While we’re on the subject. . . .
February 25, 2026
“On all levels, the U.S. experiment with the death penalty has surged, resulting in botched execution outcomes that are worse than they ever have been,”
“On all levels, the U.S. experiment with the death penalty has surged, resulting in botched execution outcomes that are worse than they ever have been,”
In Texas, the Anderson County District Court granted the state a 60-day extension of its scheduled February 27 court date for a status conference with
Of the 23 scheduled, however, it’s unlikely the eight death warrants Ohio has issued will proceed because of that state’s inability to obtain lethal injection
Earlier this month, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a bill, HB 41, https://tinyurl.com/ykz97mmd that allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty for adults
Earlier this month, U.S District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, nominated to the federal court by President Trump in 2017, temporarily blocked the Department of Justice
“Despite a decades-long decline in public support for capital punishment, the political tug-of-war on capital punishment is heating back up,” Melanie Kalmanson writes in her
(Update 1/29/26: On Wednesday, January 28, Texas killed 55-year-old Charles Victor Thompson, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for killing his ex-girlfriend,
In Texas, Tommy Lee Walker, a Black 19-year-old executed in 1956 for a rape and murder he didn’t commit, was exonerated last week, 70 years
“After decades as the nation’s death penalty pariah, Texas was not the lead executioner this year,” the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty states
(Today, January 29, 2026, Gov. DeSantis signed his third death warrant. He ordered Billy Leon Kearse, sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of
In March 2019, recently elected California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on the death penalty, halted executions, took down the execution chamber, and dismissed
While the death penalty “appears to be experiencing a renaissance of sorts,” in light of the 34 executions so far this year, that may not
In Utah, a court-appointed forensic psychologist stated in a court record that he believes that 67-year-old Ralph Menzies, convicted of killing 26-year-old Maurine Hunsaker in
In a new report, “Fatal Flaws: Revealing the Racial and Religious Gerrymandering of the Capital Jury,” the American Civil Liberties Union examines how the requirement
The New Jersey Supreme Court last week affirmed (6 -1) an appellate court ruling that prosecutors cannot admit the Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis in a
Florida, which has already killed 17 people this year, has scheduled two more executions for December. Tennessee has also scheduled an execution for next month,
The cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on Tremane Wood began on the day in 2002 when he was sentenced to death for a murder he
“This has not been a happy month for death penalty opponents,” Austin Sarat writes in Slate, noting that seven people were killed, or are scheduled
In Indiana, “Indiana’s death row dwindles to five — and future executions remain uncertain,” according to Casey Smith in the Indiana Capital Chronicle. Smith states
When presented with a choice, more Pennsylvanians “overwhelmingly prefer life sentences over the death penalty, according to a poll conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research,
Forty people have been executed so far this year; six more executions are scheduled before year-end. If all six proceed, the U.S. will have executed
On October 9, one week before he was scheduled to be killed, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Robert Roberson’s execution and reinstated the
Alabama’s execution of Anthony Boyd last Thursday went as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor predicted it would. In her dissent (joined by Justices Kagan and
“We understand this broken death penalty system’s grievous flaws, its unintended consequences, and its failure to achieve the benefits we had intended.” In an “Open
Death Penalty Focus is mourning the loss of our Board Member, Father Chris Ponnet, who died on October 7 in Los Angeles. He was 68.
