Entries by Hayley Bedard

Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich for­mal­ly dis­missed the case against Elwood Jones on December 12, 2025, end­ing a near­ly 30-year saga that saw Mr. Jones spend 27 years on Ohio’s death row for a mur­der he did not com­mit.​“I did not take this extra­or­di­nary step light­ly,” said Prosecutor Pillich.​“But after review­ing the evi­dence, I am not con­vinced that Mr. Jones killed Rhoda Nathan.” Mr. Jones, now 57, was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1996 for the 1994 murder…

Harold Nichols is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion on December 11, 2025, despite ques­tions from doc­tors and lawyers about whether Tennessee’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col caus­es unnec­es­sary pain and suf­fer­ing. Mr. Nichols was sen­tenced to death for the 1988 rape and mur­der of Karen Pooley, a Chattanooga State University stu­dent, and his case involves a broad­er legal bat­tle over the secre­cy of Tennessee’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. At the cen­ter of the controversy…

Glynn Simmons keeps a copy of his death war­rant, signed by the Oklahoma gov­er­nor 50 years ago, order­ing his exe­cu­tion in the elec­tric chair. He was 22 years old at the time, con­vict­ed of a mur­der he did not com­mit. Forty-eight years lat­er, after becom­ing the longest-incar­­­cer­at­ed wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed per­son in U.S. his­to­ry, Mr. Simmons’ sto­ry has become cen­tral to a grow­ing con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment ques­tion­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment — one that Nan Tolson is…

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…