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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.