Attorneys for Texas death row prisoner Charles Flores have filed a motion to prevent an execution date, citing concerns over the integrity of his 1999 conviction, which was based on an eyewitness identification obtained through police hypnosis, a method now banned in Texas criminal trials.
The Death Penalty Information Center report reveals a disturbing pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in the death penalty system, resulting in individuals sentenced to death multiple times for the same crime, often due to racial bias and other constitutional violations, and costing millions of taxpayer dollars.
Florida Legislature has passed four bills expanding the state’s death penalty, some of which are unconstitutional, and all are now awaiting Governor Ron DeSantis’ signature.
The courts play a vital role in ensuring fairness and justice, as evidenced by the recent Fischer v. United States Supreme Court decision, which limited the federal government’s use of obstruction statutes, and the role of the judiciary in reexamining flawed trials and evidence to prevent wrongful convictions.
Richard Gerald Jordan, Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate, has been scheduled for execution on June 25, 2025, after nearly five decades of litigation and failed appeals.
George Ryan, the former Republican governor of Illinois, died at the age of 91, leaving behind a legacy as a champion of clemency and a critic of the death penalty, who commuted the sentences of all 167 people on Illinois’ death row and pardoned four outright.
Under Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration, California has shifted its death row policy, transferring condemned individuals to rehabilitation centers and opening access to programs and educational opportunities, while victims’ rights groups have expressed anger and frustration at these changes.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has been criticized for his calculated regression, racial bias, and political opportunism in office, including reviving the death penalty, defending inflammatory language, and denying crime victims access to legally guaranteed services.
Sister Helen Prejean, a long-time anti-death penalty advocate, believes Ohio is on the verge of abolishing capital punishment due to growing support for repeal and the state’s own capital punishment task force calling the death penalty “more complex, more subject to constant change, and fraught with more mistakes”.
132 US military veterans have signed a letter to Governor Ron DeSantis urging him to halt the execution of Jeffrey “Ranger” Hutchinson, a decorated Gulf War veteran suffering from severe combat-related brain injuries, arguing that his execution would be a miscarriage of justice and a national betrayal.
Attorneys for Jeffrey Hutchinson, a 62-year-old Gulf War veteran scheduled for execution on May 1, have filed an emergency motion in Bradford County Circuit Court seeking a stay, arguing that Hutchinson is mentally incompetent to be executed due to a complex set of mental health conditions.
John Fitzgerald Hanson, a Black man facing execution on June 12, has filed a clemency petition with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board arguing that he suffers from Autism Spectrum Disorder, was manipulated by a more culpable co-defendant, and has demonstrated extraordinary rehabilitation during two decades in federal custody.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Florida Supreme Court has denied the first-filed appeal out of three currently pending…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Lance Shockley’s death sentence in late March,…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) has issued a report on the U.S. Supreme Court…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Death penalty expert Robert Dunham has shared a new update on the state of…
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Veteran attorney Jules M. Epstein, in an essay that’s part of a White Paper…
CHARLESTON, S.C. – In Death Penalty News this month, Randy Poindexter describes his experience with solitary confinement…
NEW YORK, NY – A 32 percent increase in global executions has exposed fundamental flaws in criminal…
Attorneys for Tennessee death row men Oscar Smith and Byron Black are calling on Governor Bill Lee to issue a temporary halt on executions until March 2026, when a trial on the constitutionality of the state’s new lethal injection protocol is set to begin, due to concerns about the new protocol’s lack of safeguards.