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
Gallup released a poll this week that found that for the first time since 2000 when it began asking whether respondents believed the death penalty was fairly applied, 50% said it was not fairly imposed, while 47% believe it is. “This represents a five-point increase in the percentage who think it is applied unfairly since the prior measurement in 2018,” Gallup stated. The pollsters noted that the number of those
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that the state attorney general can proceed with his plan to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas, CBS News reports. It was a 6-2 decision by the all-Republican court. No other state has ever attempted to kill a person using nitrogen gas, although Oklahoma and Mississippi have also included the method in their execution protocols. Smith, who is one of two men
In Florida, a new law that would allow a person convicted of the rape of a minor to be sentenced to death went into effect earlier this month. The bill, which establishes a minimum sentence of life without parole, was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May. The law defies the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), which found that “the Eighth Amendment categorically rules
University of San Francisco School of Law professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever explained “Why California’s reinvestigation of an infamous quadruple murder case is a sham” in their op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle last weekend. They argue that a 250-page report by a law firm appointed by California Gov. Newsom to investigate the case of Kevin Cooper, sentenced to death in 1985 for a quadruple murder in San
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled an execution date for Casey McWhorter for a 30-hour window between midnight November 16, and 6 a.m., November 17, the Montgomery Advertiser reports. McWhorter was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Edward Lee Williams. He was 18 when he was sentenced to death by a jury in a 10-2 vote. He had four accomplices, including the 15-year-old son of the victim, but
We wanted to update you on the Kevin Cooper case, which we have written extensively about over the years. Cooper, who has been on California’s death row for 35 years, is asking California Gov. Gavin Newsom to reject the findings of an investigation into his case by the law firm Morrison Foerster that was released in January. Cooper, through his law firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, included his request in
The Louisiana Board of Pardons rejected clemency hearings for the first five people sentenced to death who submitted applications earlier this month. The five men and the only woman on the state’s death row were the first hearings to come before the board since Gov. John Bel Edwards, whose term is up at the end of this year, publicly expressed his opposition to the death penalty in May, nola.com reported.
“Does CDCR have solitary confinement?” is the first question on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s “restricted housing” webpage. The answer? “No.” That answer would surprise the thousands currently held in solitary confinement (CDCR uses the euphemism “restricted housing’) in California’s prisons and jails. (The United Nations Nelson Mandela Rules define solitary confinement, which it stipulates is torture, as locking a person in a cell with no meaningful human
In a 2-1 ruling, a state appeals court upheld California’s Racial Justice Act earlier this month. The law, which took effect in 2021, prohibits the state from seeking or obtaining a criminal conviction or from imposing a sentence based on race, ethnicity, or national origin. But it was prospective only, excluding judgments rendered before January 1, 2021. The Racial Justice Act for All, which was signed into law by Gov.