Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Jan 132025

Connecticut Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Prohibit the Production and Manufacturing of Lethal Injection Drugs and Other Materials for Executions

On January 10, 2025, three Connecticut law­mak­ers intro­duced a bill that would make it ille­gal to man­u­fac­ture and sell any drugs or med­ical devices in the state meant to car­ry out the death penal­ty. In 2024, Connecticut-based com­pa­ny Absolute Standards was iden­ti­fied as the source of lethal injec­tion drugs used in 13 fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in 2020 and 2021. In a let­ter to the bill’s spon­sors, John Criscio, President of Absolute Standards, said the com­pa­ny ceased production…

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Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

News 

Jan 062025

Military Appeals Court Rules 9/​11 Defendants Can Plead to Avoid Death Sentences

On December 30, 2024, a mil­i­tary appeals court upheld a low­er court rul­ing reject­ing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to throw out plea deals reached for three men charged in the September 11 ter­ror­ism attacks. The court affirmed Judge Colonel Matthew N. McCall’s rul­ing in November 2024 that the plea agree­ments reached in July 2024 are valid. Col. McCall stat­ed at the time that he would pro­ceed with the…

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News 

Jan 032025

Tennessee to Resume Executions with Single-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol

On December 27, 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) com­plet­ed a mul­ti-year lethal injec­tion pro­to­col review and announced that instead of the pre­vi­ous three-drug cock­tail, lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions will use a sin­­­gle-drug bar­bi­t­u­ate, pen­to­bar­bi­tal. Ohio was the first state to use pen­to­bar­bi­tal, in the March 2011 exe­cu­tion of Johnnie Roy Baston. State offi­cials now use sin­gle drug pro­to­cols in 14 states, includ­ing Tennessee, as well as in…

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Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

News 

Dec 192024

DPI Year End Report 2024: Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence

This year marked the tenth con­sec­u­tive year dur­ing which few­er than 30 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed (25) and few­er than 50 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death (26), while high pro­file cas­es of death-sen­­­tenced peo­ple attract­ed sig­nif­i­cant atten­tion and new, unex­pect­ed sup­port­ers. In most U.S. states, the death penal­ty is a rel­ic of anoth­er era. According to DPIs 2024 Year End Report, just four states (Alabama, Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma) were respon­si­ble for more than…

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News 

Dec 182024

4th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Legal Challenge to South Carolina’s Restriction on Media Access to Prisoners

On December 13, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the August, 2024 dis­missal of a law­suit that sought to chal­lenge, on First Amendment grounds, a South Carolina Department of Corrections’ (SCDC) pol­i­cy that pro­hibits the pub­li­ca­tion of inter­views between pris­on­ers and the media or mem­bers of the pub­lic. In its deci­sion, the Fourth Circuit cit­ed to Houchins v. KQED, a 1978 Supreme Court rul­ing which held that the U.S. Constitution does…

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News 

Dec 162024

Florida Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments Challenging Non-Unanimity Sentencing Standard

On December 12, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court heard oral argu­ments in the case of Michael James Jackson, who is chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Florida’s 2023 law that allows for non-unan­i­­­mous jury death sen­tences. Mr. Jackson is rep­re­sent­ed by the ACLU, who argued that the Florida law is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under the Supreme Court’s 2020 rul­ing in Ramos v. Louisiana, which struck down non-unan­i­­­mous crim­i­nal con­vic­tions. According to the ACLUs brief,…

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News 

Dec 102024

Federal Court Stays Clemency Hearing of Oklahoma Prisoner with December Execution Date

On December 9, 2024, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a tem­po­rary stay for Kevin Underwood’s clemen­cy hear­ing sched­uled that same-day with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, which is lack­ing its full five-mem­ber com­pli­ment after two res­ig­na­tions in recent months and one last minute addi­tion on December 6. This deci­sion marks the sec­ond time Mr. Underwood’s clemen­cy hear­ing has been can­celed. Meanwhile, Mr. Underwood, age 44, is fac­ing a December 19 exe­cu­tion date, and if it were to…

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News 

Dec 092024

Religious Groups, Former Corrections Officials, Pro-life Voices, and Many Others Urge President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences

In let­ters released on December 9, 2024, hun­dreds of stake­hold­ers urged President Joe Biden (pic­tured) to com­mute all fed­er­al death sen­tences before his term ends, cit­ing racial bias, sys­temic arbi­trari­ness, and the fail­ure of the fed­er­al death penal­ty to enhance pub­lic safe­ty. This col­lec­tive request reflects broad, bipar­ti­san acknowl­edge­ment of the flaws in the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem and aligns with the nation­al down­ward trend of sup­port for the death penal­ty, now at his­toric lows. 40

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News 

Dec 062024

Indiana Plans to Resume Executions after 15-Year Pause with a Severely Mentally Ill Volunteer”

The state of Indiana is sched­uled to car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion in 15 years on December 18, 2024, with the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran (pic­tured). Sentenced to death for the 1997 mur­ders of four peo­ple, includ­ing his broth­er, Mr. Corcoran has a long his­to­ry of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. He has been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia, which includes symp­toms of hal­lu­ci­na­tions and delu­sions, and mul­ti­ple experts have tes­ti­fied that he is incom­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion. Mr. Corcoran holds…

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