Entries tagged with “Secrecy”
Sep 17, 2026
Article of Interest: Georgia Records Reveal Rising Costs and Continued Secrecy Around Lethal Injection
The state of Georgia planned to execute Stacey Humphreys by lethal injection on September 16, 2026, but Cobb County Superior Court Judge Tyler Browning issued a stay that was upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court citing the Georgia Survivor Justice Act — a state law that allows the courts to consider a defendant’s history of abuse and trauma in sentencing. Mr. Humphreys’ execution would have marked Georgia’s first execution in two years. Critics have long raised concerns about Georgia’s lethal…
Jul 08, 2026
DPI’s 2026 Mid-Year Update: Jurors Continue to Reject Death Sentences Amidst Increased Secrecy and Disinformation
Introduction False statements by government officials. Media witnesses banned from viewing executions. New laws passed to evade judicial review. During the first six months of 2026, the Death Penalty Information Center documented new efforts to conceal critical details about the death penalty — even as some government officials sought to increase and expand its use. These efforts are best understood when the truth about the death penalty and executions is viewed as a threat to its acceptance — an…
Botched Executions
,Jul 07, 2026
Tennessee Republican State Senators Call on Governor Lee to Review the “Incompetent Administration” Leading to the Botched Execution of Tony Carruthers
In a letter dated June 25, 2026, a group of nine Tennessee Republican senators called on Governor Bill Lee to commission an independent review of the failed execution of Tony Carruthers, to order the correction of “every deficiency” found in this review, and to make information about the execution team publicly available “so that the Department [of Corrections’] readiness can be independently verified.” While the senators maintain their support for the administration of the death penalty, they…
Botched Executions
,May 26, 2026
Tennessee’s Botched Execution of Tony Carruthers Raises Questions About Medical Qualifications Among Concerns with Innocence and Due Process
Tennessee’s attempt to execute Tony Carruthers on May 21, 2026, failed after execution team members could not establish an intravenous line after more than an hour of attempts, prompting Governor Bill Lee to grant a one-year reprieve. In a written statement, the Tennessee Department of Corrections said medical personnel had quickly established a primary IV line but were unable to establish a backup line as required by the state’s execution protocol. Efforts to insert a central line also failed…
Jun 16, 2025
Governor Says Indiana Will Not Purchase More Lethal Injection Drugs, Invites Debate over Death Penalty
According to Governor Mike Braun (pictured), Indiana has depleted the supply of pentobarbital it uses in its lethal injection executions. Given that the last of the doses purchased in December 2024 expired and went unused, Gov. Braun does not intend to renew the state’s supply. According to earlier reporting by the Indiana Capital Chronicle, the Indiana Department of Correction (IDC) spent $900,000 on pentobarbital in late 2024 in preparation for the execution of Joseph Corcoran. Gov. Braun…
Conditions on Death Row
,Dec 18, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Legal Challenge to South Carolina’s Restriction on Media Access to Prisoners
On December 13, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the August, 2024 dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to challenge, on First Amendment grounds, a South Carolina Department of Corrections’ (SCDC) policy that prohibits the publication of interviews between prisoners and the media or members of the public. In its decision, the Fourth Circuit cited to Houchins v. KQED, a 1978 Supreme Court ruling which held that the U.S. Constitution does not mandate “a right…
Executions
Jul 02, 2024
Federal Execution-Drug Supplier Says It Will No Longer Produce Pentobarbital for Executions
Connecticut-based company Absolute Standards, which was identified as the source of lethal injection drugs used in 13 federal executions in 2020 and 2021, has said it will no longer produce the drug used in executions — pentobarbital. In a letter to two Connecticut lawmakers, John Criscio, president of Absolute Standards, said the company ceased producing pentobarbital in December 2020, and has “no intention to resume any production or sale of pentobarbital.” Mr. Criscio’s letter explains that…
Issues
Botched Executions
,May 03, 2023
RESOURCES: Newspaper Series Explores Arizona’s Recent Death Penalty History
In a detailed five-part series titled “Poorly executed: How Arizona has failed at carrying out the death penalty,” the Arizona Mirror explores the last 16 years of Arizona’s use of capital punishment. The series focuses on controversies surrounding the executions themselves, including changes to the drug protocol, the use of inexperienced or unqualified personnel, and the state secrecy surrounding the process. It also looks into other major issues in capital punishment, such as innocence…
Issues
Apr 28, 2023
South Carolina Advances Legislation to Keep Execution Details Secret
Bills to hide the identities of lethal-injection drug suppliers and execution team members from the public have passed both chambers of the South Carolina legislature. The bills face a reconciliation process before one can move to the governor’s desk for signature. Proponents of the law say it is necessary because revealing such information might make executions difficult or impossible. South Carolina has not carried out an execution in 12 years. Opponents say the public has the right to know…
Research
New Voices
,Feb 08, 2023
NEW VOICES: Tennessee Business Leader Underscores Problems with the Death Penalty
“Speaking as a business leader, a proud, lifetime Tennessean and a human being, it’s time for the state to abolish capital punishment,” wrote Mac Bartine, CEO of Knoxville-based tech company Smartria, in an op-ed for Knox News. Bartine described the findings of the 2022 independent investigation into Tennessee’s execution practices, which found that the state repeatedly failed to adhere to its own protocol. “The report proved what we have known for years – that the death penalty has no place in…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Jan 05, 2023
