Entries tagged with “Due Process”

Upcoming Executions

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Feb 24, 2026

Scheduled Execution of Billy Kearse Renews Constitutional Alarms About Pace of Executions in Florida

“I am extreme­ly con­cerned by the recent pace of death war­rants and the speed with which the par­ties and involved enti­ties must car­ry out their respec­tive duties.” Florida Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga wrote those words in 2023, a year in which Florida con­duct­ed six exe­cu­tions with an aver­age war­rant peri­od of 36 days. Such a pace was already strain­ing the state’s judi­cial, legal, and prison sys­tems. But in 2025, under the sole author­i­ty of Governor Ron DeSantis, the…

Executions

Feb 17, 2026

Louisiana Supreme Court Unanimously Sides with Two Death-Sentenced Prisoners Targeted with Premature Execution Warrants

When Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill took office in January 2024, they moved aggres­sive­ly to restart exe­cu­tions in the state. Gov. Landry signed bills that autho­rized nitro­gen suf­fo­ca­tion and elec­tro­cu­tion as exe­cu­tion meth­ods, increased his own pow­er over the state cap­i­tal defense sys­tem, and lim­it­ed post-con­vic­­tion appeals, while AG Murrill moved to take over cap­i­tal appeal chal­lenges from local dis­trict attor­neys. In March 2025,…

Executions

Sep 08, 2025

DPI Analysis: Death Warrants Under a Spotlight

40 active death war­rants have been issued in the United States thus far in 2025 — more than a third of them were issued by one indi­vid­ual, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in a process cloaked in secre­cy. The only two states that place author­i­ty sole­ly in the hands of the gov­er­nor to issue an exe­cu­tion war­rant are Florida, which has exe­cut­ed more indi­vid­u­als in 2025 than any oth­er state, and Pennsylvania, which has not exe­cut­ed any­one in over 25 years and where a…

Aug 14, 2025

Funding Shortfall for Criminal Justice Act Could Impact Quality and Availability of Legal Representation for Indigent Defendants, Including Capital Defendants

As of July 3, 2025, the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) pro­gram has run out of funds for the cur­rent fis­cal year, threat­en­ing the qual­i­ty and avail­abil­i­ty of fed­er­al defense coun­sel for the over­whelm­ing major­i­ty of crim­i­nal defen­dants who can­not afford to hire their own lawyers. The bud­get Congress approved for the CJA pro­gram in March is $129 mil­lion less than what was request­ed by the Federal Judiciary. As a con­se­quence, CJA appoint­ed defense teams have been denied…

Jul 29, 2025

Defendants Petition the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Alleging Washington County District Attorney Abused His Discretion in Death Penalty Cases

On July 22, 2025, attor­neys with the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation filed a peti­tion on behalf of two crim­i­nal defen­dants — Jordan Clarke and Joshua George — alleg­ing Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh has demon­strat­ed a pat­tern of improp­er­ly threat­en­ing or seek­ing death sen­tences in vio­la­tion of the United States Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution. The attor­neys are ask­ing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to use its​“extra­or­di­nary…

Jul 14, 2025

New Louisiana Legislation Will Limit Post-Conviction Appeals, Endangering Innocent Prisoners in an Attempt to Expedite Executions

Recent leg­is­la­tion signed by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry dras­ti­cal­ly restricts the abil­i­ty of pris­on­ers to chal­lenge their con­vic­tions, which those opposed to the law have argued could lead to the exe­cu­tion of inno­cent pris­on­ers. HB 675, signed into law in June 2025, impos­es strict time lim­its on post-con­vic­­tion relief appli­ca­tions and intro­duces​“aban­don­ment” rules that cut off appeal options for pris­on­ers who fail to meet the law’s strict dead­lines. The…

Jun 23, 2025

In Unusual Move, Texas Attorney General Requests Execution Date for Robert Roberson Before a Court Has Heard New Evidence of His Actual Innocence

On June 16, 2025, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion in the Anderson County District Court request­ing a new exe­cu­tion date for Robert Roberson, despite the fact that a motion from defense coun­sel with new evi­dence in sup­port of Mr. Roberson’s actu­al inno­cence remains pend­ing. As the *Dallas Morning Editorial Board* notes, it is​“unusu­al” that “\[AG\] Paxton’s office is involved” in request­ing the exe­cu­tion date. AG Paxton has active­ly sought Mr. Roberson’s…

Jun 12, 2025

Counsel for Ralph Menzies Appeal Competency Ruling as State Moves to Set Execution Date

On June 6, 2025, District Judge Matthew Bates issued a rul­ing find­ing Utah death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Ralph Menzies men­tal­ly com­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed despite con­cerns pre­sent­ed by Mr. Menzies’ attor­neys about his vas­cu­lar demen­tia. In his rul­ing, Judge Bates agreed that Mr. Menzies suf­fers from vas­cu­lar demen­tia but said Mr. Menzies had failed to show​“by a pre­pon­der­ance of the evi­dence that his men­tal con­di­tion pre­vents him from reach­ing a rational…