Publications & Testimony

When Chloe Beck was called for jury duty in ear­ly 2018, she ini­tial­ly viewed it as a poten­tial break from work. But she did not antic­i­pate that the case — involv­ing a nan­ny charged with the stab­bing deaths of two chil­dren — would have last­ing effects on her men­tal health. As an alter­nate juror in the sev­en-week tri­al, Ms. Beck was required to look at crime scene pho­tographs and hear tes­ti­mo­ny from the vic­tims’ par­ents. For Ms. Beck, the expe­ri­ence proved difficult to…

In its August 29, 2025 order, the Utah Supreme Court reversed a low­er court denial of Ralph Menzies’ peti­tion for a reeval­u­a­tion of his com­pe­ten­cy — request­ed in light of Mr. Menzies wors­en­ing demen­tia — remand­ed the case for fur­ther pro­ceed­ings and vacat­ed his exe­cu­tion war­rant. Mr. Menzies had been sched­uled to die on September 5, 2025. > ​“Menzies’s vas­cu­lar demen­tia and its pro­gres­sive effects call into ques­tion whether he remains com­pe­tent to be…

This week we are fea­tur­ing some arti­cles from the first part of 2025 that we think are worth anoth­er look. We’ll be back with new arti­cles next week. This arti­cle orig­i­nal­ly ran on February 11, 2025. In June 2025, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman request­ed that Governor Andy Beshear set an exe­cu­tion date for death row pris­on­er Ralph Baze. In a late June 2025 reply, Gov. Beshear declined to do so because of an April 2025 Franklin County Circuit Court ruling that…

This week we are fea­tur­ing some arti­cles from the first part of 2025 that we think are worth anoth­er look. We’ll be back with new arti­cles next week. This arti­cle orig­i­nal­ly ran on July 7, 2025. At the mid­point of 2025, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) offers this detailed analy­sis of the key facts and themes emerg­ing in the use of the death penal­ty across the U.S. For more than 30 years, DPI has been the pre­em­i­nent nation­al resource for time­ly and trustworthy…

This week we are fea­tur­ing some arti­cles from the first part of 2025 that we think are worth anoth­er look. We’ll be back with new arti­cles next week. This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on April 30, 2025. In com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 20^th anniver­sary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s land­mark deci­sion end­ing the juve­nile death penal­ty, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) today released a new report: Immature Minds in a​“Maturing Society”: Roper v. Simmons at 20, detailing…

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…

In the August 2025 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Melanie Kalmanson, a Florida attor­ney and author of the Substack newslet­ter Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty. Ms. Kalmanson’s newslet­ter com­piles data on leg­is­la­tion, cap­i­tal tri­als, death sen­tences, and exe­cu­tions in Florida. In the pod­cast, she dis­cuss­es how she start­ed fol­low­ing those devel­op­ments, key events in the recent his­to­ry of Florida’s…