Texas Appeals Court Denies Death-Row Prisoners Stays of Execution, Judicial Review of State’s Use of Expired Drugs in Upcoming Executions
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has granted an application by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block a state trial court from reviewing a civil lawsuit filed by three death-row prisoners who challenged the state’s intent to execute them using lethal-injection drugs they claimed were “unlawfully obtained and long-expired.” In a ruling issued on January 4, 2023, the court directed Travis County Judge Catherine A. Mauzy “to refrain from issuing any order purporting to stay the…
Executions
Jan 04, 2023
Report: Tennessee Repeatedly Violated Execution Protocol Since 2018
An independent investigation into Tennessee’s execution practices has found that the state repeatedly failed to follow its own protocols in performing seven executions and preparing for an eighth between 2018 and 2022. Governor Bill Lee (pictured) commissioned the investigation in May 2022, shortly after he called off the execution of Oscar Smith “[d]ue to an oversight in preparation for lethal injection.” The report, which was publicly released on December 28, 2022, found that the same…
Executions
Botched Executions
,Oct 19, 2022
Alan Miller Asks Federal Court to Bar Alabama from Second Attempt to Execute Him By Lethal Injection
Alan Eugene Miller has asked federal courts to bar Alabama from setting a second execution date days after the Alabama Attorney General’s office filed a motion in the state’s Supreme Court to expedite a new execution warrant. The state attempted to execute Miller on September 22, 2022, but called off the execution after failing to establish an intravenous (IV) line. On October 4, 2022, the Alabama Attorney General’s office filed an expedited motion in the Alabama Supreme Court asking the court…
Executions
Botched Executions
,Sep 26, 2022
Federal Court Orders Alabama to Preserve Evidence of Botched Attempted Execution of Alan Miller
A federal district court has ordered Alabama state officials to preserve evidence related to the state’s failed attempt to execute death-row prisoner Alan Miller on September 22, 2022. The botched execution attempt, Alabama’s third since 2018, came after a divided U.S. Supreme Court issued an after-hours execution-night order setting aside without opinion an injunction that had barred the state from executing Miller “by any method other than nitrogen hypoxia.” Prison officials then…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Aug 24, 2022
New DPIC Podcast: Former Governor Brad Henry and Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester, co-Chairs of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, Call for Halt to Executions
In the August 2022 Discussions With DPIC podcast, former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester (pictured), two of the co-chairs of the bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, call on state officials not to rush forward with the state’s planned execution of 25 prisoners. Speaking with DPIC executive director Robert Dunham, Governor Henry, a Democrat, and Judge Lester, a Republican, discuss the commission’s findings of a broken system that risks…
Executions
Botched Executions
,Jul 29, 2022
Alabama Execution of Joe Nathan James Marred by Failures to Set IV Line, Embarrassing Dress-Code Controversy, and Disrespect of Victim’s Family
Alabama put Joe Nathan James, Jr. to death on July 28, 2022 against the wishes of his victim’s family in an execution marred by an hours-long failure to set a lethal-injection intravenous line and an embarrassing dress-code controversy in which a corrections official told a female reporter she would not be able to witness the execution because her skirt was too short and she was wearing open-toed shoes and subjected another female reporter to a clothing inspection. The daughters and brother of…
Research
Methods of Execution
,Jun 28, 2022
Mississippi Gives Department of Corrections Unprecedented Discretion Over Execution Methods
Mississippi corrections officials will have unprecedented discretion in selecting how the state’s death-row prisoners will be executed under a new law that takes effect July 1, 2022. Mississippi authorizes execution by lethal injection, electrocution, firing squad, or nitrogen hypoxia. The law, which received final legislative approval March 29 and was signed by Governor Tate Reeves April 14, provides the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), MDOC’s Deputy…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Jun 23, 2022
Tennessee Executions Could Be on Hold for Years Following Independent Investigation, Anticipated Court Challenges
Tennessee executions could be on hold for years, as the state conducts an independent investigation into widespread non-compliance with its execution protocol and litigates the constitutionality of revisions expected to be made to its execution procedures. The anticipated delay, first reported by the Associated Press June 13, 2022, is a likely by-product of a decision by Governor Bill Lee to cancel all executions scheduled in the state for the remainder of 2022 and an agreement entered into by…
Issues
Botched Executions
,Jun 03, 2022
Court Documents Reveal Widespread Irregularities in Tennessee Executions
Court records from a lawsuit brought by Tennessee death-row prisoners have revealed widespread irregularities in the state’s execution practices. A series of four articles published in the Nashville newspaper, The Tennessean, on May 25, 2022 documented a rash of non-compliance with Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol by corrections officials and execution contractors. Examining thousands of pages of records filed in federal civil rights lawsuits by death-row prisoners Terry Lynn King and…
Issues
Jun 02, 2022
Arizona Violated Court Order to Allow Media to Witness Execution, Lawyer for Newspapers Says
Arizona violated state law, state corrections policies, and a court order by denying a reporter from the state’s largest daily circulation newspaper access to view the May 11 execution of Clarence Dixon and by blocking witnesses’ views of a portion of the execution process, a lawyer for the newspaper has charged. In a May 20, 2022 letter to Arizona Department of Corrections (ADOC) Director David Shinn and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, David Bodney, attorney for Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. (PNI)…
