Entries by Leah Roemer

The Constitution man­dates that juries be drawn from a​“fair cross-sec­­­tion” of the com­mu­ni­ty. Yet pub­lic opin­ion polls show that a sub­stan­tial por­tion of the com­mu­ni­ty oppos­es the death penal­ty. How, then, can the gov­ern­ment seat a jury that will fair­ly decide whether to impose the death penal­ty and pro­tect a defendant’s con­sti­tu­tion­al jury rights? The legal system’s long­stand­ing answer to this ques­tion is a pro­ce­dure called​“death qual­i­fi­ca­tion,” which…

“I am extreme­ly con­cerned by the recent pace of death war­rants and the speed with which the par­ties and involved enti­ties must car­ry out their respec­tive duties.” Florida Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga wrote those words in 2023, a year in which Florida con­duct­ed six exe­cu­tions with an aver­age war­rant peri­od of 36 days. Such a pace was already strain­ing the state’s judi­cial, legal, and prison sys­tems. But in 2025, under the sole author­i­ty of Governor Ron DeSantis, the…

When Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill took office in January 2024, they moved aggres­sive­ly to restart exe­cu­tions in the state. Gov. Landry signed bills that autho­rized nitro­gen suf­fo­ca­tion and elec­tro­cu­tion as exe­cu­tion meth­ods, increased his own pow­er over the state cap­i­tal defense sys­tem, and lim­it­ed post-con­vic­­­tion appeals, while AG Murrill moved to take over cap­i­tal appeal chal­lenges from local dis­trict attor­neys. In March 2025,…

On January 30, a fed­er­al judge ruled that Luigi Mangione can­not face the death penal­ty in his upcom­ing tri­al for the mur­der of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. She dis­missed two counts from his fed­er­al indict­ment, one of which car­ried the death penal­ty as a poten­tial sen­tence. Described by The New York Times as​“a sig­nif­i­cant blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to revive the use of the death penal­ty in fed­er­al cas­es,” this deci­sion invalidates a…

September 30, 1953 was an event­ful night for 19-year-old Tommy Lee Walker. After catch­ing a ride home from work at 6 p.m. — he didn’t have a car — he spent a few hours with friends in Exall Park near his home in Dallas. He then vis­it­ed his girl­friend Mary Louise Smith, who was nine months preg­nant. It seemed like the baby would come any minute, and sure enough, Mary Louise went into labor that night. Their son Ted was born in the ear­ly hours of October 1. Yet despite the many…

New drugs and med­ical treat­ments under­go rig­or­ous test­ing to ensure they are safe and effec­tive for pub­lic use. Under fed­er­al and state reg­u­la­tions, this test­ing typ­i­cal­ly involves clin­i­cal tri­als with human sub­jects, who face sig­nif­i­cant health and safe­ty risks as the first peo­ple exposed to exper­i­men­tal treat­ments. That is why the law requires them to be ful­ly informed of the poten­tial effects and give their vol­un­tary con­sent to participate in…

Tremane Wood was sched­uled to die at 10 a.m. local time on November 13. According to jour­nal­ist Hilary Andersson, who trav­eled to Oklahoma to observe the exe­cu­tion, the call from the gov­er­nor came at 9:59 a.m. Mr. Wood learned that his life would be spared at the lit­er­al​“last minute.” While Mr. Wood, his attor­neys, and his fam­i­ly expe­ri­enced over­whelm­ing relief in the after­math of the clemen­cy grant, accord­ing to Ms. Andersson, some also expressed shock at the timing…

Update: Mr. Shockley was exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion on October 14. He was pro­nounced dead at 6:13 p.m. Yesterday, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe denied clemen­cy to Lance Shockley, who is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion today at 6 p.m. However, a recent sur­vey found that Missouri vot­ers, by a bipar­ti­san two-thirds major­i­ty, would pre­fer to see Mr. Shockley’s death sen­tence com­mut­ed. Dr. Nicholas Scurich of the University of California, Irvine, found that 65% of the 440…