Discussions With DPIC Death Penalty Information Center

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Elisabeth Semel, Clinical Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Semel joined Berkeley Law in 2001 as the first director of the school’s death penalty clinic and remains the clinic’s co-director, where students have represented individuals facing capital punishment and written amicus briefs in death penalty cases before the United States Supreme Court. In recognition of 38th year anniversary of the landmark US Supreme Court ruling in Batson v. Kentucky (1986), Professor Semel discusses the implications of the Court’s ruling and recent efforts in California to eliminate racial discrimination in capital punishment and jury selection.

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Judge Elsa Alcala, who served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 2011 to 2018. In addition to serving as a judge at the appeals and trial level, she worked as a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, and most recently as a justice-reform lobbyist during her three-decade career in criminal law. She shares how these experiences have informed her perspective on the death penalty and identifies recommendations for criminal legal reforms. 

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Keri Blakinger, a journalist at the Los Angeles Times and former reporter for the Marshall Project—a nonprofit news organization focused on the U.S. criminal justice system. At the Marshall Project, Ms. Blakinger wrote stories about the human beings in the criminal justice system—a focus that is still a priority in her reporting with Los Angeles Times.Ms. Blakinger’s personal experience with prison has given her a unique perspective. In her book, Corrections in Ink: A Memoir (2022), she powerfully tells the story of her personal journey beginning as a young competitive figure skater with an eating disorder, through addiction and incarceration, and ultimately to her transformation into journalist and advocate. 

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with former death-sentenced prisoner Anthony Graves. Exonerated from Texas’ death row in 2010, Mr. Graves has since become an advocate for criminal justice reform, creating the Anthony Graves Foundation, working with the ACLU and Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and testifying before the U.S. Senate on prison conditions. Mr. Graves has also authored an autobiography titled Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul.

In this month's episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with John Bessler (pictured), of Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Professor Bessler is the author of several books on the death penalty, including his 2023 book The Death Penalty's Denial of Fundamental Human Rights: International Law, State Practice, and the Emerging Abolitionist Norm. In his most recent book, Professor Bessler argues that the death penalty should be classified as torture, which would prohibit its use under international law and treaties. The reality of capital punishment, he explains, is that it is "really just a series of credible death threats." The capital charge is a death threat, the death sentence is a more credible death threat, and the execution itself is a very imminent death threat. International law already prohibits mock executions as a "classic form of psychological torture," and Professor Bessler argues that the death penalty, with its repeated threats to execute, should be viewed the same way. "[T]here's really no way to eliminate the psychological torment that is associated with scheduling someone's death and then subjecting them to that continuous threat of death during the entire process."

In this month’s Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sandra Babcock (pictured), Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School, Faculty Director, and founder of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. Ms. Babcock’s clinic currently represents death sentenced women in the United States, Malawi, and Tanzania and is focused on providing defense teams in retentionist countries with training and consultation in order to provide the best possible legal representation for individuals facing sentences of death. The Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide also produces research highlighting the intersection of gender and the death penalty, as well as international legal issues and capital punishment. Ms. Babcock explains how the Center’s research has uncovered widespread, yet overlooked issues that women and other gender minorities face in the criminal legal system.