Death Penalty Focus (DPF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty through public education, grassroots and political organizing, media engagement, and coalition building. DPF also serves as a support network and as a liaison among anti-death penalty groups nationwide and across the world.

The group opposes the death penalty as "ineffective, racist, and fiscally inefficient." In 1999, the organization said the death penalty is "an ineffective and brutally simplistic response to the serious and complex problem of violent crime.” DPF has partnered with numerous families of victims of violent crime to abolish the death penalty.

DPF is governed by a Board of Directors composed of activists, political, religious, and civic leaders, along with legal scholars and attorneys involved in death penalty litigation. In addition, DPF has an Advisory Board composed of community and religious leaders, celebrities, writers, and representatives of labor and human rights organizations who support anti-death penalty work.

DPF was founded in 1988 by a group of people committed to the abolition of the death penalty in California. Former Governor Pat Brown became a founding member of DPF. Michael Millman was also a founding member of DPF. The goal was to build a broad-based coalition against the death penalty. The L.A. Times wrote that DPF "has become the clearinghouse for a variety of rallies, leafletting and marches throughout the state." Mike Farrell has served as president of DPF since 1994.

In the early 1990s, Pat Clark served as the executive director. The organization was based out of Oakland at that time. DPF organized rallies and protests against the execution of Robert Harris. Clark spoke out in opposition to lethal injection: “It is intended to put a humane face on killing, when reality is that the death penalty, capital punishment, is a barbaric practice that has no place in a civilized society. We object strenuously to efforts to make the death penalty more palatable to the public.” Claudia King served as executive director of the organization.

In 1995, Lance Lindsey took over as the Executive Director. Lindsey organized protests outside of San Quentin State Prison. Lindsey told SFGate: "We are sensitive and compassionate to the horrible suffering of these victims and their families ... but we're just saying that using violence to stop more violence just perpetuates the cycle of violence." DPF, under Lindsey's leadership helped organize several coalitions: California People of Faith Working against the Death Penalty, Californians for a Moratorium on Executions, and the California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

In 2004, DPF joined the Committee to Save Kevin Cooper. They protested, held a press conference, and distributed flyers to the public. The organization played a role in organizing opposition protests to the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams in 2005

DPF has been described as "the strongest voice in California’s abolition movement" by San Francisco Magazine.