Costs
,Jul 06, 2023
A bill that Idaho Governor Brad Little signed into law in March 2023, authorizing the use of the firing squad as a method of execution, went into effect on July 1, 2023. This law grants the director of Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) the au…
Methods of Execution
,Apr 26, 2022
The South Carolina Supreme Court has halted two scheduled executions, including one that would have been the state’s first execution by firing squad, amid ongoing legal challenges by state death-row prisoners to the state’s execut…
Recent Legislative Activity
,Methods of Execution
,Mar 28, 2023
Idaho will become the fifth state to authorize the firing squad as a method of execution and may become the first state to mandatorily impose it on a death row prisoner since 1976. Idaho’s Governor Brad Little signed HB 186 into law on March 24, 2…
Jan 29, 2024
On January 23, 2024, attorneys for Utah death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies, who has been diagnosed with a major neurocognitive disorder known as vascular dementia, filed a petition in stat…
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Lethal Injection
,Aug 18, 2022
A decision on the constitutionality of South Carolina’s newly adopted execution methods now rests in the hands a trial court judge after lawyers for death-row prisoners and the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) prese…
Methods of Execution
,Lethal Injection
,Apr 06, 2022
Lawyers for three men on South Carolina’s death row have asked the state supreme court to defer setting execution dates until the courts resolve pending legal challenges to the state’s controversial execution methods. The…
Methods of Execution
,Dec 08, 2021
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 …
Race
,History of the Death Penalty
,Recent Legislative Activity
,Methods of Execution
,May 06, 2021
One day shy of the tenth anniversary of the state’s last execution, the South Carolina legislature, frustrated by the state’s inability to obtain execution drugs, approved a bill that would authorize putting prisoners to death in …
Methods of Execution
,Lethal Injection
,Feb 09, 2023
On January 26, South Carolina’s Supreme Court ordered the state to turn over information about its attempts to obtain lethal injection drugs, as part of a suit challenging aspects of the state’s methods of execution. South Carolina has …
Methods of Execution
,Jun 17, 2021
The South Carolina Supreme Court has vacated death warrants for two death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed this month, staying their executions until the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) complies with a newly…
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Oct 11, 2022
The South Carolina Supreme Court will hear argument one month sooner on the state’s appeal of a trial court ruling that declared two of its statutorily methods of execution — death by electric chair and firing squad — unconstituti…
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Sep 09, 2022
A South Carolina trial court has issued an injunction preventing the state from carrying out executions using a firing squad or the electric chair, ruling that those methods violate the state’s constitutional prohibition against “…
Feb 14, 2024
On February 13, 2024, the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake City, Utah ruled that evidence presented by Ralph Menzies’ attorneys of his dementia and cognitive decline requires a formal assessment of his competency to face execution by fir…
