Entries by Pam Quanrud

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 person. “Ralph Menzies is a…

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 showing that “95% of the…

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 budget package.” The bill would…

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 a century ago. The report confirms that no federal charges were filed at…