Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Alabama is sched­uled to exe­cute Carey Grayson by nitro­gen hypox­ia on November 21, 2024, for his involve­ment with three oth­er teens in the death of a hitch­hik­er in 1994, when he was 19 years old. Mr. Grayson’ exe­cu­tion would be Alabama’s sixth exe­cu­tion in 2024, and the third by nitro­gen hypox­ia. The state acknowl­edged Mr. Grayson was not the most cul­pa­ble of the group, yet he is the only one of the four teens to face an exe­cu­tion. Mr. Grayson, and three oth­ers, were con­vict­ed of capital…

In a November 15, 2024, rul­ing, the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for the state to resched­ule the exe­cu­tion of Robert Roberson, despite com­pelling evi­dence of his inno­cence and wide­spread sup­port for a new tri­al. Mr. Roberson was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed October 17, but on October 16 the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence issued a sub­poe­na for Mr. Roberson to tes­ti­fy on a day after his exe­cu­tion was to occur. A dis­trict court tem­porar­i­ly halt­ed the exe­cu­tion so that…

On Tuesday, November 19, 2024, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) announces the launch of its updat­ed web­site and new visu­al iden­ti­ty. The refreshed, more intu­itive nav­i­ga­tion bar is the first phase of improve­ments that will make it eas­i­er for vis­i­tors to access DPI​’s data, reports, analy­sis, and resources. Visitors will also find DPI​’s new logo and oth­er changes to update the organization’s visu­al brand and…

Texas death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Melissa Lucio is ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent; she did not kill her [two-year-old] daugh­ter,” explained Judge Arturo Nelson in his October 16^th deci­sion, which was made pub­lic on November 14, 2024. Judge Nelson’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law now go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA), which will make the final deci­sion about whether to over­turn Ms. Lucio’s con­vic­tion and 2008 death sen­tence. This deci­sion marks the lat­est dra­mat­ic devel­op­ment for Ms.

U.S. mil­i­tary judge Colonel Matthew N. McCall is mov­ing ahead cau­tious­ly with sched­ul­ing the plea hear­ings in the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his code­fen­dants, accused of plot­ting the September 11 ter­ror attacks. On November 10, 2024, Col. McCall instruct­ed coun­sel to agree on dates in either December 2024 or ear­ly January 2025 to hold plea hear­ings for Mr. Mohammed and his code­fen­dants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Lead pros­e­cu­tor Clayton G. Trivett, Jr. had asked Col.

On November 6, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) vot­ed 6 – 3 to grant death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Randy Halprin a new tri­al. The TCCA decid­ed that the orig­i­nal tri­al judge, Vickers Cunningham, ​“was actu­al­ly biased against him at the time of tri­al because Halprin is Jewish.” The Court wrote in its rul­ing that the ​“uncon­tra­dict­ed evi­dence,” includ­ing tes­ti­mo­ny from friends and fam­i­ly of Judge Cunningham regard­ing his use of deroga­to­ry and racial slurs both gen­er­al­ly and specifically…

On November 4, 2024, the United States Supreme Courts released its order in the case of Hamm v. Smith, 604 U.S. _​_​_​(2024). The peti­tion for cer­tio­rari, filed by the State of Alabama last year, involved a pris­on­er named Joseph Clifton Smith whose death sen­tence was vacat­ed in 2021 after a United States dis­trict court found he had intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. Mr. Smith had tak­en five IQ tests, four of which placed his IQ in the low- to mid-70s, the range gen­er­al­ly accept­ed by experts to be…

On October 24, 2024, the Kentucky Supreme Court denied a request by the Attorney General and the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) to remove an injunc­tion cur­rent­ly pro­hibit­ing exe­cu­tions in Kentucky. In 2010, a Franklin County Circuit judge ordered a tem­po­rary injunc­tion of all exe­cu­tions due to con­cerns regard­ing numer­ous aspects of Kentucky’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, includ­ing con­cerns about the men­tal sta­tus and intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty sta­tus of death row pris­on­ers and the state’s…

The Death Penalty Information Center is pleased to share a pow­er­ful new resource illus­trat­ing the dire con­se­quences of inad­e­quate legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es: a data­base of cas­es that were dis­missed because they were not filed by the statu­to­ry dead­line. The list of cas­es, devel­oped by Professor Eric M. Freedman (pic­tured) and law stu­dent Paul Sessa of Hofstra University School of Law, will be updat­ed by DPI going for­ward. Mr. Sessa and Professor Freedman found that from 1996 to…

On October 28, 2024, hear­ings began in Kansas’ Wyandotte County District Court regard­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s death penal­ty and its cap­i­tal jury selec­tion process. A coali­tion of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, the ACLU of Kansas, the Kansas Death Penalty Unit, and the law firms Hogan Lovells and Ali & Lockwood brought the chal­lenge. The team argues that the death penal­ty, which is rarely used in Kansas, is ​“arbi­trary, racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry, unre­li­able, and…