Entries by Hayley Bedard


News 

May 052025

Federal Judge in Idaho Orders Department of Corrections Must Allow Greater Media Access to Executions

On April 29, 2025, U.S. District Judge Debora K. Grasham ordered the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) to give media wit­ness­es to an exe­cu­tion​“audio and visu­al access to the prepa­ra­tion and admin­is­tra­tion of the lethal injec­tion drugs.” The rul­ing stems from a December 2024 law­suit filed by the Associated Press, The Idaho Statesman, and East Idaho News, which argued that media out­lets were being uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly pro­hib­it­ed from view­ing​“key steps” in Idaho’s…

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Apr 292025

Florida Court Refuses to Stop Execution for Mentally Ill Veteran Jeffrey Hutchinson

Jeffrey Hutchinson is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Florida on May 1, 2025, despite a long­stand­ing men­tal ill­ness and his attorney’s claim that he is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. On April 24, 2025, attor­neys for the Gulf War vet­er­an filed a motion in Bradford County Circuit Court seek­ing a stay of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion and request­ing an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to assess their client’s com­pe­ten­cy. Mr. Hutchinson has suf­fered from a delu­sion­al dis­or­der for decades, with a…

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Apr 282025

Louisiana Judge Sets Aside Jimmie Duncan’s Conviction and Death Sentence Based on No Longer Valid” Bite Mark Evidence

On April 24, 2025, Louisiana District Court Judge Alvin Sharp set aside Jimmie Duncan’s first-degree mur­der con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. Mr. Duncan was sen­tenced to death for the 1993 death of his girlfriend’s tod­dler large­ly based on faulty bite mark evi­dence. Judge Sharp, in a deci­sion that came after a September 2024 evi­den­tiary hear­ing, held that expert tes­ti­mo­ny pre­sent­ed dur­ing this hear­ing demon­strat­ed the bite mark analy­sis used against Mr. Duncan is​“no…

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News 

Apr 172025

Guantanamo Judge Rules Government Cannot Use Confession Obtained Through Torture in 9/​11 Capital Case

On April 11, 2025, Judge Colonel Matthew McCall ruled that con­fes­sions elicit­ed from Ammar al-Baluchi, accused of con­spir­ing in the September 11th ter­ror­ism attacks, were the result of tor­ture car­ried out by the CIA and as a result can­not be used against Mr. al-Baluchi in any legal pro­ceed­ing. According to Col. McCall, Mr. al-Baluchi invol­un­tar­i­ly incrim­i­nat­ed him­self in 2007 after exten­sive​“psy­cho­log­i­cal con­di­tion­ing” through tor­ture and abuse during his…

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News 

Apr 162025

Tennessee Death Row Prisoners Ask Governor Lee to Halt Scheduled Executions While Courts Assess Constitutionality of New Lethal Injection Protocol

On April 10, 2025, attor­neys for Tennessee death row pris­on­ers Oscar Smith and Byron Black called on Governor Bill Lee to issue a tem­po­rary reprieve in their cas­es. In their let­ter, the attor­neys ask Gov. Lee​“to pause all exe­cu­tions in Tennessee until March 1, 2026,” to per­mit a pend­ing case chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s new pen­to­bar­bi­tal lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure to be decid­ed. In late December 2024, the Tennessee Department of Corrections…

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News 

Apr 082025

Records Request Reveals Indiana Department of Corrections Spent $900,000 for Lethal Injection Drugs

According to pub­lic records released to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) spent $900,000 on the drugs need­ed to car­ry out the lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran in December 2024. The new­ly released record is so high­ly redact­ed that just one line of text appears:​“IDOC shall pay the Contractor the sum of nine hun­dred thou­sand dol­lars ($900,000).” The doc­u­ment does not show how much pen­to­bar­bi­tal was pur­chased, when it…

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News 

Apr 072025

U.S. Attorney General Directs Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione, Marking First Federal Death Sentence Sought By This Trump Administration

On April 1, 2025, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she has direct­ed act­ing U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Matthew Podolsky, to seek the death penal­ty against Luigi Mangione for the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. This is the first time AG Bondi has direct­ed pros­e­cu­tors to seek the death penal­ty since President Donald Trump assumed office in January 2025, when he issued an exec­u­tive order includ­ing a call to​“restore” the fed­er­al death penal­ty. In a…

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News 

Apr 032025

Georgia Senate Passes Bill Lowering Legal Standard for Intellectual Disability for Capital Defendants; Sends Bill to Governor’s Desk

On March 31, 2025, the Georgia Senate, in a 531 vote, passed HB 123, send­ing the bill to Governor Brian Kemp’s desk to be signed. HB 123 pro­vides pre­tri­al hear­ings for cap­i­tal defen­dants to raise intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claims and would low­er the stan­dard of proof for those claims from​“beyond a rea­son­able doubt” to a​“pre­pon­der­ance of evi­dence,” in line with the oth­er 26 states that still retain the death penal­ty. The near-unan­i­­­mous Senate vote comes on the…

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Mar 272025

U.S. Supreme Court Denies Review in Texas Faulty DNA Evidence Case, Despite Prosecutor Confession of Error

On March 24, 2025, the United States Supreme Court denied review of Areli Escobar’s (pic­tured) most recent appeal of his mur­der con­vic­tion, which argued for relief based on the fact that the Texas pros­e­cu­tor had con­fessed error over the mis­lead­ing use of incon­clu­sive DNA evi­dence at tri­al. In his peti­tion, Mr. Escobar’s legal team said Travis County pros­e­cu­tors had relied heav­i­ly at tri­al on com­pro­mised evi­dence ana­lyzed by the Austin Police Department’s crime…

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News 

Mar 252025

Records Show Tennessee Officials Have Spent Nearly $600,000 of Taxpayer Funds for Lethal Injection Drugs Since 2017

According to records request­ed by The Tennessean, between 2017 and 2025 the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) spent near­ly $600,000 of tax­pay­er funds obtain­ing drugs for lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Specific infor­ma­tion about the drugs’ sources and ori­gins remains unknown because of the state’s secre­cy pro­vi­sions. During this time peri­od sev­en exe­cu­tions were car­ried out: five by elec­tro­cu­tion, two by lethal injec­tion. The TDOC ini­tial­ly refused to respond…

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