“I was 11 years old in 1997 when Geoffrey West shot and killed my mother, Margaret Parrish Berry, while robbing the Attalla gas station where
In Idaho, lawyers for Gerald Pizzuto, Jr., on death row since his 1986 conviction of the murders of Berta Herndon and her nephew Del Herndon
One month after Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she was lifting the moratorium on federal executions imposed by former Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021,
New Hampshire abolished its death penalty in 2019, leaving 45-year-old Michael Addison the only person on death row. Addison was sentenced to death in 2008
The State of Florida killed 63-year-old David Pittman earlier this month, its 12th execution this year, the highest number since the state reinstated the death
The State of Florida killed 63-year-old David Pittman today, its 12th execution this year, the highest number since the state reinstated the death penalty in
In her article, “Kill ‘em With Lies: The False Narrative of the American Execution Laboratory,” in the St. Louis University Law Journal, Danica Howell maintains
In Oklahoma, a hearing on Richard Glossip’s post-conviction legal proceedings was delayed this month after Judge Heather Coyle, who was presiding over the case, recused
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it will seek the death penalty in the case of a 21-year-old Seattle woman accused of
Florida continued its execution spree on Tuesday. The state executed Kayle Bates (Maud Dib Al Sharif Qu’un), a 67-year-old Black Muslim veteran convicted of kidnapping,
The State of Tennessee executed Byron Black last month, a 69-year-old Black man who had a documented intellectual disability, end-stage kidney disease, congestive heart failure,
Ten death-sentenced individuals imprisoned on Arkansas’s death row filed a lawsuit earlier this month challenging a new state law that allows corrections officials to execute
The State of Tennessee executed Byron Black yesterday, a 69-year-old man who had a documented intellectual disability, end-stage kidney disease, congestive heart failure, and cardiomyopathy
Florida’s eight executions, combined with its plans to kill Edward Zakrzewski at the end of this month, and Kayle Bates in mid-August, means that the
“As an executive and investor, I find it unthinkable that we continue to pour public resources into such a fundamentally broken system. If any company
Criminal justice and civil rights advocate Ronald J. Tabak died last week, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, the law firm where, in 1985,
In Tennessee, 68-year-old Byron Black, who lawyers say has an intellectual disability, dementia, and brain damage, is scheduled to be executed on August 5, after
Earlier this month, Texas District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson granted Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to schedule Robert Roberson’s execution for October 16, even
(Update: On Tuesday, a few hours after this article was posted, Gov. DeSantis signed another death warrant, this one for 59-year-old Curtis Windom, who is scheduled
The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation petitioned the state Supreme Court last week to use its “‘extraordinary jurisdiction’ power to provide oversight” on Washington County
Today, Texas District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson granted Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to schedule Robert Roberson’s execution for October 16, even though the
In their book, The Slow Death of the Death Penalty: Toward a Postmortem, editors Jamie Almallen, Mary Welek Atwell, and Todd C. Peppers “put together
In Mississippi, Richard Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam vet, sentenced to death in 1977 for the kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter in 1976, was executed
Sunny Jacobs, sentenced to 17 years in a Florida prison, five of them in solitary confinement on death row, for a crime she didn’t commit,
The United Auto Workers Region 9 (covering most of Pennsylvania) is supporting the state’s HB 888, which would abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvanians
Death penalty states in the U.S. “are in the midst of an historic run of executions that exhibit an unprecedented white-victim preference, and the primacy
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requested a new execution date for Robert Roberson last week, the Texas Tribune reported. Roberson was sentenced to death in Texas
In a 6-3 decision yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ruben Gutierrez, sentenced to death for the murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in 1998
So far this year, Florida has executed seven people, more than any other state; at the same time, Gov. DeSantis continues to sign bills expanding
San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe will seek the death penalty in the case of Chunli Zhao, a farmworker accused of seven counts of
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced earlier this month that due to “a recent and concerning rise in violent incidents directed towards both
The State of Florida killed 54-year-old Anthony Wainwright on Tuesday, the state’s sixth execution this year. State killing is never justified, and each one is
Stephen Stanko, scheduled to be killed by the State of South Carolina later this month, is opting for lethal injection over the firing squad because
“The cruelest aspect of executions is the restraints,” chief federal public defender Bo King writes in an op-ed in USA Today. King was Brad Sigmon’s
In Arkansas, Bruce Ward, on the state’s death row longer than any other person, died of natural causes earlier this month, KARK.com reported. The 68-year-old
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest court for criminal cases, ordered last month that a death sentence for a man convicted 27
Last Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his seventh death warrant this year, breaking his record of six death warrants in 2023. The state has
Last year, there were 25 executions in the United States, the highest number since 2020. This year, there have been 19 executions, with 10 more
California’s Racial Justice Act, passed in 2020, states that the “state shall not seek or obtain a criminal conviction or seek, obtain, or impose a
Texas, Indiana, and Tennessee will each execute a person this week: two men will be killed on Tuesday and one man on Thursday. Texas, which
In “Kennedy v. Louisiana and the Future of the Eighth Amendment” in the Pepperdine Law Review, Washington and Lee University assistant law Professor Alexandra L.
