Publications & Testimony

On October 30, 2023, the United States Supreme Court denied Texas death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Brent Brewer’s (pic­tured) peti­tion for cer­tio­rari, clear­ing the way for his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on November 9^th. Mr. Brewer’s attor­neys argue that unre­li­able ​“future dan­ger­ous­ness” junk sci­ence tes­ti­mo­ny from a psy­chi­a­trist who nev­er even met Mr. Brewer result­ed in his death sen­tence. Following the Supreme Court’s deci­sion, attor­neys for Mr. Brewer sub­mit­ted a clemen­cy appli­ca­tion, detail­ing the fact that one of his jurors did not want to sen­tence him to death. The appli­ca­tion also details Mr. Brewer’s good…

On October 26, 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion for William Speer, who was set to be exe­cut­ed the same evening for the killing of anoth­er pris­on­er 26 years ago. Mr. Speer has been sched­uled to die by lethal injec­tion, but his attor­neys asked the TCCA to pause his exe­cu­tion over alle­ga­tions that pros­e­cu­tors failed to dis­close evi­dence at tri­al, know­ing­ly pre­sent­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny, and that his tri­al lawyers pro­vid­ed inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion by fail­ing to present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence of severe child­hood trau­ma and…

On October 22, 2023, Vic Fischer, the last sur­viv­ing sign­er of the Alaskan state con­sti­tu­tion, died at age 99. Mr. Fischer, along with Rep. Warren Taylor, spon­sored the death penal­ty abo­li­tion bill that passed in the Alaska territory’s leg­is­la­ture in 1957, two years before Alaska gained state­hood. The bill read: ​“The death penal­ty is and shall here­after be abol­ished as pun­ish­ment in Alaska for the com­mis­sion of any crime.”

In August 2023, Alabama released the first-ever exe­cu­tion pro­to­col for nitro­gen hypox­ia, an untest­ed exe­cu­tion method in which pris­on­ers will be put to death by suf­fo­ca­tion as they are forced to breathe pure nitro­gen gas. Alabama’s heav­i­ly redact­ed pro­to­col pro­vides that pris­on­ers will be fit­ted with a mask and breath­ing tube to con­trol the gas, which will slow­ly deprive them of oxy­gen. However, use of this untest­ed method may also pose dan­gers to spir­i­tu­al advi­sors and prison staff in the exe­cu­tion chamber.

In July 2020, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, under the direc­tion of Attorney General Bill Barr, resumed fed­er­al exe­cu­tions for the first time in 17 years. Over the course of the fol­low­ing six months, 13 fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed. During those six months, the WFIU News team was grant­ed the oppor­tu­ni­ty to report on and wit­ness all 13 exe­cu­tions at United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute in Indiana. In the time since these exe­cu­tions, the WFIU News team col­lect­ed doc­u­ments and inter­viewed those con­nect­ed to every fed­er­al execution…

The Death Penalty Information Center has updat­ed its Death Penalty Census, a data­base of every death sen­tence imposed since 1972. The data­base now con­tains infor­ma­tion accu­rate as of January 1, 2022, inclu­sive of the 50^th year of the mod­ern death penal­ty. The Census con­tains infor­ma­tion on 9,820 death sen­tences imposed on 8,842 defen­dants. It includes the name, race, and gen­der of each defen­dant, along with the region, state, coun­ty, and year in which the sen­tence was imposed.

On October 18, 2023, the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole delayed the sched­uled exe­cu­tion for Thomas Creech in order to pro­vide him with a full clemen­cy hear­ing. A date for the hear­ing has not yet been sched­uled. An Ada County, Idaho judge pre­vi­ous­ly issued a death war­rant for Mr. Creech, who has been on death row for near­ly 44 years, set­ting his exe­cu­tion for November 8, 2023. The Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) announced that they have secured the appro­pri­ate drugs to car­ry out a lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion, despite…

On October 4, 2023, Phillip Hancock, an Oklahoma death-sen­tenced pris­on­er sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on November 30, filed a Section 1983 law­suit in fed­er­al court request­ing the release of phys­i­cal evi­dence for DNA test­ing to sup­port his long-main­tained claim of self-defense. The State has repeat­ed­ly opposed his efforts to test the evi­dence and Oklahoma state courts have also repeat­ed­ly denied his requests. 

On Friday, October 13, the sole sur­viv­ing fam­i­ly mem­ber of mur­der vic­tim Gary L. Dickerson joined dozens of faith lead­ers and oth­ers in ask­ing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemen­cy for Will Speer. Mr. Speer is set to be exe­cut­ed on October 26, 2023. After a child­hood of hor­rif­ic abuse, a life sen­tence by age 18, and a judg­ment of death by age 23, Mr. Speer devot­ed him­self to the study of Christianity and has become a promi­nent prison min­is­ter. ​“In my heart, I feel that he…

On October 13, 2023, after a brief admin­is­tra­tive hear­ing, the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole denied clemen­cy hear­ings for five of the 56 death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers seek­ing clemen­cy before Governor John Bel Edwards leaves office in January 2024. The four-mem­ber pan­el split its vote on four of the five appli­ca­tions, with a major­i­ty deny­ing the fifth appli­ca­tion on the grounds that Winthrop Eaton is unlike­ly to be exe­cut­ed because he is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. Clifford Deruise, Daniel Irish, Emmett Taylor, and Antoinette Frank were denied clemen­cy hear­ings despite having…