Publications & Testimony

On October 7, a Tennessee judge issued a broadly worded order requiring the state to preserve all evidence from the failed September 30 execution attempt of Christa Pike. Her attorneys reported on October 6 that she has regained consciousness and is speaking, although her overall prognosis remains uncertain. Davidson County Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles granted a motion filed by Ms. Pike’s legal team, which sought to prevent the loss of records and physical evidence from the botched…

The U.S. Army has set an execution date of December 3 for Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people in a mass shooting on the Fort Hood military base in 2009. The announcement comes after President Donald Trump approved Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s recommendation to put Mr. Hasan to death by firing squad. The execution will take place at Fort Hood in Texas. However, Mr. Hasan is constitutionally entitled to pursue appellate review of his death sentence in civilian federal courts…

Justin Wolfe (pictured, center, with his mother and uncle) was released from prison on September 28, 2026 after pleading guilty to marijuana distribution and entering an Alford plea on charges of solicitation of robbery. He had been sentenced to death nearly 25 years ago for the murder-for-hire of Daniel Petrole, Jr., his marijuana supplier. Owen Barber IV, who admitted to shooting Mr. Petrole, had implicated Mr. Wolfe in order to avoid a death sentence himself. Mr. Barber later recanted his…

The attempted execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee has drawn national and international attention after Tennessee Department of Correction officials administered two doses of lethal-injection drugs but Ms. Pike survived. Christa Pike, sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer when Ms. Pike was 18, remains in critical condition and is receiving life-saving treatment at a hospital as of October 5, according to her attorneys. The case is unprecedented in the modern era of…

Christa Pike remained alive more than an hour after the state of Tennessee began its attempt to execute her on September 30, 2026. It was the latest in a series of troubled executions by the Tennessee Department of Corrections. At a press conference outside the prison, media witnesses sharing their observations were interrupted by emergency vehicles arriving to take Ms. Pike to a local hospital. As outlined in the new execution protocol, Tennessee prison officials administered two doses of…

During a local news conference on September 21, 2026, family members of homicide victims whose cases remain unsolved in Arizona called for sustained attention and resources for unsolved homicide cases. The call, supported by Arizonans for Effective Public Safety — a project of Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona — comes amid broader questions about the costs and effectiveness of capital punishment in Arizona, and whether resources devoted to capital punishment and felony murder prosecutions…

For updates on the botched execution attempt of Christa Pike on September 30, please see our full story here. On September 28, 2026, Governor Bill Lee denied a clemency request from death-sentenced prisoner Christa Pike, who is scheduled to be executed on September 30. Gov. Lee announced, “[a]fter deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case,” he said he would uphold “the sentence of the State of Tennessee,” noting he did not…

Nearly two years after District Judge Arturo Nelson declared Texas death-sentenced prisoner Melissa Lucio “actually innocent,” the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) refused to accept the recommendation of the lower court to overturn her conviction. A closely divided TCCA declined “to adopt any of the habeas court’s findings and conclusions,” which the majority of the court wrote “exclusively reflect [Ms. Lucio’s] interpretation of the evidence and are often unsupported.” In its 5 – 4…

UPDATE: On September 25, counsel for William Thompson filed a new federal lawsuit in the Middle District of Florida, accusing several state actors and prison healthcare providers of denying Mr. Thompson of his “constitutional right to adequate medical care.” The lawsuit does not challenge Mr. Thompson’s death sentence or scheduled execution but rather asks the federal court to require that the named officials provide constitutionally required medical care for Mr. Thompson. The lawsuit asks for…

In the September 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, Director of Death Penalty Abolition for Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a national organization mobilizing people of Catholic faith and moral conviction around issues of criminal justice, including death penalty abolition and restorative justice. Ms. Mendoza Waters discusses why the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty and calls believers to…