Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Jul 02, 2025
DPI Series: Facts About the Death Penalty — Does the Death Penalty Make Communities Safer?
Deterrence is one of the most commonly expressed reasons for use of the death penalty, both as a constitutional justification and as a public policy rationale. Elected officials have recently called the death penalty an“essential” deterrent to crime. The argument goes that if someone knows they could face the death penalty, they will not commit the crime. Following that reasoning would suggest that states with the death penalty are safer than states without…
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Jun 25, 2025
New Book of Interest: The “Slow Death” of U.S. Death Penalty
The death penalty in the Unites States is experiencing what scholars call a“slow death.” In their forthcoming book,“The Slow Death of the Death Penalty: Toward a Postmortem,” editors Todd C. Peppers, Jamie Almallen, and Mary Welek Atwell bring together death penalty experts to examine this shift in the use of capital punishment. New death sentences and executions still occur in a limited number of states; but Peppers et al reflect on the broader trends away from use…
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Jun 17, 2025
Article of Interest: Maricopa County Investigation: Capital Cases are Costly, Lack Transparency in Charging Decisions, and Rarely End in Death Sentences
A joint investigation by ProPublica and ABC15 Arizona reviewed more than 300 cases over the past two decades where Maricopa County prosecutors sought the death penalty and found that only 13% resulted in death sentences. In most cases a jury never got close to considering whether to sentence someone to death: in more than three-quarters of cases, defendants pled guilty in exchange for lesser punishment, or prosecutors reversed course before trial. In only 41 of…
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Jun 16, 2025
Governor Says Indiana Will Not Purchase More Lethal Injection Drugs, Invites Debate over Death Penalty
According to Governor Mike Braun (pictured), Indiana has depleted the supply of pentobarbital it uses in its lethal injection executions. Given that the last of the doses purchased in December 2024 expired and went unused, Gov. Braun does not intend to renew the state’s supply. According to earlier reporting by the Indiana Capital Chronicle, the Indiana Department of Correction (IDC) spent $900,000 on pentobarbital in late 2024 in preparation for the execution of…
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Jun 12, 2025
Counsel for Ralph Menzies Appeal Competency Ruling as State Moves to Set Execution Date
On June 6, 2025, District Judge Matthew Bates issued a ruling finding Utah death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies mentally competent to be executed despite concerns presented by Mr. Menzies’ attorneys about his vascular dementia. In his ruling, Judge Bates agreed that Mr. Menzies suffers from vascular dementia but said Mr. Menzies had failed to show“by a preponderance of the evidence that his mental condition prevents him from reaching a rational…
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Jun 09, 2025
Georgia Superior Court Judge Upholds 2021 COVID-Era Agreement Barring Executions for Nine Prisoners
On May 29, 2025, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram ruled that Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr must abide by a 2021 agreement reached with attorneys for nine individuals currently on Georgia’s death row that bars their executions until COVID-19 vaccines are available to everyone. In 2021, the state agreed to halt executions until vaccines were available to all members of the public. In her ruling, Judge Ingram noted that the vaccine is not approved for…
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Jun 05, 2025
Remembering Death Row Survivor and Advocate Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs
Sonia“Sunny” Jacobs, a former death row prisoner whose story of wrongful conviction was featured in the off-Broadway play“The Exonerated)” and who became a prominent advocate for formerly incarcerated prisoners, died in a house fire, along with her caregiver, in County Galway, Ireland, on June 3, 2025. Ms. Jacobs was convicted and sentenced to death in 1976 for the murders of two law enforcement officers at a Florida rest stop. She and Jesse Tafero, the father of…
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Jun 03, 2025
Scott Panetti, Prisoner in Landmark Competency Case, Dies on Texas Death Row of Natural Causes
Scott Panetti died on Texas’ death row at the end of May 2025 after 30 years in prison. He became well-known for the role his case played in clarifying the legal standard for determining when defendants are competent to face execution — precedent that continues to shape court decisions nationwide. Mr. Panetti’s severe mental illness manifested in his late teens, leading to more than a dozen psychiatric hospitalizations through the 1980s and early 1990s. His…
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May 21, 2025
DPI’s Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Author Corinna Barrett Lain on the “Untold Story” of Lethal Injection
In this month’s podcast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Corinna Barrett Lain, the S.D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law and author of the recently published book, Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection. Ms. Lain’s new book challenges a widely held assumption that lethal injection is a painless, regulated, and medically-sound…
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May 19, 2025
District Court Judge Calls Kansas Death Penalty Racially Biased, Costly, and Ineffective as a Deterrent
On April 16, 2025, Wyandotte County District Judge Bill Klapper issued his order in the combined cases of Hugo Villaneuva-Morales and Antoine Fielder, broadly condemning the Kansas death penalty as costly, racially biased, and ineffective as a deterrent. Judge Klapper’s order follows an extensive evidentiary hearing and provides thorough and detailed findings on an array of constitutional questions related to the use of the death penalty in the state. Mr.
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