12:01 The Death Penalty in Context

Episod

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  Emmjolee Mendoza Waters on the Work of the Catholic Mobilizing Network 23.09.2026 23min

  In the September 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, Director of Death Penalty Abolition for Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a national organization mobilizing people of Catholic faith and moral conviction around issues of criminal justice, including death penalty abolition and restorative justice. Ms. Mendoza Waters discusses why the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty and calls believers to seek justice in ways that protect society, hold people accountable, and care for victims and survivors, while also respecting the dignity of every human person.
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  Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick on Violence Prevention and the Death Penalty 13.08.2026 29min

  In the August 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Racial Justice Storyteller Taylor Bonner speaks with Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick, Director of Community Outreach for Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP) and founder of Rodney’s Village, a violence prevention non-profit. A murder victim’s family member and community advocate, Ms. Muhammad-McCormick discusses how the loss of her son shaped her approach to violence prevention and death penalty advocacy, the importance of community accountability, and the resources victims and their families need to heal after violence.
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  Sam Spital on 50 Years Since Gregg v. Georgia and Examining the Decision's Legacy and Unfulfilled Promises 02.07.2026 27min

  In the July 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Executive Director Robin M. Maher speaks with Samuel Spital, Associate Director Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). To mark the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Gregg v. Georgia, they explore the history of the landmark case, the pivotal role played by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the litigation, and the enduring legacy of legendary LDF attorney Anthony Amsterdam. They conclude their conversation by looking back on the results of that 1976 decision.
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  Naomi Yavneh Klos on Gas Executions, Holocaust Memory, and Common Ground 28.05.2026 22min

  In the May 2026 episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Dr. Naomi Yavneh Klos, Dean of the Honors College at the University of New Mexico, and a prominent scholar of the Holocaust. Dr. Yavneh Klos is a founding member of the Jews Against Gassing Coalition, a New-Orleans area group formed to oppose the use of nitrogen gas as a method of execution in Louisiana. She joins DPI’s podcast during Jewish American Heritage Month to discuss the historical ties between lethal gas executions and the use of gas as a tool of genocide during the Holocaust.
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  Sherrerd Hartness on Victims’ Needs, Trauma, and the Limits of the Death Penalty 29.04.2026 44min

  In the April 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sherrerd Hartness, a writer and speaker who advocates for victims’ families and co-victims of murder. In 1977, Ms. Hartness’s sister, Carlotta, was killed—an experience that shaped her understanding of the long-term emotional impact of violent crime on families and communities. Her work now focuses on raising awareness about the needs of co-victims and the emotional challenges they face in the aftermath of loss.
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  Elizabeth Vartkessian on Mitigation and "The Deserving" 20.03.2026 30min

  In the March 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Elizabeth Vartkessian (pictured), the executive director of Advancing Real Change (ARC), a national non-profit that works to provide mitigation investigation services and training that ensure the full life histories of individuals facing extreme sentences are presented to judges and juries. Ms. Vartkessian is a mitigation specialist who has spent decades investigating the lives and backgrounds of individuals facing the death penalty in order to present mitigating evidence to juries. Her new book, The Deserving: What the Lives of the Condemned Reveal about American Justice, explores her experience in capital defense and her deep professional relationship with Wesley Purkey, a federal prisoner executed in 2020.
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  DPI’s Taylor Bonner and U.S. Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty’s Furonda Brasfield on the Racial History of the Death Penalty 26.02.2026 38min

  Taylor Bonner and Furonda Brasfield speak with DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger about the racial history of the death penalty and how current data and narratives about racial justice play a role in advocacy on the death penalty. As the Death Penalty Information Center’s Racial Justice Storyteller, Ms. Bonner blends data and history to tell the story of the death penalty throughout the U.S. Ms. Brasfield is the Director of Leadership Development at the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty; in that role, she supports leaders in the death penalty movement across the country and leads the Noose to Needle campaign, educating the public about the death penalty’s historical ties to lynching. The two guests bring their distinct and complimentary expertise to a discussion of race and the death penalty in honor of the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.
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  Fair and Just Prosecution’s Aramis Ayala on the Death Penalty, Prosecutorial Discretion, and Conviction Integrity 30.01.2026 23min

