Death Penalty News and Developments for November 18 — November 24, 2019

Outcomes of 2019 Death Warrants (through Nov. 24)

NEWS — November 24: Six states set a total of 8 exe­cu­tion dates for November 2019. Three death war­rants were car­ried out — Charles Rhines (South Dakota), Justen Hall (Texas), and Ray Cromartie (Georgia); 4 war­rants were stayed; and one exe­cu­tion was halt­ed by reprieve. Through November 24, 11 states and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment have sched­uled 65 exe­cu­tion dates for 2019. There have been 20 exe­cu­tions, with four poten­tial exe­cu­tions still pend­ing. The map above shows where exe­cu­tions have been sched­uled in 2019 and the sta­tus of those war­rants. The table below shows the out­comes of war­rants by state so far in 2019.

NEWS — November 19: The United States Supreme Court has denied a peti­tion filed by the Utah Attorney General ask­ing the Court to review the fed­er­al appeal pro­ceed­ings in the case of death-row pris­on­er Troy Kell. Utah pros­e­cu­tors com­plained that the appeals process was tak­ing too long after a Utah fed­er­al dis­trict court stayed Kell’s fed­er­al habeas cor­pus pro­ceed­ings with direc­tions that Kell present a new­ly devel­oped con­sti­tu­tion­al claim to the state court before his fed­er­al peti­tion is adju­di­cat­ed. Kell’s lawyers argued that the delay was caused by the pros­e­cu­tors’ refusal to waive a require­ment that his claim be pre­sent­ed to the state court before the fed­er­al court could review it. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit had pre­vi­ous­ly reject­ed the pros­e­cu­tors’ attempt to force the dis­trict court to dis­miss the new claim and decide his habeas peti­tion without it.