Stays and Executions in 2016

Date of Scheduled ExecutionStateInmateOutcome

January

7

FL

Oscar Bolin

Executed

14

AR

Jason McGehee

Temporary restrain­ing order grant­ed stay­ing exe­cu­tion so already pend­ing judi­cial review of AR lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures could take place.~

14

AR

Kenneth Williams

Temporary restrain­ing order grant­ed stay­ing exe­cu­tion so already pend­ing judi­cial review of AR lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures could take place.~

19

PA

Gerald Watkins

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on December 4, 2015 to per­mit Watkins to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of state and fed­er­al law.#

20

TX

Richard Masterson

Executed

21

OH

Ronald Phillips

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^

21

OH

Jeffery Wogenstahl

Rescheduled as a result of all 2015 Ohio exe­cu­tions being post­poned until 2016 to allow the state more time to obtain new drugs. New Date Set.

21

AL

Christopher Brooks

Executed

22

PA

Andre Staton

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on December 2, 2015 to per­mit Watkins to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of state and fed­er­al law.#

27

TX

James Freeman

Executed
JANUARY 201610 sched­uled executions6 states4 exe­cu­tions; 4 exe­cu­tions stayed or enjoined; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve; 1 execution rescheduled.

February

3

GA

Brandon Jones

Executed

11

FL

Michael Ray Lambrix

Stayed by Florida Supreme Court while the court con­sid­ers his peti­tion rais­ing the retroac­tiv­i­ty of Hurst v. Florida (U.S. 2016).

16

TX

Gustavo Garcia

Executed

17

GA

Travis Hittson

Executed

19

OH

Raymond Tibbetts

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^
FEBRUARY 20165 sched­uled executions4 states3 exe­cu­tions; 1 exe­cu­tion stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve

March

9

TX

Coy Wesbrook

Executed

14

LA

Daniel Blank

Stayed by the Louisiana Supreme Court on a unanimous decision.

15

TN

Donald Strouth

Died on death row, May 13, 2015

15

PA

Thomas Meadows

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on January 28, 2016 to per­mit Meadows to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of state and fed­er­al law.#

16

PA

Jeffrey Martin

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the Greene County Court of Common Pleas on February 9, 2016 to per­mit Martin to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of state law.#

16

VA

Ricky Jovan Gray

4th Circuit issued a stay while the Supreme Court is con­sid­er­ing hear­ing the case.

18

PA

Christopher Johnson

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on March 2, 2016 to per­mit Johnson to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of state and fed­er­al law.#

17

FL

Mark James Asay

Stayed by Florida Supreme Court while the court con­sid­ers his peti­tion rais­ing the retroac­tiv­i­ty of Hurst v. Florida (U.S. 2016).

22

TX

Adam Ward

Executed

23

OH

Alva Campbell

Rescheduled due to all 2015 Ohio exe­cu­tions being post­poned until 2016 to allow the state more time to obtain new drugs. New Date Set^^

30

TX

John David Battaglia

Stayed by 5th Circuit for appoint­ment of new fed­er­al coun­sel to devel­op claim of incom­pe­tence to be executed

31

GA

Joshua Bishop

Executed
MARCH 201612 sched­uled executions8 states3 exe­cu­tions; 7 exe­cu­tions stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion resched­uled; 1 exe­cu­tion moot­ed when pris­on­er died on death row.

April

6

TX

Pablo Vasquez

Executed

12

GA

Kenneth Fults

Executed

13

VA

Ivan Teleguz

Stayed by 4th Circuit to per­mit fil­ing and dis­po­si­tion of peti­tion for writ of cer­tio­rari in U.S. Supreme Court

20

OH

Gregory Lott

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^

27

TX

Robert Pruett

Date changed to August 23, 2016.

27

GA

Daniel Lucas

Executed
APRIL 20166 sched­uled executions4 states3 exe­cu­tions; 1 exe­cu­tion stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve; 1 execution rescheduled.

