Entries by Hayley Bedard


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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News 

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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News 

Mar 202025

DPIs Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Sabrina Butler-Smith on Wrongful Convictions and Motherhood

In this month’s pod­cast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPIs Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sabrina Butler-Smith (pic­tured), who was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death at age 17 for caus­ing the death of her nine-month-old son. After two years and nine months on death row, Ms. Butler-Smith’s con­vic­tion was over­turned. At a sec­ond tri­al, it was deter­mined that her son died from a seri­ous med­ical con­di­tion, poly­cys­tic kidney disease,…

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News 

Mar 182025

Nine Tennessee Death Row Prisoners Challenge State’s One-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol, Citing High Risk of Torturous Death”

On March 14, 2025, a group of nine death row pris­on­ers in Tennessee filed a law­suit chal­leng­ing the state’s sole use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal in its revised lethal injec­tion pro­to­col, argu­ing it cre­ates a​“high risk of a tor­tur­ous death.” In December 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) com­plet­ed a mul­ti-year lethal injec­tion pro­to­col review and announced that instead of the pre­vi­ous three-drug pro­to­col, the state would shift to rely on just one drug:…

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Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

News 

Mar 172025

Idaho Governor Signs Legislation Authorizing Firing Squad as State’s Primary Execution Method

On March 12, 2025, Idaho Governor Brad Little (pic­tured) signed House Bill 37 into law, mak­ing the fir­ing squad the state’s pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion. In a state­ment to Catholic News Agency, Gov. Little said,​“I have long made clear my sup­port of cap­i­tal punishment…My sign­ing of [this bill] is con­sis­tent with my sup­port of the Idaho Legislature’s actions in set­ting the poli­cies around meth­ods of exe­cu­tion in the state of Idaho.” The bill, which takes effect on July 1,…

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