Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On February 13, 2024, the 3^rd District Court of Salt Lake City, Utah ruled that evi­dence pre­sent­ed by Ralph Menzies’ attor­neys of his demen­tia and cog­ni­tive decline requires a for­mal assess­ment of his com­pe­ten­cy to face exe­cu­tion by fir­ing squad. With its deci­sion, the court also vacat­ed a hear­ing sched­uled for February 23, at which the state of Utah intend­ed to request an exe­cu­tion war­rant for Mr. Menzies. As explained in his request for a com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing, Mr. Menzies has been diagnosed…

On February 9, 2024, the Idaho Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly dis­missed two state appeals for 73-year-old Thomas Creech, there­by deny­ing his requests for a stay of exe­cu­tion. Mr. Creech, who has been on death row for more than 40 years, has also request­ed a new clemen­cy hear­ing. He is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion on February 28, which would be Idaho’s first execution since…

Robert Badinter, a fierce defend­er of human rights, defense lawyer, and for­mer French jus­tice min­is­ter who led the effort to abol­ish the death penal­ty in his coun­try, died on February 9, 2024. Mr. Badinter influ­enced many legal changes, includ­ing laws that decrim­i­nal­ized homo­sex­u­al­i­ty, improved prison con­di­tions, and advo­cat­ed for his own par­tic­u­lar con­cept of jus­tice. As a defense lawyer, Mr. Badinter wit­nessed the exe­cu­tion of one of his clients, and vivid­ly recalled the horrors involved…

This month, DPIC cel­e­brates Black History Month with week­ly pro­files of notable Black Americans whose work affect­ed the mod­ern death penal­ty era. The first in the series is retired Nebraska state senator Ernie…

Today, February 8, marks the 100-year anniver­sary of the first lethal gas exe­cu­tion in the United States, exact­ly two weeks after Alabama car­ried out the first exe­cu­tion using nitrogen…

Two of the 196 peo­ple who have been exon­er­at­ed from death row in the U.S. died in a two-week span in January 2024. Their cas­es high­light the human costs of wrong­ful con­vic­tions and the chal­lenges faced by exonerees. Clifford Williams, Jr. (pic­tured, left), who was wrong­ful­ly incar­cer­at­ed for 42 years in Florida, died January 11, less than five years after he was freed. Michael Graham, Jr. (pic­tured, below), who spent 14 years on death row in Louisiana before being exon­er­at­ed in 2000, died…

On January 26, 2024, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in the St. Louis County Circuit Court, ask­ing the Court to vacate Marcellus Williams’ death…

In a new arti­cle from Bolts, jour­nal­ist Daniel Nichanian writes about the dearth of can­di­dates in Ohio’s coun­ty prosecutor elections. ​“Of the 27 coun­ties with more than 100,000 res­i­dents in Ohio, 70 per­cent drew just one can­di­date” to run for elec­tion or reelec­tion as coun­ty pros­e­cu­tor. Only 15 of Ohio’s 88 pros­e­cu­tor elec­tions this year drew mul­ti­ple can­di­dates by the December dead­line, accord­ing to Bolts’ research: ​“This means that the vast major­i­ty of the state’s pros­e­cut­ing attorneys are…

On January 23, 2024, attor­neys for Utah death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Ralph Menzies, who has been diag­nosed with a major neu­rocog­ni­tive dis­or­der known as vas­cu­lar demen­tia, filed a peti­tion in state court alleg­ing he is incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed. Mr. Menzies, who uses a walk­er to nav­i­gate the pris­ons, has been on Utah’s death row for near­ly 36 years. On January 17, 2024, Utah’s attor­ney general’s office filed a motion with courts to set an exe­cu­tion date for him and indi­cat­ed it will use the…

On January 19, 2024, the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole held a clemen­cy hear­ing for Thomas Creech, who has been on death row for near­ly 44 years. The Commission will now decide whether to rec­om­mend to Governor Brad Little that Mr. Creech’s death sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life in prison with­out parole. By law, the gov­er­nor is not required to fol­low the Commission’s rec­om­men­da­tion. Mr. Creech faced a sched­uled exe­cu­tion date in November 2023, but the Commission stayed the execution so…