Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Aug 26, 2025
DPI Report Examines the Legacy of Roper v. Simmons and Its Implications for 18- to 20-Year-Olds in Death Penalty Cases
This week we are featuring some articles from the first part of 2025 that we think are worth another look. We’ll be back with new articles next week. This article was originally posted on April 30, 2025. In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision ending the juvenile death penalty, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) today released a new report: Immature Minds in a“Maturing Society”: Roper v. Simmons at 20, detailing…
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Aug 20, 2025
Former Alabama Governor Urges Use of Clemency, Criticizes Florida’s Execution Process as “Shrouded in Secrecy”
In an August 14, 2025, op-ed in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman revealed he has“lived to regret” not commuting death sentences while he was in office, and criticized Florida’s execution selection process, citing serious concerns with secrecy and racial bias. Writing about two scheduled executions in Florida — Kayle Bates on August 19 and Curtis Windom on August 28 — Gov. Siegelman argues the cases surface systemic problems in…
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Aug 18, 2025
DPI’s Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Florida Attorney and Researcher Melanie Kalmanson on Recent Developments in Florida’s Death Penalty
In the August 2025 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Melanie Kalmanson, a Florida attorney and author of the Substack newsletter Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty. Ms. Kalmanson’s newsletter compiles data on legislation, capital trials, death sentences, and executions in Florida. In the podcast, she discusses how she started following those developments, key events in the recent history of Florida’s…
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Jul 08, 2025
ACLU Report Shows How Death Penalty Jury Selection Discriminates Against Black Americans, Women, and People of Faith
A new report from the ACLU documents how the process of selecting juries for death penalty cases systematically excludes Black prospective jurors, women, and people of faith, fundamentally undermining the constitutional promise of a trial by a jury of one’s peers. The report, Fatal Flaws: Revealing the Racial and Religious Gerrymandering of the Capital Jury, examines the practice of“death qualification,” a requirement that potential jurors must be…
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Jul 03, 2025
DPI’s Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Journalists Reflect on the Challenges and Importance of Media Reporting on the Death Penalty
In this month’s podcast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sam Levin, a correspondent with The Guardian who covers criminal justice and the legal system, and Jimmy Jenkins, a criminal justice reporter for The Arizona Republic, about the challenges they encounter when reporting on the increasing secretive use of the death penalty. Mr. Jenkins has witnessed executions in Arizona and Mr. Levin has recently…
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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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