Issues
New Voices
,Executions Overview
,May 20, 2022
Former South Carolina Death-Row Doctor: “I’m Supposed to be Saving People, Not Killing People”
After 37 years of silence, a South Carolina prison doctor who was in the execution chamber when eight prisoners it was his duty to treat were put to death has for the first time publicly discussed his conflicting roles. In an interview with Chiara Eisner of the Columbia newspaper, The State, shortly after South Carolina Department of Corrections announced plans to carry out executions by firing squad, Dr. Green Neal stepped forward to share his experiences. “Death is death, no matter whether…
Executions
May 17, 2022
Fallout From Aborted Tennessee Execution: Prosecutors Misrepresented Facts in Federal Lawsuit, 2 Members of Execution Team Knew Drugs Had Not Been Tested
The fallout following Tennessee’s aborted attempt to execute Oscar Smith on April 21, 2022 continues to grow, as state prosecutors disclosed that their pleadings had misrepresented facts in a federal lethal injection lawsuit and public records revealed that at least two members of the execution team knew the day before Smith was to be executed that the drugs purchased to put Smith to death had not been properly tested. Redacted records obtained by several media outlets on May 13, 2022 in…
Executions
May 10, 2022
ACLU Review of Quintin Jones Execution Documents Finds Texas “Woefully Unprepared to Carry Out an Execution”
Documents that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) withheld from public disclosure for months reveal that “confusion and lack of training” have left the state “woefully unprepared to carry out an execution,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union. On June 4, 2021, the ACLU filed a request with TDCJ for records related to the state’s May 19, 2021 execution of Quintin Jones, in which the execution team failed to bring media witnesses into the chamber. The execution, which…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,May 03, 2022
Tennessee Governor Halts Executions Scheduled for 2022 to Conduct Review of Execution Protocol ‘Oversight’
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (pictured) has paused all executions scheduled for 2022 and called for an “independent review” of the state’s execution protocol to address a “technical oversight” that led him to halt Oscar Franklin Smith’s execution less than a half-hour before it was scheduled to be carried out on April 21, 2022. In a news release issued at 5:43 a.m. on Monday, May 2, 2022, Lee announced that the state would retain former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to conduct a third-party review…
Research
Mar 30, 2022
Idaho Expands Execution Secrecy After Senate Committee Reconsiders Failed Vote
Idaho Governor Brad Little on March 25, 2022, signed into law an execution secrecy bill that conceals from the public and the courts information on the producers and suppliers of drugs used in executions in the state. House Bill 658 became law less than three weeks after the measure failed on a 4 – 4 vote in the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee. Under Idaho legislative rules, a bill that fails in a committee vote is normally dead for the remainder of the legislative session. However, in a…
Research
Mar 11, 2022
Execution Secrecy Bill Passes in Florida, Fails in Idaho
Bills to increase secrecy in the conduct of executions have met different fates in Florida and Idaho. Florida legislators on March 7, 2022 gave final legislative approval to a bill that would conceal the identity of execution participants, including suppliers of execution drugs. Meanwhile, a similar measure in Idaho passed the House of Representatives but failed on a tie vote in a Senate committee on March 9. Supporters of the secrecy bills have asserted, without evidence, that they are…
Executions
Feb 11, 2022
Nevada Execution Personnel Back Out of Participation After Judge Inquires About Credentials
At least three Nevada execution personnel backed out of participating in Zane Floyd’s (pictured, right) execution after a U.S. district judge asked about their education and training. The personnel, including a doctor and two emergency medical technicians, declined to participate after U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware II asked the state to provide him with their credential information. Another doctor was excluded by the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) after the agency learned of…
Executions
Feb 10, 2022
Oklahoma is Paying Execution Doctor $15,000 Plus Training Fees for Each Execution
Oklahoma is paying $15,000 per execution, plus $1,000 for each day of training, to an unnamed doctor to participate in the process of putting state prisoners to death. Under the agreement, the doctor stood to receive an estimated $130,000 over the course of the 19-week-period between October 28, 2021 and March 10, 2022 in which the state had scheduled the executions of seven prisoners. The payments were disclosed by Oklahoma prison officials during federal court hearings in January 2022 on…
Executions
Jan 21, 2022
Investigative Report: Idaho Records Reveal State’s Efforts to Conceal Ghost Purchase of Execution Drugs and Out-of-State Cash Payment to Pharmacy With Dubious Regulatory History
Idaho prison officials engaged in cloak and dagger practices, including twice sending state employees across state lines to make cash purchases of controlled substances intended for executions, actively concealing the intended use of the drugs, manipulating state records to cover up their activities, and acting in bad faith to stonewall public records requests for execution-related information, a joint investigative report by the Idaho Statesman and the Idaho Capital Sun has revealed. Records…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Jan 07, 2022
“Random and Unjust,” “Barbaric” and “Ineffective”: Editorials Call for End to Death Penalty
