Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Feb 042025

Florida Legislature Passes Unconstitutional Bill that Mandates the Death Penalty for Unauthorized Aliens”

On January 28, 2025, the Florida Legislature passed an immi­gra­tion bill that includes a pro­vi­sion man­dat­ing the auto­mat­ic impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty for​“unau­tho­rized aliens” con­vict­ed of a cap­i­tal offense, despite long­stand­ing U.S. prece­dent and inter­na­tion­al law pro­hibit­ing manda­to­ry death sen­tences.. The bill was intro­duced dur­ing a short spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sion called by Governor Ron DeSantis (pic­tured), leav­ing lit­tle to no time for public…

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News 

Feb 032025

Fired Federal Judge Raises Serious Concerns About Arizona’s Lethal Injection Protocol

Retired fed­er­al mag­is­trate Judge David Duncan, who was hired and then abrupt­ly fired by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs to review the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, con­tin­ues to raise sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns about the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. In an inter­view with ABC15, Judge Duncan high­light­ed issues with the chain of com­mand for lethal injec­tion drugs, trans­paren­cy, and the state doc­u­men­ta­tion process.​“It’s shock­ing irony that one of my tasks was…

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News 

Jan 302025

Arizona’s Hourly Compensation for Post-Conviction Capital Counsel Found Inadequate for Certification by Outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland

In one of his final acts before leav­ing office, out­go­ing Attorney General Merrick Garland denied a long­stand­ing request by Arizona state offi­cials for the state to be​“cer­ti­fied” so it could take advan­tage of cer­tain pro­ce­dur­al ben­e­fits in fed­er­al habeas review of cap­i­tal cas­es. These changes are avail­able only when a state sat­is­fies cer­tain require­ments, and ben­e­fit state actors by impos­ing greater restric­tions on a prisoner’s abil­i­ty to raise claims and by…

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News 

Jan 292025

12:01: The Death Penalty in Context — The Death Penalty in 2024

In this month’s episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with DPI Communications Associate Hayley Bedard, about The Death Penalty in 2024, which high­lights trends and events relat­ed to the death penal­ty. 2024 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…

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News 

Jan 272025

Federal Appeals Court Allows Arizona to Limit Victim Contact

On January 23, 2025, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lift­ed an injunc­tion enjoin­ing the enforce­ment of an Arizona statute, Victim Contact Limits, which pro­hibits crim­i­nal defense teams from con­tact­ing crime vic­tims and their fam­i­ly mem­bers direct­ly. The restric­tions are found in Arizona’s Victim Rights Implementation Act (Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13- 4433(B)) and also apply to death penal­ty cas­es. The deci­sion means that pris­on­ers and their lawyers may no longer engage directly…

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News 

Jan 212025

Among Flurry of First-Day Executive Orders, President Trump Issues Order on the Death Penalty

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed more than two dozen Executive Orders, includ­ing a call to​“restore” the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The Order, while lack­ing many impor­tant details, instructs the Department of Justice’s Attorney General to​“pur­sue the death penal­ty for all crimes of a sever­i­ty demand­ing its use,” includ­ing the killing of a law enforce­ment offi­cer or​“a cap­i­tal crime com­mit­ted by an ille­gal alien present in this coun­try” and to encourage…

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News 

Jan 162025

Department of Justice Withdraws Federal Execution Protocol and Keeps Moratorium on Executions in Place

Three and a half years after announc­ing its inves­ti­ga­tion into the fed­er­al death penal­ty pro­to­col, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on January 15, 2025 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is rescind­ing the fed­er­al government’s sin­­­gle-drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. The DOJs deci­sion was based on what AG Garland called​“sig­nif­i­cant uncer­tain­ty” about whether exe­cu­tions by pen­to­bar­bi­tal caused unnec­es­sary pain and suf­fer­ing. The…

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News 

Jan 152025

Idaho Reckons with High Costs of the Death Penalty

A recent op-ed in the Idaho Statesman high­lights a num­ber of dif­fi­cul­ties that are a result of his­toric under­spend­ing on cap­i­tal defense as the state pre­pares for its first exe­cu­tion since 2012. Idaho’s pub­lic defense sys­tem is tran­si­tion­ing to statewide over­sight as part of an effort to address long­stand­ing inequities in coun­­­ty-fund­ed legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. With the con­sol­i­da­tion of the pub­lic defend­er sys­tem came pay increas­es for most of Idaho’s…

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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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