May

2

PA

Stephen Treiber

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on March 16, 2016 to per­mit Treiber to pur­sue habeas cor­pus appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of fed­er­al law.#

3

PA

Shonda Dee Walter

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the Clinton County Court of Common Pleas on March 16, 2016 to per­mit Walter to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of state law.#

11

MO

Earl Forrest

Executed on May 11, 2016

11

TX

Terry Darnell Edwards

Date changed to October 19, 2016.

12

AL

Vernon Madison

Stay grant­ed by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for a deter­mi­na­tion of whether the Alabama state court’s deci­sion find­ing him com­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed was con­trary to or an unrea­son­able appli­ca­tion of clear­ly estab­lished U.S. Supreme Court prece­dent, or was the prod­uct of an unrea­son­able deter­mi­na­tion of the facts con­cern­ing Madison’s com­pe­ten­cy. The U.S. Supreme Court split 4 – 4 on Alabama’s motion to vacate the stay, leav­ing the cir­cuit court’s decision intact.

18

OH

Angelo Fears

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^
MAY 20166 sched­uled executions5 states1 exe­cu­tion; 3 exe­cu­tions stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve; 1 execution rescheduled.

June

2

TX

Charles Flores

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion on May 27 to per­mit Flores to pur­sue a sec­ond state habeas cor­pus peti­tion chal­leng­ing the pros­e­cu­tion’s use of hyp­not­i­cal­ly refreshed eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny to con­vict him of the murder.

21

TX

Robert Roberson

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion on June 6, 2016 to per­mit Roberson to pur­sue a sec­ond state habeas peti­tion chal­leng­ing the pros­e­cu­tion’s use of ​“shak­en baby” evi­dence on the grounds that: (1) new sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence estab­lish­es that Roberson would not have been con­vict­ed; (2) ​“the State relied on false, mis­lead­ing, and sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly invalid tes­ti­mo­ny” in vio­la­tion of Roberson’s Texas due process rights; (3) Roberson ​“is actu­al­ly inno­cent of cap­i­tal mur­der”; and (4) Roberson ​“is enti­tled to habeas relief because his due process right to a fun­da­men­tal­ly fair tri­al was vio­lat­ed by the State’s intro­duc­tion of false foren­sic sci­ence tes­ti­mo­ny that cur­rent sci­ence has exposed as false.”

22

OH

Warren Henness

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^
JUNE 20163 sched­uled executions2 states2 exe­cu­tions stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve.

July

1

PA

George Hitcho

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas on June 3, 2016 to per­mit Hitcho to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of state law.#

14

TX

Perry Williams

Execution stayed on July 6, 2016 by a Harris County tri­al court pend­ing test­ing of lethal injec­tion drug by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as part of a lawsuit settlement.

14

GA

John Wayne Conner

Executed short­ly after mid­night on July 15, 2016.

20

OH

Cleveland R. Jackson

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^

20

TX

Taichin Preyor

Execution date with­drawn upon motion of the par­ties.

27

TX

Rolando Ruiz

Date changed to August 31, 2016.
JULY 20166 sched­uled executions4 states1 exe­cu­tion; 2 exe­cu­tions stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve; 1 exe­cu­tion date with­drawn; 1 execution rescheduled.

August

10

TX

Ramiro Gonzales

Date changed to November 2, 2016.

15

OH

William Montgomery

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^

23

TX

Robert Pruett

Stay grant­ed by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on August 11 to per­mit review of claims based on DNA evidence.

24

TX

Jeffery Wood

Stay grant­ed by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on August 19 to per­mit review of claims that death sen­tence was a prod­uct of false sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence con­cern­ing future dan­ger­ous­ness and that the pros­e­cu­tion’s use of false tes­ti­mo­ny to obtain the death sen­tence vio­lat­ed due process.

31

TX

Rolando Ruiz

Stay grant­ed by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on August 26 ​“pend­ing fur­ther order of this Court,” fol­low­ing fil­ing of suc­ces­sive state post-con­vic­tion peti­tion chal­leng­ing (1) inef­fec­tive­ness of tri­al and inti­tial post-con­vic­tion coun­sel for fail­ing to inves­ti­gate and present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence and (2) the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of an exe­cu­tion two decades after the death sen­tence was imposed.
AUGUST 20165 sched­uled executions2 states3 exe­cu­tions stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve; one execution rescheduled.

