Entries tagged with “Maria DeLiberato”
Executions
Jul 09, 2026
Article of Interest: A Close Look at Florida’s Execution Spree
A June 30 article by Pamela Colloff, co-published in ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, investigates Florida’s record-setting pace of executions over the past 18 months, even as the rest of the country largely “abandons” the death penalty. Ms. Colloff uses data from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) to emphasize Florida’s outlier status, while exploring the political implications of the execution spree and its impact on the people involved. As DPI has documented, executions…
Executions
Botched Executions
,Jun 22, 2026
States Continue to Push for Execution Secrecy Amid Legal Challenges
For the past 15 years, as state after state has passed execution secrecy laws, the public has faced more questions than answers about how elected officials use their taxpayer dollars for the most serious punishment. Every active death penalty state now has a law shielding key information about executions, such as the source of lethal injection drugs, the identities of execution team members, and whether those individuals have adequate training. In 2026, as botched executions continue to make…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Aug 14, 2024
Florida’s Governor DeSantis Schedules First Execution of 2024 for Dozier Reform School Survivor After 10-Month Execution Hiatus
On July 29, 2024, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the state’s first execution warrant of 2024, scheduling an execution date for Loran Cole (pictured) in just thirty days, on August 29, 2024. Mr. Cole’s execution warrant comes nearly ten months after Florida’s last execution, which was the last of the state’s six executions carried out in 2023. Mr. Cole was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of a Florida State University student in Marion County, Florida. Following the issuance of…
Research
May 17, 2024
Tennessee Authorizes Death Penalty for Child Sexual Assault in Direct Challenge to Supreme Court Precedent
On May 9, Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee signed a bill authorizing the death penalty for aggravated rape of a child, following Florida’s passage of a similar law last year. Both laws contradict longstanding Supreme Court precedent holding the death penalty unconstitutional for non-homicide crimes. Tennessee’s law takes effect on July 1. The state has had a death penalty moratorium in place since May 2022 after Governor Lee learned that state officials had failed to test execution drugs for…
Issues
Jan 03, 2024
Overwhelming Percentage of Florida’s Hurst Resentencing Hearings End in Life Sentences
According to new research by the Death Penalty Information Center, 82% of Florida death-sentenced prisoners who completed new sentencing proceedings under Hurst v. Florida (2016) have been resentenced to life in prison without parole. Hurst found Florida’s death penalty scheme unconstitutional, and the Florida Supreme Court subsequently held that new death sentences must be unanimous, necessitating new sentencing hearings. Of the 157 cases DPIC previously identified as Hurst-eligible — anyone…