  In the January 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Aramis Ayala, Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution. Ms. Ayala made history in 2016 as Florida’s first Black state attorney and later became the first Black woman in Florida to be nominated for state attorney general by a major party. In the podcast, she discusses her decision to not seek the death penalty, the reaction to her decision, and the evolving role of prosecutors in the capital punishment system.
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  Experts Discuss New DPI Report on Veterans and the Death Penalty 12.11.2025 54min

  In the November 2025 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Captain Art Cody, Dr. Steven Xenakis, and DPI Staff Attorney Leah Roemer about DPI’s new report, Forgotten Service, Lasting Wounds: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty. Their conversation covers the legal and scientific reasons behind the overrepresentation of veterans on death row. Captain Cody, a retired U.S. Naval officer, currently serves as Director of the Center for Veteran Criminal Advocacy. Dr. Xenakis, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General and psychiatrist, works extensively with youth and adults and is a leading advocate for improving mental health care for veterans. Both bring extensive experience and a long-standing commitment to reform within the military and civilian justice systems. Ms. Roemer, the lead author of DPI’s new report Forgotten Service, Lasting Wounds, describes how the legal system treats veterans sentenced to death and underscores the role of military service, trauma, and inadequate treatment in shaping case outcomes. As part of this report, DPI has produced the first comprehensive list of veterans sentenced to death in the modern era of the death penalty.
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  Maha Jweied of The Responsible Business Initiative for Justice Discusses Intersection of Business and the Legal System 20.10.2025 26min

  In October 2025’s episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI managing director Anne Holsinger interviews Maha Jweied. Ms. Jweied, the CEO of The Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ), is an internationally recognized expert on the role of the private sector in justice systems and an advocate for improved access to justice worldwide. During the podcast, Ms. Jweied describes RBIJ’s mission of working with business leaders to push for criminal justice reform. Along with death penalty abolition, RBIJ advocates for policies addressing challenges facing formerly incarcerated individuals reentering the workforce.
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  Katherine Judson of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences Speaks on Flawed Forensics and Robert Roberson 30.09.2025 32min

  In the September 2025 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s managing director Anne Holsinger interviews Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) expert Katherine Judson. Ms. Judson is Executive Director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences and former Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma Litigation Coordinator for the Wisconsin Innocence Project. In the episode, Ms. Judson provides the history behind Shaken Baby Syndrome, and why it is now known by experts as “junk science.” She also explains how SBS was tragically used as forensic evidence to secure the capital conviction of Robert Roberson in Texas.
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  Florida Attorney and Researcher Melanie Kalmanson on Recent Developments in Florida's Death Penalty 18.08.2025 28min

  In the August 2025 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Melanie Kalmanson, a Florida attorney and author of the Substack newsletter Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty. Ms. Kalmanson’s newsletter compiles data on legislation, capital trials, death sentences, and executions in Florida. In the podcast, she discusses how she started following those developments, key events in the recent history of Florida’s death penalty, and why Florida has seen a significant increase in executions this year, even as new death sentences remain low.
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   Journalists Reflect on the Challenges and Importance of Media Reporting on the Death Penalty 03.07.2025 46min

  In this month’s podcast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sam Levin, a correspondent with The Guardian who covers criminal justice and the legal system, and Jimmy Jenkins, a criminal justice reporter for The Arizona Republic, about the challenges they encounter when reporting on the increasing secretive use of the death penalty.  Mr. Jenkins has witnessed executions in Arizona and Mr. Levin has recently investigated South Carolina's return to executions after a 13-year pause.
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  Author Corinna Barrett Lain on the “Untold Story” of Lethal Injection 21.05.2025 48min

  In this month’s podcast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Corinna Barrett Lain, the S.D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law and author of the recently published book, Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection. Ms. Lain’s new book challenges a widely held assumption that lethal injection is a painless, regulated, and medically-sound process.
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  Experts Discuss the Legacy of Roper v. Simmons 01.05.2025 41min

