Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

According to state­ments from sev­er­al fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers, the new ​“adverse con­di­tions” on death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, con­tributed to the December 1, 2023 death of Nasih Khalil Ra’id. Fellow pris­on­ers say Mr. Ra’id, whose giv­en name at birth was Odell Corley, died by sui­cide. Prison offi­cials have not released the report from Mr. Ra’id’s autop­sy or com­ment­ed on the cause of his…

On December 22, 2023, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 100-day stay of exe­cu­tion to car­ry out a men­tal com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing for James Ryder, who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on February 1, 2024. Mr. Ryder’s attor­neys have argued for years that he is not com­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion, cit­ing long stand­ing men­tal ill­ness that has wors­ened through­out his incar­cer­a­tion. Several psy­chol­o­gists have diag­nosed Mr. Ryder with para­noid schiz­o­phre­nia and con­clud­ed he is not com­pe­tent to face…

The United States and Japan are the only two reten­tion­ist coun­tries among the Group of Seven (G7) lead­ing indus­tri­al­ized democ­ra­cies. But Japan did not car­ry out any exe­cu­tions in 2023 and imposed just three new death sen­tences. The pause meant that the U.S. was the only G7 nation to per­form any executions in…

On December 22, 2023, Judge Coral Sanchez of Utah’s Third Circuit Court dis­missed a law­suit brought by five men on the state’s death row that chal­lenged Utah’s two exe­cu­tion meth­ods and pro­to­cols. Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta, Douglas Carter, and Taberon Honie sought an order vacat­ing Utah’s cur­rent exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols for lethal injec­tion and fir­ing squad and enjoin­ing their future use. The pris­on­ers argue that both meth­ods con­sti­tute cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment under the…

A new study from Columbia University researchers indi­cates that jurors’ per­cep­tion of facial fea­tures in white defen­dants affects their sen­tenc­ing deci­sions, much like the bias­es that affect every day social inter­ac­tions and deci­sion mak­ing. Through four exper­i­ments with 1,400 volunteers, ​“the researchers found that when real-world defen­dants have facial fea­tures that appear untrust­wor­thy, they are more like­ly to be sen­tenced to death than life in prison.” Particular facial fea­tures, such as…

A new sto­ry by the L.A. Times high­lights for­mer California death row pris­on­er Craigen Armstrong’s instru­men­tal role in build­ing a peer-pris­on­er men­tal health treat­ment pro­gram in the Los Angeles Twin Towers Correctional Facility, an effort which has helped hun­dreds of pris­on­ers with severe men­tal ill­ness. While await­ing retri­al, Mr. Armstrong established the ​“men­tal health assis­tant” role to sup­port and treat fel­low pris­on­ers, and has devel­oped train­ing mate­ri­als for jails and prisons…

On December 12, 2023 U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills over­turned Terry Pitchford’s death sen­tence and ordered Mississippi to retry him in 6 months or release him from cus­tody. Judge Mills found that the orig­i­nal tri­al judge failed to allow the defense to prop­er­ly chal­lenge the exclu­sion of Black jurors by now-retired District Attorney Doug Evans, the same pros­e­cu­tor who pros­e­cut­ed Curtis Flowers. ​“This court can­not ignore the notion that Pitchford was seem­ing­ly giv­en no chance to rebut…

On December 14, 2023, Lake County, Florida pros­e­cu­tors announced they are seek­ing the death penal­ty for a man accused of com­mit­ting the sex­u­al bat­tery of a minor under the age of twelve. A state­ment from the office of State Attorney William Gladson said the deci­sion reflects the ​“sever­i­ty of the crime and its impact on the com­mu­ni­ty.” Earlier this year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed leg­is­la­tion that expands death penal­ty eli­gi­bil­i­ty to those con­vict­ed of sex crimes against chil­dren. This is…

A new report released by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty high­lights Texas’ con­tin­u­ing out­lier prac­tices in the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty. As one of just five states car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions this year, Texas is respon­si­ble for a third of the 24 exe­cu­tions in 2023. Of the eight men exe­cut­ed, six dis­played sig­nif­i­cant intel­lec­tu­al or men­tal health impair­ments, includ­ing brain dam­age, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, and a range of mental illnesses. ​“The vast majority of…

A pro­posed death penal­ty repeal bill in the Ohio leg­is­la­ture is draw­ing atten­tion to the state’s five-year pause on exe­cu­tions, and lead­ing state offi­cials from both par­ties to ques­tion whether the death penal­ty sys­tem is work­ing. Ohio Attorney General David Yost (pic­tured) summed up the sit­u­a­tion by saying, ​“This sys­tem sat­is­fies nobody. Those who oppose the death penal­ty want it abol­ished alto­geth­er, not tick­ing away like a time bomb that might or might not explode. Those who support the…