Entries by Hayley Bedard

The Guardian’s recent four-part series exam­ines the expe­ri­ences of women in prison around the world, with a focus on those fac­ing the death penal­ty. The series illu­mi­nates a large­ly over­looked issue with­in glob­al crim­i­nal legal sys­tems: the fail­ure to rec­og­nize how gen­der-based vio­lence shapes women’s jour­neys to incar­cer­a­tion and death row. The glob­al incar­cer­a­tion of women has reached its high­est lev­els, with more than 733,000 women and girls held in prisons…

Mark Geralds has waived all pend­ing and future legal pro­ceed­ings in his case and is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed by Florida offi­cials on December 9, 2025. Mr. Geralds elect­ed to for­go his appeals just days after Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death war­rant, join­ing a doc­u­ment­ed group of death row pris­on­ers who have also decid­ed not to try and pre­vent their exe­cu­tions. Mr. Geralds​“indi­cat­ed that his wish was to for­go all war­rant pro­ceed­ings and allow the execution to…

Richard​“Malik” Randolph is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on November 20, 2025, for the 1988 mur­der of Minnie Ruth McCollum. If car­ried out, Mr. Randolph’s exe­cu­tion will mark Florida’s 17^th exe­cu­tion of the year — more than dou­ble the pre­vi­ous record of eight exe­cu­tions in one year, and the sev­enth exe­cu­tion of a mil­i­tary vet­er­an by the state in 2025. According to his lawyers, Mr. Randolph’s child­hood was marked by pro­found trau­ma: adopt­ed at five months old, he endured…

Documents reviewed by NBC News in response to a pub­lic records request reveal that since October 2024 Texas has spent more than $775,000 to acquire pen­to­bar­bi­tal, the drug used in the state’s lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. During the same time frame, the state has car­ried out 6 exe­cu­tions. The records show that in September 2024, the state obtained 20 one-gram vials of pen­to­bar­bi­tal and an addi­tion­al eight 2.5‑gram vials in February 2025. Per the state’s protocol,…

On October 23, 2025, Alabama exe­cut­ed Anthony Boyd, despite his unwa­ver­ing claim of inno­cence and a fiery dis­sent authored by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, renew­ing the seri­ous con­cerns that have been con­sis­tent­ly raised about the state’s use of nitro­gen gas. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, dis­sent­ed from the Court’s October 23, 2025, denial of a stay of exe­cu­tion, writ­ing that Alabama’s use of nitro­gen gas​“vio­lates the Constitution…

On October 17, 2025, the fed­er­al judi­cia­ry announced that start­ing on October 20, the branch would no longer have the funds need­ed to​“sus­tain full, paid oper­a­tions.” This lat­est devel­op­ment is a direct result of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment shut­down that began on October 1. Until fund­ing is restored, fed­er­al judges will con­tin­ue their bench duties, but court staff may only per­form​“activ­i­ties” nec­es­sary for con­sti­tu­tion­al func­tions — all with­out pay. The current…

Anthony Boyd is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Alabama on October 23, 2025, for his role in the 1993 kid­nap­ping and mur­der of Gregory​“New York” Huguley. Mr. Boyd was con­vict­ed based sole­ly on eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny with no phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing him to the crime, and he has main­tained his inno­cence. Alabama will exe­cute Mr. Boyd using nitro­gen gas, the sev­enth time state has used this con­tro­ver­sial method since January 2024, when the state exe­cut­ed Kenneth Smith in…

In com­ments to reporters on September 30, 2025, Pope Leo XIV said that sup­port­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was incon­sis­tent with being pro-life. The Pope was respond­ing to ques­tions about Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich’s plan to hon­or Senator Dick Durbin for his work on immi­grant human rights issues. The announce­ment drew crit­i­cism from sev­er­al American bish­ops who object­ed based on Sen. Durbin’s sup­port for legalized abortion. ​“Someone who says,​‘I’m against abor­tion’ but…