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 Joseph Corcoran. Gov. Braun…

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 understanding of the punishment or the State’s…

When a lawyer makes a mistake, who suffers the consequences? The “agency principle” says the client does, under the rationale that clients choose their lawyers and authorize their actions. But courts universally apply this principle to all attorney-client relationships, including when indigent, isolated death-sentenced prisoners are appointed attorneys by the state, with little or no means of controlling their lawyers’ actions. Many commentators have noted the problems applying this theory to…

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 about the same…

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…