As 2021 came to a close, editorial writers in four death penalty states called for legislative and executive action to end capital punishment or further limit its use. Editorial boards for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Idaho Statesman took note that as the death penalty declines in usage and public support, it remains arbitrary and inhumane in its application and continues to place innocent lives at risk. Additionally, recently retired Los Angeles Times…
Executions
Federal Death Penalty
,Dec 21, 2021
House Committee Asks Justice Department Its Plans on Resuming Executions, Purchasing Execution Drugs
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland seeking information on the Department of Justice’s death penalty practices and policies, including whether DOJ plans to resume federal executions and to obtain new supplies of the drug pentobarbital to carry out additional executions. The letter, signed by Representatives Jamie Raskin (D – Maryland) and Ayanna Pressley (D – Massachusetts) and sent December 15, 2021, asked the Justice Department…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Dec 08, 2021
South Carolina Execution Practices are Shrouded in Secrecy
As South Carolina prepares procedures for carrying out executions via firing squad, an investigation by Columbia’s daily newspaper, The State, reports that important information about the execution process and the sources of materials to be used in executions is being hidden from the public. The state legislature passed a bill in May 2021 making the firing squad and electric chair the two means of execution in the state. However, the state has denied journalists’ requests for information about…
Executions
Botched Executions
,Nov 29, 2021
Alabama Death-Row Prisoner Doyle Hamm, Who Survived Botched Execution Attempt, Dies of Cancer
Alabama death-row prisoner Doyle Lee Hamm (pictured), whose botched execution attempt was called off in 2018 after 2½ hours of unsuccessful attempts to set an intravenous execution line, has died on death row. He was 64 years old. Hamm had been suffering from terminal cranial and lymphatic cancer since 2014, which contributed to his death on November 27, 2021, his lawyer, Columbia University Law School Professor Bernard Harcourt, said. Harcourt told Birmingham investigative reporter Beth…
Issues
Nov 15, 2021
Death-Row Prisoners in Japan Sue Over Same-Day Notice of Executions
Two Japanese death-row prisoners have filed a lawsuit alleging that the country’s long-criticized practice of notifying prisoners of their execution the same day they are to be put to death is “inhumane” and violates the nation’s constitution. The suit, filed in Osaka District Court November 4, 2021, alleges that the day-of-execution notice, given just hours before the death-row prisoner is hanged, provides no time to contact their lawyers to file legal challenges to the execution and is…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Methods of Execution
,Oct 19, 2021
Intellectually Disabled Alabama Death-Row Prisoner Appeals Denial of Stay of Execution, Arguing Designation of Lethal Injection Violated Americans With Disabilities Act
An intellectually disabled Alabama death-row prisoner has appealed a federal district court ruling that clears the way for his execution on October 21, 2021. On October 17, a federal district court judge denied for a second time Willie B. Smith III’s claim that putting him to death by lethal injection violates his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Lawyers for Smith (pictured) on October 19, 2021 filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to stay…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Oct 18, 2021
Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoners to Lawsuit in Decision That May Require State to Vacate Execution Dates
In a decision with potential to vacate a number of Oklahoma execution dates, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has held that a lower federal court abused its discretion in dismissing six death-row prisoners from a lawsuit challenging the state’s execution protocol. The appeals court decision, issued on October 15, 2021, said that a ruling by Judge Stephen Friot of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma that six death-row prisoners who had not designated an…
Issues
Aug 25, 2021
NEW SCHOLARSHIP: Death is Indeed Different in U.S. Administrative Law — Condemned Prisoners Receive FEWER Procedural Protections
In the 1970s, the United States Supreme Court famously declared that “death is different” from all other punishments and, as such, required the provision of heightened procedural safeguards to ensure that its application was not cruel or unusual. But in a new article, Death Penalty Exceptionalism and Administrative Law, University of Richmond law professor and capital punishment scholar Corinna B. Lain (pictured) argues that in the context of administrative law, the doctrine has been “turn[ed]…
Issues
Methods of Execution
,Aug 11, 2021
Alabama, Mississippi Take Preparatory Steps to Resume Executions
Alabama and Mississippi have undertaken preparatory steps towards resuming executions in the face of continuing legal challenges to their methods of execution. On August 2, 2021, Alabama’s Department of Corrections (ADOC) notified a federal judge that it had “completed the initial physical build on the nitrogen hypoxia system” that would use nitrogen hypoxia to kill prisoners. The method is untested, and the state also indicated in its filing that it had yet to develop an execution protocol…
Issues
Jul 30, 2021
Nevada Press Association Sues State for Full Access to Witness Executions
The Nevada Press Association has filed a federal lawsuit against Nevada state officials and the Nevada Department of Corrections challenging limitations the state’s execution protocol places on the media’s ability to witness and report on executions. In a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada on July 23, 2021, the ACLU of Nevada, representing the press association, argued that the state’s execution protocol violates the media and the public’s First…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Jun 30, 2021
Texas Executes John Hummel, Former Marine with Service-Related Trauma Whose Trial Lawyer Now Works for Prosecutor Who is Trying to Execute Him