In Louisiana, a district judge set aside the conviction and death sentence of a man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter in 1998 because
Ernest Dykes, whose appeal last year of his 1995 death sentence was the catalyst for an investigation into 35 death penalty cases in California’s Alameda
Pope Francis died last week at his home in Rome from a stroke and irreversible heart failure. He was 88. In the 12 years he
The ACLU, along with other organizations, filed a lawsuit earlier this month attempting to block President Trump’s executive order transferring the 37 men, whose federal
Fourteen people were killed by eight states so far this year, the Death Penalty Information Center reports. The methods ranged from lethal injection to nitrogen
In his opinion piece in the Orlando Sentinel, “The twisted ‘justice’ of Tommy Zeigler’s half-century on death row,” Scott Maxwell writes about the case of
In Oklahoma, Richard Glossip will get a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled late last month that in his first trial, prosecutors knowingly
Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill last Wednesday making the sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 a capital offense. With
The State of South Carolina killed Brad Sigmon earlier this month. The 67-year-old Sigmon was seated in a chair with a hood over his head
Of the 28 executions scheduled for 2025, ten have been carried out, and 11 more are scheduled, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The
By Dr. Philip Hansten It’s mind-boggling that Los Angeles DA Nathan Hochman, who campaigned saying, “I will be ready on Day 1 to remove politics
The State of South Carolina killed Brad Sigmon earlier this month. The 67-year-old Sigmon was seated in a chair with a hood over his head
Death Penalty Board Member Alex Ketley, a choreographer, filmmaker, and director of The Foundry, is presenting the world premiere of his production, “An Approximation of
“The traumatic events of my life were handled with respect, and years of emotional damage repaired, through the unexpected power of documentary, such as allowing
In Louisiana, two judges have scheduled two people to be killed on two consecutive days next month, the Louisiana Illuminator reported. According to the paper,
Earlier this month, the Alabama House of Representatives passed HB 49, a bill that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for adults convicted
Five states, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida, and Texas, have carried out five executions so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Earlier this month, a Johnston County judge in North Carolina found that race played a significant role in the death penalty trial of Hasson Bacote,
Last year, “California experienced the largest death-row population decline of any U.S. death penalty jurisdiction. Sixty-six people came off of the state’s death row, one
This year’s Capital Case Defense Seminar, scheduled for February 14-17 in Monterey, will feature a “Fireside Chat with California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu.” Liu
In his YouTube talk, “The death penalty is dying,” Robert D. Bacon, a California defense attorney who has represented death-sentenced individuals for 34 years, maintains
Indiana executed Joseph Corcoran last month, the state’s first execution in 15 years. A lethal injection of pentobarbital killed the 49-year-old Corcoran, the first time
In his article, “The Supreme Court and Intellectual Disability – Yet Again,” in Santa Barbara Lawyer Magazine,” criminal law specialist (and DPF board member) Robert
“Even as use of the death penalty remains historically low in Texas, it continues to be imposed disproportionately on people of color and dependent largely
In 2024, for the tenth year in a row, fewer than 30 people were executed (25), and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death
The death sentences of 52 people were commuted to life in prison last year in historic acts of clemency on the federal and state levels,
South Carolina plans to execute Marion Bowman on Friday in what will be the first of 13 executions planned by six states (so far) in
The president’s executive order “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,” issued on the day he assumed office, repeals the federal moratorium on executions,
DPIC In its new report, “Fool’s Gold: How the Federal Death Penalty Has Perpetuated Racially Discriminatory Practices Throughout History,” the Death Penalty Information Center makes
In Alabama, corrections officials executed Carey Grayson last week by nitrogen hypoxia, al.com reports. The 50-year-old Grayson was convicted of the killing of 37-year-old Vicki
When California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Racial Justice Act into law in 2020, its author, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, hailed it as “an historic foundational
A Sacramento jury deadlocked 11-1 earlier this month on whether to sentence Adel Ramos, who pleaded guilty to killing Sacramento police Officer Tara O’Sullivan in
Support for the death penalty in the U.S. is at its lowest level — 53% — since the early 1970s, Gallup reported this week. The
In his paper, “No Need to Wait: Congress has the Power Under Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment to Abolish the Death Penalty in the
In Florida, a jury recommended a life without parole sentence for Corey Binderim for the murder of 65-year-old Susan Mauldin in a 7-5 vote, one
When Gov. John Carney signed Delaware House Bill 70 late last month, he officially repealed Delaware’s death penalty, the final act in a process that
Eight states have killed 20 people so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/outcomes-of-death-warrants-in-2024 .* Seven more people are scheduled to
