Entries by Hayley Bedard

On June 9, 2025, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced that his office will retry death row prisoner Richard Glossip but will not seek the death penalty. AG Drummond’s decision to retry Mr. Glossip follows the February 2025 United States Supreme Court ruling in Glossip v. Oklahoma, in which the high court threw out Mr. Glossip’s 2004 conviction and ordered a new trial because prosecutors allowed a key witness to lie in court and withheld crucial information about the same…

Charles Flores (pictured) was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for the 1998 robbery and murder of Elizabeth “Betty” Black in her Texas home. Mr. Flores was convicted because of the testimony of Jill Barganier, the victim’s neighbor, who only identified Mr. Flores after being hypnotized by police. No DNA or physical evidence connects Mr. Flores to the crime. Attorneys for Mr. Flores argue that he should be granted a new trial because of changes in the understanding of witness testimony…

Benjamin Ritchie’s execution in Indiana on May 20, 2025, has raised new concerns about the use of pentobarbital after defense counsel reported their client displayed an unusual physical reaction after being injected with the drug. But because Indiana officials bar media witnesses from observing executions, the public has no independent witness reports on what transpired. Steve Schutte, an attorney for Mr. Ritchie, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that Mr. Ritchie made what appeared to be…

On May 15, 2025, the Utah Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower court’s decision vacating Douglas Carter’s (pictured) conviction and death sentence and ordering a new trial. The Court found that Utah County prosecutors violated Mr. Carter’s constitutional rights on multiple occasions with their “intentional misconduct” during his 1985 trial that accused him of causing the death of Eva Olesen during a home invasion. In November 2023, Utah County District Court Judge Derek P. Pullan ordered a…

The Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) has admitted to spending $200,000 on lethal injection execution drugs since 2023, all of which have since expired without use. Josh Tewalt, the former director of IDOC said in recent court filings that the drugs in IDOC’s possession expired because of repeated delays associated with scheduling an execution. Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic, an IDOC spokesperson, told the Idaho Statesman that the department does not currently have lethal injection drugs in its…

On May 8, 2025, a group of family members who have lost loved ones to violence in Tennessee delivered a letter to Governor Bill Lee’s office requesting that he halt the state’s upcoming scheduled executions. In their letter, the group of 51 “victims, survivors, and family members of those impacted by violent crime” argue the death penalty does not act as a healing tool for victims and takes away from state-funded resources that could help with their healing. For these individuals, “access to…

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 lethal injection process.

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 persistent delusion that his…