Publications & Testimony

On March 14, 2025, a group of nine death row prisoners in Tennessee filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s sole use of pentobarbital in its revised lethal injection protocol, arguing it creates a “high risk of a torturous death.” In December 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) completed a multi-year lethal injection protocol review and announced that instead of the previous three-drug protocol, the state would shift to rely on just one drug: pentobarbital. Earlier this month…

On March 12, 2025, Idaho Governor Brad Little (pictured) signed House Bill 37 into law, making the firing squad the state’s primary method of execution. In a statement to Catholic News Agency, Gov. Little said, “I have long made clear my support of capital punishment…My signing of [this bill] is consistent with my support of the Idaho Legislature’s actions in setting the policies around methods of execution in the state of Idaho.” The bill, which takes effect on July 1, 2026, passed both…

Twenty years ago this month, the Supreme Court in its landmark decision Roper v. Simmons found capital punishment for individuals under 18 years of age unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. In explaining their decision, the Court drew in part on “scientific and sociological” studies showing that a lack of maturity in youth can lead to “impetuous and ill-considered actions and decisions,” which supported the idea that this cohort were less culpable and therefore should not…

On March 11, in separate decisions, a federal court in Louisiana and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) stayed the upcoming executions of David Wood (scheduled for execution in Texas on March 13) and Jessie Hoffman (scheduled for execution in Louisiana on March 18). In Mr. Wood’s case, the TCCA granted a stay of execution to allow the state more time to address the eight claims Mr. Wood asserted in his state habeas claim. In Mr. Hoffman’s case, the U.S. District Court for the Middle…

Adam Luck (pictured), the former Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole and former member of the Oklahoma Board of Corrections, is now speaking out against the death penalty in Oklahoma. Explaining his change of heart, Mr. Luck cites to his first-hand experience with flaws in Oklahoma’s capital punishment system, including botched executions, and his deep Christian faith. “Having the unique experience of voting on the life of another human being forced me to consider the…

On March 4, 2025, the Georgia House of Representatives, in a 172 – 0 vote, unanimously passed HB 123, which would provide pretrial hearings for capital defendants to raise intellectual disability claims and would lower the standard of proof for those claims from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to a “preponderance of evidence,” in line with other the other 26 states that still retain the death penalty. The bill was originally introduced by Republican Representative Bill Werkheiser during Georgia’s…

A new report published by Ius Stella, a non-profit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), highlights ongoing human rights violations in the nation’s efforts to eliminate urban gangs, which has been marked by arbitrary arrest and the imposition of death sentences, including on vulnerable civilian youth populations, after military trials whose fairness is in grave doubt. Earlier in January, reports emerged that 170 death-sentenced prisoners, ages 18 to 35, convicted for their links to…

South Carolina law requires Brad Sigmon to “elect” how the state will kill him on March 7, 2025 — and he opted for death by firing squad. His choices were lethal injection, electrocution, or firing squad, with electrocution the default method of execution if no election is made. According to Mr. Sigmon’s attorney, Gerald “Bo” King, Mr. Sigmon chose the firing squad out of concern about problems with the state’s lethal injection protocol. Since Mr. Sigmon’s decision on February 21, 2025, his…

On February 28, 2025, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Robin ‘Rocky’ Dion Myers to Life Without Parole (LWOP). Myers was convicted in the 1991 murder of Ludie Mae Tucker in Decatur, Alabama. His jury recommended that he be sentenced to LWOP, but the judge in his case overrode the jury’s recommendation and handed down a death sentence. The practice of judicial override was abolished in Alabama in 2017. In her statement, Gov. Ivey repeated her belief that “the death…