September

14

TX

Robert Mitchell Jennings

Stay grant­ed by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by a vote of 5 – 4 on September 2 ​“pend­ing fur­ther order of this Court.”

21

OH

Kareem Jackson

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^
SEPTEMBER 20162 sched­uled executions2 states1 exe­cu­tion stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve.

October

5

TX

Barney Fuller

Executed (vol­un­teer)

19

OH

Robert Van Hook

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^

19

TX

Terry Darnell Edwards

Date changed to January 26, 2017.

19

GA

Gregory Lawler

Executed
OCTOBER 20164 sched­uled executions2 states2 exe­cu­tions; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve; 1 execution rescheduled.

November

2

TX

Ramiro Gonzales

Warrant with­drawn

3

AL

Thomas Arthur

Stay grant­ed by the U.S. Supreme Court pend­ing review of Arthur’s peti­tion for writ of cer­tio­rari involv­ing a chal­lenge to Alabama’s method of execution.

16

OH

Jeffery Wogenstahl

All 2016 Ohio exe­cu­tions grant­ed a reprieve because new exe­cu­tion drugs could not be obtained.^^

16

GA

Steven Spears

Executed (vol­un­teer)
NOVEMBER 20164 sched­uled executions4 states1 exe­cu­tion; 1 exe­cu­tion stayed; 1 exe­cu­tion halt­ed by reprieve; 1 warrant withdrawn.

December

6

GA

William Sallie

Executed

7

TX

John Battaglia

Stay grant­ed by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on December 4 with direc­tions to the par­ties to file briefs with­in 60 days on the ques­tion of Battaglia’s com­pe­ten­cy to be executed. 

8

AL

Ronald Smith

Executed

19

PA

Kevin Murphy

Legally pre­ma­ture death war­rant. Stay grant­ed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on November 3, 2016 to per­mit Murphy to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals avail­able to all defen­dants as a mat­ter of state and federal law.#
DECEMBER 20164 sched­uled executions4 states2 exe­cu­tions; 2 executions stayed.

#On February 13, 2015, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf issued a mem­o­ran­dum announc­ing a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions in the state. The memo stat­ed that no exe­cu­tions will take place at least until he has ​“received and reviewed the forth­com­ing report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment.” 

~ On October 8, 2015, the Arkansas Circuit Court grant­ed a tem­po­rary restrain­ing order stay­ing all eight sched­uled exe­cu­tions so that already pend­ing judi­cial review of the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures could take place. Two of those exe­cu­tions were set for 2016. 

^^ On October 19, 2015 the Ohio Department of Corrections issued a state­ment that Gov. Kasich grant­ed reprieves post­pon­ing all exe­cu­tions that the state had sched­uled in 2016. Ohio has been unable to obtain the exe­cu­tion drugs required to con­duct exe­cu­tions under state law. All exe­cu­tion dates have been resched­uled by the state.

“Volunteer” refers to inmates who have vol­un­tar­i­ly waived their nor­mal appeals (not nec­es­sar­i­ly that they have vol­un­teered for execution).

2016 Death Warrant Outcomes Nationally, by Month
MonthScheduled ExecutionsExecutionsStayed by CourtsReprievesExecution Date RescheduledWithdrawnDied on Death Row
Total67202812511
January10442000
February5311000
March12371001
April6311100
May6131100
June3021000
July6131100
August5031100
September2011000
October4201100
November4111010
December4220000
2016 Death Warrant Outcomes by State
StateScheduled ExecutionsExecutionsStayed by CourtsReprievesExecution Date RescheduledWithdrawnDied on Death Row
Total67202812511
Texas237100510
Ohio120012000
Georgia9900000
Pennsylvania9090000
Alabama4220000
Florida3120000
Arkansas2020000
Virginia2020000
Missouri1100000
Louisiana1010000
Tennessee1000001