Texas executed John Hummel on June 30, 2021, an honorably discharged former Marine with service-related trauma whose trial lawyer now works for the prosecutor who was trying to execute him. Hummel had come within two days of execution in March 2020, when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay because of health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2021, Hummel’s lawyer, Michael Mowla, indicated that no appeals would be filed to try to halt the execution. Hummel was…
Executions
May 24, 2021
Citing ‘Inexperience’ and ‘Miscommunication,’ Texas Conducts Execution Without Media Witnesses
In a failure of transparency one legislative leader described as “unfathomable,” the State of Texas put Quintin Jones (pictured) to death on May 19, 2021 without any media witnesses present to observe the execution. It was the first time in the 571 executions conducted by Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its death penalty statute in 1976 that no media witnesses were present. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Director of Communications Jeremy Desel blamed the snafu on…
Executions
Mar 08, 2021
Arizona Department of Corrections Says It Is Ready to Resume Executions
Arizona corrections officials have announced that the state has procured a supply of an execution drug and is now able to resume executions after a nearly seven-year hiatus. David Shinn, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR), notified Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich that the prison had obtained pentobarbital and “now stands ready to commence the execution process.” The last execution in Arizona took place on July 23, 2014, when the state…
Issues
Mar 04, 2021
Evenly Split Indiana Supreme Court Affirms Ruling Requiring Release of Execution-Drug Records
An evenly divided Indiana Supreme Court has affirmed a trial court ruling that requires the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) to release records related to the lethal injection drugs Indiana has used in carrying out executions, including the identities of the drug suppliers. The documents were the subject of a public records suit filed by Washington, D.C. lawyer A. Katherine Toomey under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act (APRA). In a statement issued after the decision, Toomey’s…
Issues
Mar 01, 2021
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of February 22, 2021
NEWS (2/25/21) — Alabama: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has denied habeas relief for Alabama death-row prisoner Charles Clark, who the trial court had sentenced to death based upon a non-unanimous jury sentencing vote. Clark had argued that the trial court improperly ordered that he be shackled during the trial, without an adequate justification and without placing the reasons for shackling him on the record. His trial counsel had waived the claim by failing to object and Clark…
Executions
Federal Death Penalty
,Feb 26, 2021
Federal Bureau of Prisons Sanitized Execution Reports, Omitting Disturbing Details Observed by Media Witnesses
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials repeatedly misrepresented accounts of the executions they carried out in 2020 and 2021, providing sanitized descriptions of the executions that omitted all references to dramatic body movements and signs of distress observed by media witnesses, according to an Associated Press report. The sworn accounts by executioners, which federal prosecutors provided to an expert witness and to a federal district court judge to defeat the prisoners’ court claims…
State & Federal Info
Federal Death Penalty
,Feb 01, 2021
Under Court Order Requiring Protective Measures, Federal Bureau of Prisons Takes No Action After Media Witnesses to Executions Contract COVID-19
Despite being under federal court order to undertake protective measures against the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) took no action after being alerted that two reporters who had been media witnesses to the federal executions at the Federal Correctional Complex at Terre Haute, Indiana in January 2021 had contracted COVID-19. Emails obtained by the Death Penalty Information Center (see pictures) show that Indiana Public Media reporter George Hale notified Bureau of…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Jan 08, 2021
ProPublica Investigation Reveals Irregularities in Federal Executions
The federal government’s historically aberrant execution spree has been fraught with irregularities and “has trampled over an array of barriers, both legal and practical,” according to an investigative report by the non-profit news organization, ProPublica. In a December 23, 2020 news story by reporter Isaac Arnsdorf, based upon an analysis of court records, ProPublica details a pattern of government secrecy, deceit, and misconduct during the course of conducting more executions in five months…
Issues
Dec 02, 2020
Citing State’s Lack of Execution Drugs, South Carolina Supreme Court Stays Richard Moore’s Execution
Saying that the state lacked the ability to carry out a lethal injection, the South Carolina Supreme Court has stayed the scheduled December 4, 2020 execution of Richard Moore (pictured). With no state executions scheduled for the remainder of the year, the stay means that states will carry out fewer executions in 2020 than in any year since 1983. In an order issued November 30, the court wrote that it had “been advised the South Carolina Department of Corrections does not have, and will not…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Methods of Execution
,Nov 20, 2020
South Carolina Seeks to Execute Richard Moore December 4, But Won’t Say How
South Carolina has issued a death warrant to execute Richard Moore (pictured) on December 4, 2020, but, his lawyers say, the state has refused to tell him how it intends to carry it out. In a motion to stay Moore’s execution, filed in the South Carolina Supreme Court on November 16, Moore’s lawyers say that “the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) has provided no information about how it intends to carry out the … execution,” preventing Moore from making an intelligent selection…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Aug 24, 2020
ACLU Lawsuit Seeks Information on Cost and Public Health Risks of Federal Executions
