Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

In a detailed five-part series titled “Poorly executed: How Arizona has failed at carrying out the death penalty,” the Arizona Mirror explores the last 16 years of Arizona’s use of capital punishment. The series focuses on controversies surrounding the executions themselves, including changes to the drug protocol, the use of inexperienced or unqualified personnel, and the state secrecy surrounding the process. It also looks into other major issues in capital punishment, such as innocence…

Bills to alter the state’s method of execution and to make the execution process more transparent failed in Tennessee’s legislature this year as its session concluded. In an effort to facilitate executions bogged down by the state’s problems with lethal injection, a bill was proposed to give prisoners the option of the firing squad for their execution. Following an independent investigation into Tennessee’s lethal injection protocols, Governor Bill Lee (R) had suspended executions on January 5…

The accompanying graph (click to view separately) displays the time in years since the last execution by each state as of May 1, 2023. The death penalty in the U.S. is a distinctly minority phenomena, with thirty-six states plus the District of Columbia not carrying out an execution in over 10 years. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have abolished capital punishment, and additional jurisdictions, including the federal government, have a hold on executions. Last year there were…

Bills to hide the identities of lethal-injection drug suppliers and execution team members from the public have passed both chambers of the South Carolina legislature. The bills face a reconciliation process before one can move to the governor’s desk for signature. Proponents of the law say it is necessary because revealing such information might make executions difficult or impossible. South Carolina has not carried out an execution in 12 years. Opponents say the public has the right to know…

In the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, interviews Ron McAndrew (pictured), a former Florida Prison Warden who witnessed executions using electrocution and lethal injection in Florida and Texas. He offers reflections on the negative impact that executions have on the families of both the victim and the condemned, the correctional officers, and on himself. Mr. McAndrew discusses his responsibilities as a warden and his involvement in carrying…

The board of Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer published an editorial supporting the passage of Senate Bill 101 that would abolish the death penalty in Ohio. “[T]he time is right,” states the piece, “for the General Assembly to come together to end capital punishment in Ohio. Its inequities are manifest, its barbarism is clear — and its time has passed.” According to the editorial, Senate Bill 101 currently has bipartisan support among “more than a third of the state Senate. …[and] runs the…

A forthcoming article in the Denver Law Review discusses two theories of homicide law, the felony murder rule and accomplice liability, that create group liability for the actions of an individual. The article, written by Professors G. Ben Cohen (pictured), Justin D. Levinson, and Koichi Hioki states that “Research suggests that the administration of accomplice liability [and] felony murder doctrines disproportionately impact Black and minority defendants,” causing minority defendants to be…

On April 20, 2023, Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation removing the death penalty from the state’s laws. With that action, all three branches of the state’s government have taken steps to end capital punishment in Washington: Gov. Inslee had declared a moratorium on executions in 2014, the state Supreme Court found the statute unconstitutional in 2018, and the legislature has now stricken it from the criminal code. Inslee said the new legislation confirms the concerns that were raised about…

On April 20, 2023, Texas legislators initially approved House Bill (HB) 1736 to limit the application of the death penalty in cases where a defendant commits a felony that was accompanied by a murder carried out by someone other than the defendant. Many states have a “felony murder” rule, similar to Texas’ “Law of Parties,” which provides that if one person is found guilty of murder, the offender’s accomplices or co-conspirators may also be found guilty of murder, regardless of their intent to…

On April 19, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (6 – 3) in Reed v. Goertz that a Texas death row prisoner could continue his pursuit of DNA testing that a lower court had blocked. The Court held that Rodney Reed’s (pictured) civil rights claim was filed in federal court in a timely way. The issue in Reed’s case involved when the clock began ticking on a two-year limit to file a federal claim once his state appeal was completed. Justice Kavanaugh, writing for the six-Justice majority, held that…