Robert Roberson was sentenced to death in 2003, convicted by a jury that believed his daughter, Nikki, had died from shaken baby syndrome. That diagnosis
Joseph Giarratano, who spent 38 years in a Virginia prison, 13 of them on death row, for a crime he didn’t commit, died on October
In their essay “Sacred Victims: Fifty Years of Data on Victim Race and Sex as Predictors of Execution,” in the Journal of Criminal Law and
In California, The state legislature approved state Sen. Nancy Skinner’s bill, SB 254, which would restore news media access to California prisons. The bill would
The National Security Agency released a 74-year-old previously classified document “confirming that the U.S. government knew that Ethel Rosenberg was not a spy long before her
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced last month that the state plans to kill three people in the next three months. Alan Miller is scheduled
Unless Texas Gov. Greg Abbott or the courts intervene, Robert Roberson will be executed on October 17. Roberson, who has autism, was sentenced to death
In a conversation conducted over multiple texts over a few days, Kevin Cooper described how different his life is off death row and in the
Two significant criminal justice bills were introduced in California’s Senate during this session, which ended late last month. One stalled, the other passed, but is
In late July, a Sacramento jury found Anton Paris guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances for the shooting death of 27-year-old Sacramento County Sheriff’s
In the second of the New York Times’ three-part video series on the death penalty, “He Killed my Mom, He Shouldn’t Die,” Brett Malone walks
In California, Morris Solomon Jr., sentenced to death in September 1992 for the murders of six women in 1986-1987, died at the California Health Care
The City of Edmond, Oklahoma, will pay Glynn Ray Simmons, who spent almost 50 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, 7.15 million
Alabama officials have announced plans to execute two more people by nitrogen hypoxia. Attorney General Steve Marshall stated that the state will kill Alan Miller
Curtis Lee Ervin was sentenced to death in 1991 for the murder-for-hire of Carlene McDonald in 1986. Late last month, Federal Judge Vince Chhabria, at
A woman incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla died earlier this month during a heat wave that sent Chowchilla’s temperatures over 111
In Alabama last Thursday, 64-year-old Keith Gavin was executed by lethal injection for the 1988 killing of William Clayton, Jr., a delivery truck driver, during
In her cover story for the New York Times Magazine, “He Was Sent to Prison for Killing His Baby. What if He Didn’t Do It?”
Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has, for the second time in two months, refused to release a defendant whose murder conviction was overturned, NBC
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Furman v. Georgia (1972), which found that the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment, 200 death-sentenced men
In April, Alameda County (California) District Attorney Pamela Price announced that a federal district court judge had ordered the DA’s office to review all of
A woman incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla died earlier this month during a heat wave that sent Chowchilla’s temperatures over 111
In his first interview since surviving a botched execution in Idaho in February, Thomas Creech tells the New York Times, “I was thinking the whole
In Texas, Ramiro Gonzales was killed by lethal injection Wednesday. The 41-year-old Gonzales was sentenced to death in 2006 for the sexual assault and murder
Last month, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sent a letter to Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, saying she will begin seeking execution warrants next year
Effective Monday, July 1, an individual convicted of the rape of a minor in Tennessee is eligible for the death penalty. SB 1663, signed by
Marcellus Williams is scheduled to be executed on September 24, despite the fact DNA evidence proves he did not kill Felicia Anne Gayle in 1998,
San Quentin’s infamous East Block, home to the largest death row in the United States, is now empty. As of May 28, 607 individuals have
In the days after his death of cardiac arrest on June 9 in Los Angeles, the Rev. James Morris Lawson, Jr., was described as “the
“Amnesty International’s monitoring shows that in 2023 the lowest number of countries on record carried out the highest number of known executions in close to
“Of course, the death penalty is racist. And it would be wrong even if it weren’t,” the Los Angeles Times stated in an editorial earlier
In Texas, Ramiro Gonzales was killed by lethal injection Wednesday. The 41-year-old Gonzales was sentenced to death in 2006 for the sexual assault and murder
The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from San Quentin prison officials to grant them immunity from lawsuits stemming from a COVID-19 outbreak at the
In a speech delivered in Rome in October 2017, Pope Francis told the crowd that “No matter how serious the crime that has been committed,
In 1980, when Larry Roberts was 27 and serving a life sentence at the California Medical Center in Vacaville for killing a high school security
An Alameda County man who was sentenced to death in 2005 for the murder and robbery of Lorin Gwynne Germaine in 1986 is challenging his
We were happy so many of you were able to attend our 32nd Annual Awards Dinner earlier this month at the Skirball Center in Los
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday signed into law a bill that will allow a person to be sentenced to death for the rape of
Donald Trump is promising that if he is reelected in November, he will execute every one of the 42 men on federal death row. The
“Of course, the death penalty is racist. And it would be wrong even if it weren’t,” the Los Angeles Times stated in an editorial earlier
