” Wright (pic­tured, right, with attor­ney James Moreno) and grant­ed expunge­ment of his con­vic­tion. Mr. Wright is the 203rd per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row in the United States since 1973, and the sec­ond in Delaware. Mr. Wright was con­vict­ed ...

In a let­ter issued ahead of the exe­cu­tion of James Duckett and Dominick Occhicone on July 28, 2026, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops ​“wish\[ed\] to remind Catholics of the teach­ing of our Church against the use of the death penal­ty in sit­u­a­tions — like our own — where blood­less means are suf­fi­cient to pun­ish offend­ers and pro­tect pub­lic safe­ty.” Noting...