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and American Civil Liberties Foundation have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) seeking a court order requiring the BOP to disclose how much the federal government’s resumption of federal executions is costing taxpayers and what steps the government has undertaken to assess and address the COVID-19 public health risks created by the executions. “As the nation faces both dire public health and economic crises,” the lawsuit says…
Research
Aug 18, 2020
Nebraska Legislature Passes, Governor Vetoes Execution Transparency Bill
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts has vetoed a bill that would have increased transparency in the state’s execution process. LB 238, which passed the state’s unicameral legislature on August 13, 2020 by a vote of 27 – 10 with 12 members present but not voting, would have allowed witnesses to see the execution from the moment the prisoner enters the death chamber until the prisoner is declared dead or the execution is halted. In his August 17 veto message to the legislature, Ricketts claimed that…
Executions
Aug 06, 2020
Execution Lawsuits Settle in Arizona and California, as Prisoners Renew Lethal-Injection Protocol Challenge in Oklahoma
Long-running execution lawsuits have settled in Arizona and California, as a renewed challenge to the state’s revised lethal-injection protocol has ramped up in Oklahoma. The Arizona settlement addressed issues of execution transparency, while the California settlement acknowledged the impact of the state’s execution moratorium and preserved death-row prisoners’ rights to oppose any new execution plan should the moratorium be lifted. The Oklahoma litigation raises concerns about the…
Issues
Jul 28, 2020
Nebraska Pharmacy May Have Violated Drug Distribution Policies, State Refused Drug Give-Back Demands, Records Show
Nebraska may have executed Carey Dean Moore in August 2018 using drugs supplied by a pharmacy in violation of pharmaceutical manufacturers’ distribution policies, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) records suggest. The records show that Community Pharmacy Services, a local pharmacy based in Greta, Nebraska, provided the state with supplies of five potential execution drugs. The distribution policies of the companies that produced the medicines prohibited their sale for use in…
Issues
Jun 13, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of June 8, 2020
NEWS (6/11/20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court applied new cases that retroactively changed the law regarding claims of intellectual disability and the unconstitutionality of death sentences imposed after non-unanimous jury votes for death to uphold the death sentences imposed on Alphonso Cave and Gary Lawrence. Cave had been unconstitutionally sentenced to death three different times. Twice his death sentence had been overturned. He was sentenced to death a third time after a…
Executions
Jun 04, 2020
Arkansas Federal Court Rejects Death-Row Prisoners’ Challenge to State’s Use of Midazolam in Executions
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on June 1, 2020 denied a challenge brought by Arkansas death-row prisoners to the use of the controversial drug midazolam in carrying out executions. The ruling followed a two-week hearing on the issue held in May 2019. Lawyers for the prisoners had argued that midazolam does not adequately anesthetize a prisoner during an execution before the second and third drugs, a paralytic drug and a drug that stops the heart, are administered. An attorney for the…
Issues
May 20, 2020
Nebraska Supreme Court Orders Release of Lethal-Injection Drug Records
In a major victory for media outlets and prisoner advocates, the Nebraska Supreme Court has ordered the state’s Department of Correctional Services (DCS) to release public records related to the procurement of drugs used in the 2018 execution of Carey Dean Moore (pictured). The court rejected the state’s argument that drug suppliers and manufacturers are members of the execution team whose identities may be shielded from disclosure but permitted DCS to redact information that could identify…
Issues
Apr 22, 2020
Amnesty International Report: Confirmed Executions and Death Sentences Continue Global Decline, But Secrecy Hinders Accurate Assessment of Trends
Executions across the globe fell 5% worldwide in 2019 to the fewest in more than a decade, despite a record number of executions in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International reported in the human rights organization’s Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions in 2019. The Amnesty report, released April 21, 2020, detailed rising political abuse of the death penalty in the Middle East, but said the region’s increased executions were offset by declines in executions in the Asia-Pacific region and…
Executions
Mar 09, 2020
Media and Legal Organizations Urge Idaho Supreme Court to Require Execution Transparency
Saying that states have “no compelling need” to keep execution information secret, the American Bar Association (ABA) has asked the Idaho Supreme Court to require the state to disclose numerous execution-related documents under Idaho’s freedom of information law. On February 28, 2020, the ABA and a coalition of Idaho media organizations led by the Idaho Press Club filed amicus curiae briefs in Cover v. Idaho Board of Correction in support of an Idaho law professor’s lawsuit seeking release of…
Research
Mar 08, 2020
Legislative Roundup — Recent Legislative Activity as of March 7
Washington — A bill that would formally remove Washington’s judicially abolished death penalty from the state’s statute books has failed. SB 5339, which passed the state senate on January 31 and was approved by the House Committee on Public Safety on February 27, did not come up for a vote on the floor of the state House of Representatives by the March 7 deadline for consideration during the 2020 legislative session. The failure has no effect on the judicial abolition of the state’s death…
Executions
State by State
,Mar 02, 2020
Oklahoma Prisoners Challenge New Execution Protocol in Federal Court
Less than two weeks after Oklahoma officials announced that the state would return to the same controversial three-drug execution protocol implicated in a series of botched executions in 2014 and 2015, the state’s death-row prisoners have asked a federal court to reactivate their lawsuit challenging the state’s execution process. The February 27, 2020 filing in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma called the new protocol “incomplete” and said it failed to comply…