In this month’s Focus, we wrote about a writ petition a coalition of prominent civil rights and legal organizations filed at the CA Supreme Court
At least seven young men, all of whom were sentenced to death for so-called crimes committed when they were between the ages of 14-17 and
One hundred-ninety-seven individuals sentenced to die have been exonerated in the U.S. since 1973. Melissa Lucio, on Texas death row since 2008 for a crime
CA Gov. Gavin Newsom grants 37 pardons; 18 commutations Late last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he pardoned 37 individuals and commuted the sentences
“In states where the death penalty does exist, it shouldn’t be cruel, it shouldn’t be unusual (and) it definitely shouldn’t be experimental, like nitrogen hypoxia
Fifty-four-year-old Daniel Gwynn was freed from Pennsylvania’s death row on February 29, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office announced. He served nearly 30 years for a
Last Wednesday, the Oklahoma House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee cleared House Bill 3138, the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, making it eligible to be heard
Idaho corrections officials attempted to kill 73-year-old Thomas Creech today, but after an hour of repeated attempts to find a vein for its lethal injection
Robert Badinter, the former French Minister of Justice and the man who, in 1981, in one of his first acts as justice minister in the
In California’s Riverside County, two Black men challenging their separate death penalty prosecutions under the California Racial Justice Act (AB 256) were granted evidentiary hearings
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Department of Corrections Executive Director Steven Harpe are asking the state Court of Criminal Appeals to set the execution
In her essay in Politico Magazine, USF School of Law Professor Lara Bazelon says the downward trend in death sentences that began after hitting a
Our conversation on “Making a Murderer: False Confessions, Wrongful Convictions” was such an enlightening discussion between DPF President Mike Farrell and Dr. Richard Leo, Professor of Law and Social Psychology at the University of San Francisco School of Law. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQhfA9_yW54&t=42s Quick Facts Since 1989 there have been at least 3,431 exonerations. Fully 13% of these – 434 cases – contained false confessions or admissions. That percentage soars to 23% in
2023 was the ninth consecutive year that fewer than 30 people were executed in the United States, and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death, the Death Penalty Information Center states in its 2023 annual report. Twenty-nine states — the majority — have either “abolished the death penalty or paused them by executive action,” according to DPIC. And only five states, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, conducted executions,
Earlier this week, the Alabama Department of Corrections released additional details about its plan to become the first state to use nitrogen hypoxia in state killings. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in October that the state attorney general could proceed with his plan to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas in a 6-2 decision by the all-Republican court. In their post in Substack, Lauren Gill and Dan Moritz-Rabson report
Alabama executed Casey McWhorter earlier this month. He was convicted and sentenced to die in 1994 for the robbery and murder of Edward Lee Williams in 1993. McWhorter was one of three teenagers, one of whom was Williams’ son, charged with the murder. But he was the only one sentenced to death because he was the only defendant who was 18 at the time of the crime. The other two,
“Whether you support capital punishment or oppose it, one thing is clear. Oklahoma’s system is so fundamentally flawed that we cannot know that someone who has been condemned to death actually deserves the ultimate penalty,” writes former U.S. Judge Andy Lester in a letter to the editor in nondoc.com. Lester was one of three co-chairs of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission that, in 2017, called for a moratorium on
In South Carolina, executions are on hold until at least February, when the supreme court will hold a hearing over a lawsuit filed by four people on death row who argue that electrocution and firing squad are unconstitutional methods of execution, WIS10 reports. The state’s default method of execution is the electric chair but offers the option of a firing squad or lethal injection if the drugs are available, according
Late last month, Pennsylvania House Bill 999 to repeal the death penalty passed out of the Judiciary Committee on a vote of 15-10. It was supported by all the Democrats and one of the Republicans on the committee. Democratic state Rep. Chris Rabb sponsored the bill, arguing that the repeal is imperative for many reasons, including its astronomical cost and the high risk of executing an innocent person. City &
Texas killed 53-year-old Brent Ray Brewer by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on November 9. And one week later, on November 16, the state executed David Renteria. The state killed a total of eight men this year. It has executed 579 individuals since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Brewer was executed for the April 1990 death
Texas killed 53-year-old Brent Ray Brewer by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville last week. Brewer was executed for the April 1990 death of 66-year-old Robert Laminack during a robbery. He was 19 at the time. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Brewer’s 1991 death sentence, finding that finding that the court failed to give his jurors the instructions that they could consider mitigating factors in his