Entries by Pam Quanrud

October 9, 2025 UPDATE: On October 9, 2025, just a week before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) grant­ed Robert Roberson a stay of exe­cu­tion and remand­ed his case to the dis­trict court for fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion of his request for relief based upon relief offered in a sim­i­lar case, Ex parte Roark. Like Mr. Roberson’s case, Ex parte Roark**, also involved a con­vic­tion based the now…

In a motion filed September 20, 2025, attor­neys for Luigi Mangione, indict­ed in the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, have filed a broad chal­lenge to the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the fed­er­al death penal­ty, argu­ing that it is applied arbi­trar­i­ly, in vio­la­tion of Fifth Amendment’s due process pro­tec­tions and the Eighth Amendment’s pro­hi­bi­tion on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ments. They are ask­ing the United States District Court in the Southern District…

Byron Black was exe­cut­ed in Tennessee by lethal injec­tion on August 5, 2025. During his exe­cu­tion, Mr. Black unex­pect­ed­ly and repeat­ed­ly groaned over the course of sev­er­al min­utes and audi­bly told his spir­i­tu­al advi­sor that he was in pain. An autop­sy released September 10, 2025, pro­vides some expla­na­tion. It found evi­dence of​“pul­monary con­ges­tion and ede­ma”– defined as an abnor­mal buildup of flu­id in the lungs which can pro­duce sen­sa­tions of​“doom,…

On August 19, 2025, the Utah Pardons Board denied Ralph Menzies’ peti­tion for com­mu­ta­tion, despite his wors­en­ing demen­tia, fail­ing health, and evi­dence that his 1988 death sen­tence​“was imposed in error” and​“obtained using per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny.” The Pardons Board was asked to com­mute his sen­tence to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole (LWOP). According to report­ing by the Utah News Dispatch, Utah’s Pardon Board has nev­er grant­ed clemen­cy to a death-sentenced…

Over the past two weeks, two Florida death row pris­on­ers filed fresh chal­lenges to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ deci­sions to sign his tenth and eleventh death war­rants of 2025. On July 29, 2025, Kayle Barrington Bates (also known as Maud Dib Al Sharif) brought a civ­il suit against Gov. DeSantis alleg­ing Florida’s exe­cu­tion war­rant process​“is infect­ed with racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al arbi­trari­ness.” Included in the claim is a statistical analysis…

The Arizona leg­is­la­ture is con­sid­er­ing new leg­is­la­tion that will com­pen­sate exon­er­at­ed indi­vid­u­als. HB 2813 was intro­duced in February by Republican Representative Khyl Powell and eas­i­ly passed in the Arizona House of Representatives in a 59 – 1 vote two weeks lat­er. The bill is now await­ing con­sid­er­a­tion by the Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee, and accord­ing to report­ing by the Daily Independent it is being​“con­sid­ered for inclu­sion as part of a final…

On March 11, in sep­a­rate deci­sions, a fed­er­al court in Louisiana and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) stayed the upcom­ing exe­cu­tions of David Wood (sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Texas on March 13) and Jessie Hoffman (sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Louisiana on March 18). In Mr. Wood’s case, the TCCA grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion to allow the state more time to address the eight claims Mr. Wood assert­ed in his state habeas claim. In Mr. Hoffman’s case, the U.S. District Court for the Middle…

On January 9, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice released its Review and Evaluation of the Tulsa Race Massacre of May 31-June 1, 1921. The depart­ment char­ac­ter­ized the report as​“the fed­er­al government’s first thor­ough reck­on­ing” designed to acknowl­edge, illu­mi­nate, and pre­serve for his­to­ry the​“hor­ri­ble ordeals of the massacre’s vic­tims” even if they found no legal avenue for pros­e­cu­tion of the crimes committed over…