Resources

The Death Penalty Information Center

Founded in 1990, the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center is a national nonprofit organization that provides up-to-date analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. It is the go-to source for facts and figures about the death penalty.

The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

The National Registry of Exonerations

The registry, founded in 2012, is a project of the Newkirk Center for Science & Society at University of California Irvine, University of Michigan Law School, and Michigan State University College of Law. It collects, analyzes, and disseminates information about all known exonerations of innocent criminal defendants in the United States from 1989 to the present. The registry states on its website that, “ We rely entirely on publicly available information. We do not practice law or investigate cases of possible innocence.”

SCOTUSblog

Founded in 2002, SCOTUSblog covers the US Supreme Court. It reports on every merits case before and after argument and after the decision.

The California Dept of Corrections & Rehabilitation

The website, published and maintained by California, provides information about each of the state’s penal institutions, including current census figures, changes in rules and regulations, and visitor scheduling. Its death row information includes the names, ages, ethnicity, and date of crime and sentencing of the condemned men and women.

Why Victims' Family Members Oppose the Death Penalty

SF Mothers In Charge

Mothers In Charge, Inc. advocates for families affected by violence and provides counseling and grief support services when a loved one has been murdered.

SF Brady United CA

Founded in 1974, Brady United Against Gun Violence works across Congress, courts, and communities, uniting gun owners and non-gun owners alike, to take action, not sides, and end America’s gun violence epidemic.

Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights

Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights was launched on International Human Rights Day, 2004, by a group of victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty, united in the belief that capital punishment violates all legal and ethical human rights standards. Membership is open to all family members of victims of homicide, execution, extra-judicial assassination, and “disappearances,” who oppose the death penalty in all cases.

"How Science Exposes the Death Penalty's Deadly Flaws."

Robert Sapolsky, PhD:

Videos:

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (Interview)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEwaEXno-2g

TED Talk:
https://youtu.be/ORthzIOEf30?si=_HJ2ib_TanTW_xQB

Dr. Sapolsky interviewed by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson:
https://youtu.be/pFg1ysJ1oUs?si=1AiC8-hsAcOUa1JC

Books:

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, Third Edition

The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predicament

A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons

Philip Hansten, PhD:

Videos:

Free Will and the End of Hate (Dr. Hansten’s video summarizing Dr. Sapolsky’s Free Will arguments)
https://youtu.be/qFSKwA3NZ94

Death Penalty: Sailing Without Ballast. Lecture 3: Complexity of Human Behavior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Y4PJy4kRM

Commencement Speech May 2007

Issued by University of California, San Francisco, School of Pharmacy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWEsIF7yk_4

Books:

Death Penalty Bullshit: Fifteen Absurd Claims of Death Penalty Supporters

Top 100 Drug Interactions 2016: A Guide to Patient Management

Premature Factulation: The Ignorance of Certainty and the Ghost of Montaigne