In 2025, 47 people were executed in the US, most by lethal injection, but five by nitrogen hypoxia and five by the firing squad. Despite robust medical and legal evidence of the cruel and inhuman suffering caused by capital punishment and a mounting global movement toward abolition of the death penalty, in the US the death penalty continues to be used across multiple states.

 This panel explores the question of whether the death penalty amounts to torture, and under what circumstances it may be permissible. Bringing together the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, Morris Tidball Binz who is authoring a global report on the death penalty and torture; Herman Lindsey, who was wrongfully convicted and spent three years on Florida’s death row; and Yasmine Ashraf, a human rights officer at the UN, the conversation will examine US and global perspectives and trends of the death penalty.

Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz was appointed the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions, on 1 April 2021. He is a medical doctor specialized in forensic science, human rights and humanitarian action. He contributed to the development and worldwide use of forensic science to investigate and document extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, enforced disappearances, torture and detention conditions, as well as to humanitarian action in armed conflicts and natural catastrophes. Over the past 35 years, he has conducted fact-finding, technical assessments and capacity building missions to over 70 counties in all regions. He is currently drafting a thematic report on the death penalty and torture.

Mr. Herman Lindsey is the Executive Director of Witness to Innocence. He was wrongfully convicted and sent to Florida’s death row in 2006. He endured 3 years on Florida's death row for the robbery and murder of Ft. Lauderdale pawnshop owner, Joanne Mazzola, back in 1994. In a unanimous verdict, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in July 2009 that there wasn’t enough evidence to find Herman guilty of anything, much less sentence him to death, and that he did not receive a fair trial.

Ms Yasmine Ashraf is a Human Rights Officer with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights since May 2020. She has supported UN mandates on torture, counter-terrorism and human rights, and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; contributed to international standards such as the revision of the Istanbul Protocol; led thematic and country-specific work, and investigations of grave violations of international law, notably as an investigator with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria. She is currently the lead drafter of the Special Rapporteur’s report on the death penalty and torture. With 21 years’ experience in politics and human rights, including 12 years focused on torture prevention and accountability, she has delivered capacity-building and technical assistance for governmental and non-governmental stakeholders across the Middle East and North Africa, including on implementation of the Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol, detention safeguards and effective interviewing standards.

Mr. Paris Powell, exonerated and released from Oklahoma’s death row in 2009. Paris Powell is C.E.O/A.M.B.V.R for two companies, Purpose Over Profit Consults LLC &. Teach Assist Guide (TAG) Consultants. Both companies Paris founded himself in 2022 while living in Port Charlotte Fl as a single father raising his daughter, whom he was granted full custody in 2017, the same year that Paris achieved success in reaching a settlement agreement with former district attorney and the state of Oklahoma for their negligence in his wrongful conviction that led Paris to loose 16 1/2 years of his life. Paris is listed as the #137 Exoneree on the Innocence Website. Paris also volunteers his time returning to prisons in Oklahoma, where he mentors men on a curriculum that he developed during the COVID lockdown that focuses on trauma and rehabilitation. Paris also advocates & networks with several death penalty organizations to stop the death penalty, consulting on a part of several key judicial committees & reform initiatives. Currently, Paris is back in his hometown of Muncie, Indiana.

This event is sponsored by The University of Chicago Law School's Global Human Rights Clinic, International Programs, International Law Society, Human Rights Law Society, and The University of Chicago Pozen Family Center for Human Rights.

Boxed lunch will be provided. Please submit dietary requests eight business days prior to the program to Aican Nguyen at aican@uchicago.edu. Although we will try to accommodate dietary needs, it is not guaranteed.