Stays of Execution 2022
| Date of Scheduled Execution | State | Prisoner | Reason for Stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | |||
| 6 | OK | Wade Lay | STAY GRANTED by the Pittsburg County District Court on December 6, 2021 until a mental competency trial is conducted “so as to ensure an incompetent person is not irreparably harmed by way of execution, in contravention of his constitutional rights.” |
| 12 | OH | Warren “Keith” Henness | REPRIEVED by Governor Mike DeWine on September 10, 2021 and execution rescheduled for December 17, 2024. |
| 27 | AL | Matthew Reeves | Preliminary injunction granted by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on January 7, 2022 barring the Alabama Department of Corrections “from executing [Reeves] by any method other than nitrogen hypoxia before his [Americans With Disabilities Act] claim can be decided on its merits.” Preliminary injunction affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on January 26, 2022. INJUNCTION VACATED by 5-4 vote of U.S. Supreme Court on January 27, 2022. EXECUTED. |
| February | |||
| 16 | OH | Stanley Adams | REPRIEVED by Governor Mike DeWine on September 10, 2021 and execution rescheduled for February 19, 2025. |
| March | |||
| 8 | TX | Michael Gonzales | STAY GRANTED by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on March 3, 2022 to permit Gonzales to litigate claims that “(1) he is intellectually disabled and cannot constitutionally be executed; (2) the State suppressed material exculpatory and impeaching information in violation of Brady v. Maryland.” |
| 10 | OK | James Allen Coddington | STAY GRANTED by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on December 23, 2021 pursuant to joint stipulation of the parties after the order dismissing Coddington from the ongoing Oklahoma lethal-injection lawsuit was vacated and he was restored as a plaintiff in that lawsuit. |
| 16 | OH | Romell Broom | DIED ON DEATH ROW on December 28, 2020 of COVID-19. |
| April | |||
21 | OH | John Drummond | REPRIEVED by Governor Mike DeWine on September 10, 2021 and execution rescheduled for April 16, 2025. |
| 21 | TN | Oscar Smith | REPRIEVE granted by Governor Bill Lee minutes before the scheduled execution on April 21, 2022: “Due to an oversight in preparation for lethal injection, the scheduled execution of Oscar Smith will not move forward tonight. I am granting a temporary reprieve while we address Tennessee Department of Correction protocol. Further details will be released when available.” |
| 27 | TX | Melissa Lucio | STAY GRANTED by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on April 25, 2022 and case remanded to the trial court to conduct a hearing on Lucio’s claims that “but for the State’s use of false testimony, no juror would have convicted her; previously unavailable scientific evidence would preclude her conviction; she is actually innocent; [and] … the State suppressed favorable, material evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland.” (claim numbers omitted) |
| 29 | SC | Richard Moore | STAYED for an indefinite period by the South Carolina Supreme Court on April 20, 2022, with as yet unreleased explanatory order to follow. |
| May | |||
| 10 | TN | Michael Rimmer | Legally premature death warrant STAYED |
| 13 | SC | Brad Sigmon | STAYED by South Carolina Supreme on April 22, 2022. |
| 17 | GA | Virgil Presnell, Jr. | STAYED by the Fulton County Superior Court on May 16, 2022 on the grounds that the execution date violated an agreement that established conditions under which executions could resume after the pandemic. |
| 18 | OH | James Hanna | REPRIEVED by Governor Mike DeWine on September 10, 2021 and execution rescheduled for May 14, 2025. |
| June | |||
| 9 | TN | Harold Nichols | REPRIEVED by Governor Bill Lee on May 2, 2022 to conduct investigation of execution protocol oversight |
| July | |||
| 13 | TX | Ramiro Gonzales | STAY GRANTED by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on July 11, 2022 to permit Gonzales to litigate a claim that his death sentence was obtained through the presentation of false expert testimony concerning his alleged future dangerousness. |
| 20 | OH | Austin Myers | DATE REMOVED |
| August | |||
18 | TN | Byron Black | REPRIEVED by Governor Bill Lee on May 2, 2022 to conduct investigation of execution protocol oversight |
| September | |||
14 | OH | James Tench | Legally premature death warrant. STAY GRANTED by the Ohio Supreme Court on August 26, 2020 pending disposition of state postconviction remedies available to all Ohio prisoners. “The stay shall remain in effect until exhaustion of all state postconviction proceedings, including any appeals.” |
| 15 | OH | Kareem Jackson | REPRIEVED by Governor Mike DeWine on May 13, 2022 and execution rescheduled for December 10, 2025. |
| 22 | AL | Alan Eugene Miller | EXECUTION HALTED by Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm shortly before midnight (Central Time) on September 22, 2022 when the execution team reported that it would not be able to set an IV line before the death warrant expired. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama had issued a preliminary injunction on September 19, 2022 enjoining Alabama “from executing Alan Eugene Miller by any method other than nitrogen hypoxia.” On the afternoon of September 22, 2022, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit by a 2-1 vote denied the motion to stay injunction filed by the state attorney general. At about 9:15 p.m. Central time, the Supreme Court VACATED THE INJUNCTION without opinion by a 5-4 vote, leaving Alabama approximately 2½ hours to carry out the execution before the warrant expired. |
| October | |||
| 6 | TN | Gary Sutton | REPRIEVED by Governor Bill Lee on May 2, 2022 to conduct investigation of execution protocol oversight |
| 17 | TN | Urshawn Miller | Legally premature death warrant. REPRIEVED by Governor Bill Lee on May 12, 2022 until December 31, 2022. |
| 26 | OH | Quisi Bryan | REPRIEVED by Governor Mike DeWine on June 24, 2022 and execution rescheduled for January 7, 2026. |
| November | |||
| 16 | TX | Stephen Barbee | The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted Barbee a preliminary injunction on November 3, 2022 on religious rights grounds. The injunction was vacated on November 14th. On November 15, the district court granted an amended preliminary injunction. On November 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit VACATED the amended preliminary injunction. |
| 17 | AL | Kenneth Smith | EXECUTION HALTED shortly before midnight (Central Time) on November 17, 2022 when the execution team reported that it would not be able to set an IV line before the death warrant expired. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted Smith a stay of execution on November 17, 2022 as a result of Smith’s challenge to Alabama’s execution protocol. The United States Supreme Courtvacated the stay. |
| December | |||
8 | TN | Donald Middlebrooks | REPRIEVED by Governor Bill Lee on May 2, 2022 to conduct investigation of execution protocol oversight |
| 8 | OK | Richard Glossip | REPRIEVED by Governor Kevin Stitt on November 3, 2022 “to allow time for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to address pending legal proceedings,” and execution rescheduled for February 16, 2023. |
| 15 | OK | John Hanson | WARRANT EXPIRED. Oklahoma scheduled John Hanson’s execution while he was in federal custody, without first obtaining agreement his custody would be transferred. The Federal Bureau of Prisons subsequently denied Oklahoma’s demand to transfer custody prior to completion of Hanson’s federal sentence. Oklahoma postponed Hanson’s clemency hearing, a prerequisite to his execution, and a federal district court ruled against Oklahoma’s effort to force BOP to turn over Hanson for execution, causing his execution warrant to expire. |
| 15 | ID | Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. | WARRANT EXPIRED. The Idaho Department of Corrections announced on November 30, 2022 that it had been unable to obtain the lethal injection drugs necessary to carry out the execution and that it would allow Pizzuto’s death warrant to expire. |
