The Death Penalty Information Center (abbreviated DPIC) is a non-profit organization that focuses on disseminating studies and reports related to the death penalty by itself and others to the news media and general public. The Center was founded in 1990 and is primarily focused on the application of capital punishment in the United States. The Center does not take an official position on the death penalty. The Center is based in Washington, D.C., and its executive director is Robert Dunham. Michael Millman was president of the board for some time.
Criticism
According to a pro-death penalty prosecutor, the DPIC is “probably the single most comprehensive and authoritative internet resource on the death penaltyâ€, but “this site makes absolutely no effort to present any pro-death penalty views, and liberally spreads propaganda and rhetoric on behalf of ‘the cause’.â€
The State of Kentucky criticized DPIC's list of botched executions. On, January 7, 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in Baze v. Rees, a case challenging the three-drug cocktail used for many executions by lethal injection. The respondent's lawyer, Roy T. Englert, Jr., referred to the Death Penalty Information Center's list of “botched†executions. He criticized it because a majority of the executions on the list, according to respondent, “did not involve the infliction of pain, but were only delayed by technical problems (e.g., difficulty in finding a suitable vein)â€.
The DPIC also has been criticized for its list of exonerated death row inmates by Ward A. Campbell, a supervising deputy state attorney general in Sacramento, California, who argued that a list of exonerated inmates is dishonestly portrayed.
References
External links
- Death Penalty Information Center