  In this month’s podcast episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Professors Craig Haney and Frank Baumgartner, and DPI’s Staff Attorney Leah Roemer about the legacy of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Roper v. Simmons and the legal and scientific landscape surrounding the use of the death penalty for young adults ages 18-20. Professors Baumgartner and Haney, along with fellow researcher Karen Steele, collaborated on a 2023 study which discusses the legal context and rationale of the Court’s decision in Roper when it barred the death penalty for juveniles under age 18. Ms. Roemer is a major contributor to DPI’s new report, Immature Minds in a “Maturing Society": Roper v. Simmons at 20.
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  Sabrina Butler-Smith on Wrongful Convictions and Motherhood 20.03.2025 25min

  In this month’s podcast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sabrina Butler-Smith (pictured), who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death at age 17 for causing the death of her nine-month-old son. After two years and nine months on death row, Ms. Butler-Smith’s conviction was overturned. At a second trial, it was determined that her son died from a serious medical condition, polycystic kidney disease, and she was acquitted. Since her exoneration, Ms. Butler-Smith has become an advocate against wrongful convictions and works with Witness to Innocence, an organization of death row exonerees, for death row exonerees.
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  The Past, Present, and Future of the California Racial Justice Act 27.02.2025 40min

  Here’s the description for today’s podcast: In the February 2025 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with three experts on California’s Racial Justice Act (RJA). Natasha Minsker, an attorney and consultant, formerly of the ACLU, speaks on the history of the RJA and the impetus for its passage. Genevie Gold, research and writing fellow at the Office of the State Public Defender (OSPD), describes the process that an RJA claim follows through the legal system, and how the RJA has affected the work of OSPD. Avi Frey, a lawyer at the ACLU of Northern California, explains the potential systemic effects of the RJA, which are just beginning to take shape as the legislation approaches its fifth anniversary of passage.
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  The Death Penalty in 2024 29.01.2025 19min

  In this month’s episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with DPI Communications Associate Hayley Bedard, about The Death Penalty in 2024, which highlights trends and events related to the death penalty. 2024 marked the tenth consecutive year during which fewer than 30 people were executed (25) and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death (26), while high profile cases of death-sentenced people attracted significant media attention and new, unexpected supporters. Per the report’s findings, just four states (Alabama, Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma) were responsible for more than three-quarters (76%) of executions in 2024.
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  Earwitness Podcast Creator Beth Shelburne on Toforest Johnson’s Case 25.11.2024 25min

  In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPI, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Beth Shelburne, a journalist who has reported on the criminal legal system for over 25 years and creator of the podcast Earwitness. Released in 2023 to critical acclaim, Earwitness tells the story of Toforest Johnson, a death-sentenced man who is facing execution in Alabama despite strong evidence of his innocence. On November 14, 2024, Mr. Johnson filed a petition with the Jefferson County Circuit Court requesting a new hearing, the latest in a series of appeals.   “I realized that this is such a protracted injustice with so many twists and turns over a quarter of a century. So many people have been exploited in the process that it really is a case that's emblematic of many terrible issues in our criminal justice system, and I felt like in order to capture all of that in its totality, I wanted to slow down and really unpack this case in a meaningful way,” explains Ms. Shelburne on why she decided to create the Earwitness podcast. She shares the challenges she and her team faced, including the “fading memories of people … [who] just couldn't remember the finite details that we felt were so crucial ... to pin down. Luckily, we were able to get our hands on quite a bit of source material through.”
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  Professor Steve Vladeck on the Supreme Court’s Death Penalty Shift 18.10.2024 37min

  In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Executive Director Robin Maher speaks with Steve Vladeck, a Georgetown law professor and expert on the Supreme Court. Professor Vladeck is the author of The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic, released in 2023, as well as the weekly newsletter One First, which breaks down the Court’s rulings and history. Professor Vladeck explains why the Court’s treatment of death penalty cases has recently changed, the role the Court played in creating many of the problems with death penalty cases it now complains about, and how the death penalty shaped the Court’s new orientation and approach to other areas of law.