Issues
Feb 20, 2020
Nebraska Bill to Make Executions More Transparent Advances in Legislature
Nebraska’s unicameral legislature voted on February 13, 2020 to advance a bill that would increase transparency in the state’s execution process. LB 238, which would allow witnesses to see the execution from the moment the prisoner enters the death chamber until the prisoner is declared dead or the execution is halted, passed an initial consideration by a 33 – 7 vote. It must pass a second vote in order to be submitted to the governor. The bill is a response to concerns about the state’s 2018…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Oct 21, 2019
In Response to Court Order, Alabama Releases Heavily Redacted Execution Protocol
Under court order, Alabama has released for the first time a copy of the state’s previously confidential execution protocol. The 17-page document — filed on October 16, 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama federal court —purports to detail “the responsibilities and procedures for the reception of a condemned inmate, for confinement, and for execution and day of execution preparation” as of April 2019. The heavily redacted protocol identifies the drugs used by the…
Issues
Sep 24, 2019
Lawsuits in Arizona and Virginia Highlight Media Efforts to Witness Executions in Their Entirety
Federal lawsuits filed by coalitions of media organizations in two states highlight recent media efforts to vindicate the public’s right to witness executions in their entirety. On September 17, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in a case brought by a coalition of Arizona media organizations that the First Amendment right to witness an execution encompasses the right to hear the execution in its entirety. On the heels of that ruling, four Virginia media organizations…
Executions
Aug 01, 2019
Ohio Governor Says State Cannot Obtain Lethal-Injection Drugs, Reschedules Upcoming Execution
Ohio cannot obtain drugs to carry out executions without putting public health at risk, Governor Mike DeWine (pictured) announced on July 31, 2019. DeWine told reporters that pharmaceutical manufacturers are unwilling to sell the state drugs for executions and have threatened to stop selling medicines to any state agency if they suspect the drugs might be diverted from therapeutic use to use in executions. A sales embargo could mean that the state would not be able to obtain medicines for…
Research
Jun 25, 2019
Supreme Court Orders Alabama to Unseal Execution Documents
The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the unsealing of court documents related to Alabama’s May 30, 2019 execution of Christopher Price. On June 24, the Court granted a motion filed by National Public Radio (NPR) and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), to unseal all Supreme Court pleadings in the case of Price v. Dunn, in which — based on redacted filings — the Court permitted Price’s execution to proceed. The Court did not issue an opinion in connection with the order. Price had…
Research
Apr 19, 2019
Veil of Execution Secrecy Expands in Several Southern Death-Penalty States
Three southern states have taken action to limit the public’s access to information relating to executions by increasing secrecy surrounding lethal-injection drug suppliers. On April 12, 2019, the Texas Supreme Court reversed an earlier decision that would have disclosed the source of lethal-injection drugs used to carry out executions in Texas in 2014, asserting that disclosure “would create a substantial threat of physical harm to the source’s employees and others.” On April 9, Arkansas…
Issues
Apr 10, 2019
Amnesty International 2018 Global Report: Executions Worldwide Fall to Lowest Level in a Decade
Executions worldwide have fallen to their lowest levels in a decade, according to a new report released April 9, 2019 by Amnesty International. In its annual Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions 2018, the human rights organization says it recorded at least 690 executions in 20 countries in 2018, a 31% decline from the 993 executions it recorded in 23 nations in 2017 and 58% below the 1,634 reported executions in 2015. Five countries accounted for 84% of all recorded executions — Iran…
Executions
Mar 11, 2019
Two Legislatures, Two Divergent Approaches to Execution Transparency
After controversial executions raised questions of government competence or misconduct, legislatures in two states have responded with bills taking sharply different approaches to the questions of government accountability and public oversight. Following an execution in which Nebraska Department of Corrections officials closed the curtain on fourteen crucial minutes of the execution of Carey Dean Moore, the Nebraska Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on March 7, 2019 on a bill that…
Executions
Mar 07, 2019
Judiciary Committee, Nebraska Unicameral Legislature: Testimony on LB 238 – A Bill Relating to Witnessing Executions
Judiciary Committee, Nebraska Unicameral Legislature: Testimony on LB 238 – A Bill Relating to Witnessing Executions by Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center (Lincoln, March 7, 2019)
Research
Botched Executions
,Nov 20, 2018
DPIC Releases New Report, “Behind the Curtain: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States”
The Death Penalty Information Center has released a major new report, Behind the Curtain: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States, examining the scope and consequences of secrecy in the application of the death penalty in the United States. The report, released on November 20, 2018, tells the story of the expansion of execution secrecy and the questionable practices that states have attempted to keep from public view. It details how, in their efforts to obtain execution drugs…
Executions
Nov 20, 2018
Behind the Curtain: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States
During the past seven years, states have begun conducting executions with drugs and drug combinations that have never been tried before. They have done so behind an expanding veil of secrecy laws that shield the execution process from public scrutiny. As pharmaceutical companies have taken action to prevent states from using their medicines to execute prisoners, states have responded by procuring whatever drugs seem available and obtaining them secretly through questionable means. Since…
