CDPL - The Center for Death Penalty Litigation

WATCH CDPL’S 2020 OSBORN AWARD CELEBRATION
FOR TYE HUNTER

CDPL is a non-profit law firm that represents people on death row, coordinates capital litigation across North Carolina, and serves as a clearinghouse for accurate and timely information on the N.C. death penalty. We believe that indigent defendants facing the death penalty deserve the same kind of high-quality representation available to the highest-paying clients. We also believe that ending the unjust and error-prone death penalty is a crucial part of building a more humane criminal justice system in North Carolina.

Announcements

If we value racial equity, we must end the death penalty

This fall, CDPL executive director Gretchen M. Engel spoke to the N.C. Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. As the task force weighs reforms to the state’s criminal punishment system in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests, Gretchen told a deeply personal story about why ending the death penalty must be part of our efforts to eradicate racism. Please read her remarks.

CDPL launches comprehensive new project on racism and the NC death penalty

CDPL is proud to announce RacistRoots.org, an ambitious new project that reveals the North Carolina death penalty’s deep entanglement with racism. Using historical narrative and multiple viewpoints, this project puts the modern death penalty in the context of history. The North Carolina death penalty began as a way to enforce slavery and Jim Crow, and its racist roots run deep. Today, it remains a way to disproportionately punish people of color for crimes against white people. The death penalty is another Confederate monument we must tear down. Please explore this project and tell us what you think. For a quick summary of what it’s all about, listen to this podcast from N.C. Policy Watch.

Go to racistroots.org

Tye Hunter wins CDPL's 2020 J. Kirk Osborn Award; Join us for an online celebration on October 15

CDPL is proud to announce that Malcolm “Tye” Hunter is the winner of this year’s J. Kirk Osborn Award for outstanding leadership in capital defense. This year’s ceremony honoring Tye will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 15. The event is online. Simply go to cdpl.org and follow the link on our homepage to join us in celebrating Tye’s good work. Though we can’t be together in person, we’ve done our best to make this an engaging event that reminds our community of the power and importance of capital defense work. Please read on to learn more about this event, and about Tye’s four-decade career.

Learn

Learn more about the death penalty. For a fuller listing, go to our Links page:

See Our Impact

CDPL’s staff has halted wrongful executions, helped free innocent people from death row, and exposed systemic injustices. Learn more about the work that has made CDPL a leader in addressing unfairness in capital punishment.

Intern or Volunteer

Do you want to learn about capital defense while working alongside a dedicated staff? If you are a law student looking for a summer internship, learn more here. If you are interested in volunteering, apply here.

WATCH CDPL’S 2020 OSBORN AWARD CELEBRATION FOR TYE HUNTER