Publications & Testimony

On May 29, 2025, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram ruled that Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr must abide by a 2021 agreement reached with attorneys for nine individuals currently on Georgia’s death row that bars their executions until COVID-19 vaccines are available to everyone. In 2021, the state agreed to halt executions until vaccines were available to all members of the public. In her ruling, Judge Ingram noted that the vaccine is not approved for children under six…

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 one of her children, were…

More than one hundred bills have been introduced this year in 34 states and in Congress to expand and limit use of the death penalty, abolish and reinstate the death penalty, modify execution protocols and secret the information about them, and alter aspects of capital trials. Thus far, ten bills in five states have been enacted, with Florida enacting the most legislation. Of the bills that have been signed into law, three modify execution protocols; three expand the circumstances for death…

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 documented conditions included…

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 understanding of witness testimony…

On May 1, Jeffrey Hutchinson, a Gulf War veteran, was executed in Florida for the murders of his girlfriend and her three young children. As he fought behind enemy lines in some of the most dangerous regions on earth, bombs rattled and nerve gas corroded his brain, causing permanent damage that would contribute to the tragedy just a few years later. “His mind was a casualty, just like any limb lost in combat,” a group of 129 military veterans wrote in a letter urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to halt…

Benjamin Ritchie’s execution in Indiana on May 20, 2025, has raised new concerns about the use of pentobarbital after defense counsel reported their client displayed an unusual physical reaction after being injected with the drug. But because Indiana officials bar media witnesses from observing executions, the public has no independent witness reports on what transpired. Steve Schutte, an attorney for Mr. Ritchie, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that Mr. Ritchie made what appeared to be…

In this month’s podcast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Corinna Barrett Lain, the S.D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law and author of the recently published book, Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection. Ms. Lain’s new book challenges a widely held assumption that lethal injection is a painless, regulated, and medically-sound process. Drawing on…