Executions
May 30, 2018
With Drugs Expiring and Lawsuits Pending, Nebraska Prosecutors Seek to Expedite Execution
Facing an August 2018 expiration date for two of the drugs in Nebraska’s experimental execution protocol, state Attorney General Douglas Peterson (pictured) has asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to expedite consideration of the prosecutor’s request to set a July execution date for condemned prisoner Carey Dean Moore. The attorney general has petitioned the court to schedule Moore’s execution for July 10 “or alternatively for a date in mid-July,” despite the pendency of several lawsuits, which…
Issues
Apr 12, 2018
Amnesty International Report: Death Penalty Use Down Worldwide in 2017
Use of the death penalty declined worldwide in 2017, according to the Amnesty International’s annual global report on capital punishment. The human rights organization recorded 2,591 death sentences imposed in 53 countries in 2017, down 17% from the 3,117 death sentences it recorded from 55 countries in 2016. Executions also fell, with 23 nations carrying out a recorded 993 executions, off 4% from the 1,032 executions recorded in 2016 and 39% below the 1,634 executions reported in 2015. Two…
Issues
Nov 28, 2017
Senior U.N. Official Assails Death-Penalty Secrecy As Obstruction of Human Rights
A senior United Nations human rights official has criticized the secrecy with which countries carry out the death penalty and called for greater transparency by countries that still employ capital punishment. “There is far too much secrecy,” United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour (pictured) said in an interview released November 21 by the U.N. News Centre, “and it’s quite indicative the fact that although many countries are giving up the practice, those that…
Executions
Nov 22, 2017
South Carolina Seeks Drug-Secrecy Law to Carry Out Execution that was Never Going to Happen
Claiming that a lack of lethal-injection drugs was preventing the state from executing Bobby Wayne Stone (pictured, right) on December 1, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (pictured, left) urged state legislators to act quickly to enact an execution-drug secrecy law. But as McMaster and Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling held a press conference outside barbed-wire fences at the Broad River Capital Punishment Facility in Columbia, South Carolina on November 20, they knew…
Executions
Sep 25, 2017
Mixed Rulings in Arkansas and Arizona Highlight Issue of Lethal-Injection Secrecy
Recent court rulings in Arkansas and Arizona reaching opposite outcomes highlight the continuing controversy over state practices keeping information relating to state acquisition of drugs for use in executing prisoners secret from the public. A state trial court judge in Pulaski County, Arkansas ruled on September 19, 2017 that the Arkansas Department of Correction must disclose package inserts from the supplies of the sedative midazolam recently purchased by the state as part of its…
Issues
Apr 11, 2017
Amnesty International Report: U.S. Falls to 7th in Executions Amidst 37% Global Decline
Executions worldwide fell by 37% in 2016, according to the annual Amnesty International Global Report on Death Sentences and Executions, released on April 11, 2017. With 20 executions in 2016, the United States ranked seventh in the world among confirmed executions, the lowest it has ranked since at least 2005. For the 8th consecutive year, the U.S. was the only country in the Americas to conduct any executions, and the only Western democracy in the world to do so. Amnesty International…
Executions
Mar 20, 2017
Virginia Increases Execution Secrecy After Difficulty Setting IV in Last Execution
After prison personnel took more than a half hour to set the IV line during Virginia’s January 18 execution of Ricky Gray, the Commonwealth’s Department of Corrections has changed its execution procedures to conduct more of the execution preparations out of view of witnesses. Prior to the change, witnesses watched as the prisoner entered the execution chamber and was strapped to the gurney. A curtain was closed while staff placed intravenous lines and electrodes for a cardiac monitor, then…
Executions
Aug 04, 2016
Pharmaceutical Companies Reiterate Opposition to Participating in Executions as States Scramble for Execution Drugs
Distribution restrictions put in place by major pharmaceutical companies in the United States against misuse of their medicines and export regulations instituted by the European Union have made it increasingly difficult for states to obtain supplies of drugs for use in executions. However, despite these restrictions, some states have obtained pharmaceutical products manufactured by these companies for use in lethal injections. The Influence reports that the Commonwealth of Virginia obtained…
Issues
Apr 06, 2016
Amnesty International Reports Concentrated Spikes in Executions Amidst Continuing Trend Towards Global Death Penalty Abolition
Amnesty International reported that worldwide executions spiked by 54% to at least 1,634 — a 25-year high — in 2015, even as the number of countries abolishing the death penalty reached record levels. In its annual report on global developments in capital punishment, released on April 6, Amnesty said that the bulk of recorded executions were concentrated in just three outlier countries — Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. These countries accounted for 89% of all recorded executions. Amnesty did not…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Aug 02, 2013
LETHAL INJECTION: Shortage of Drugs Leaves Texas Unsure About Future Executions
On August 1, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced its remaining supply of pentobarbital, used for lethal injections, expires in September, and it is unsure where to obtain more. The drug’s manufacturer, Lundbeck, Inc., has barred distribution to states intending to use the drug in executions. DPIC’s Executive Director, Richard Dieter, remarked, “What’s happening is a scramble by Texas and other states to find something to quickly get into the syringe, rather than a reasoned…