Publications & Testimony

According to Governor Mike Braun (pic­tured), Indiana has deplet­ed the sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal it uses in its lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Given that the last of the dos­es pur­chased in December 2024 expired and went unused, Gov. Braun does not intend to renew the state’s sup­ply. According to ear­li­er report­ing by the Indiana Capital Chronicle, the Indiana Department of Correction (IDC) spent $900,000 on pen­to­bar­bi­tal in late 2024 in prepa­ra­tion for the execution of…

On June 6, 2025, District Judge Matthew Bates issued a rul­ing find­ing Utah death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Ralph Menzies men­tal­ly com­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed despite con­cerns pre­sent­ed by Mr. Menzies’ attor­neys about his vas­cu­lar demen­tia. In his rul­ing, Judge Bates agreed that Mr. Menzies suf­fers from vas­cu­lar demen­tia but said Mr. Menzies had failed to show​“by a pre­pon­der­ance of the evi­dence that his men­tal con­di­tion pre­vents him from reach­ing a rational…

On June 9, 2025, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced that his office will retry death row pris­on­er Richard Glossip but will not seek the death penal­ty. AG Drummond’s deci­sion to retry Mr. Glossip fol­lows the February 2025 United States Supreme Court rul­ing in Glossip v. Oklahoma, in which the high court threw out Mr. Glossip’s 2004 con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al because pros­e­cu­tors allowed a key wit­ness to lie in court and with­held crucial information…

Sonia​“Sunny” Jacobs, a for­mer death row pris­on­er whose sto­ry of wrong­ful con­vic­tion was fea­tured in the off-Broadway play​“The Exonerated)” and who became a promi­nent advo­cate for for­mer­ly incar­cer­at­ed pris­on­ers, died in a house fire, along with her care­giv­er, in County Galway, Ireland, on June 3, 2025. Ms. Jacobs was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1976 for the mur­ders of two law enforce­ment offi­cers at a Florida rest stop. She and Jesse Tafero, the father of…

Scott Panetti died on Texas’ death row at the end of May 2025 after 30 years in prison. He became well-known for the role his case played in clar­i­fy­ing the legal stan­dard for deter­min­ing when defen­dants are com­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion — prece­dent that con­tin­ues to shape court deci­sions nation­wide. Mr. Panetti’s severe men­tal ill­ness man­i­fest­ed in his late teens, lead­ing to more than a dozen psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal­iza­tions through the 1980s and ear­ly 1990s. His…

Charles Flores (pic­tured) was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the 1998 rob­bery and mur­der of Elizabeth​“Betty” Black in her Texas home. Mr. Flores was con­vict­ed because of the tes­ti­mo­ny of Jill Barganier, the victim’s neigh­bor, who only iden­ti­fied Mr. Flores after being hyp­no­tized by police. No DNA or phys­i­cal evi­dence con­nects Mr. Flores to the crime. Attorneys for Mr. Flores argue that he should be grant­ed a new tri­al because of changes in the…