Entries tagged with “Murray Hooper”
Jan 21, 2026
New Autopsy Report Renews Concerns about Arizona’s Execution Protocol
An autopsy of Richard Djerf, who was executed in Arizona in October 2025, has renewed concerns about the state’s lethal injection execution protocol and the state’s efforts to address longstanding execution-related concerns. Mr. Djerf was convicted for the September 1993 murders of four members of the Luna family in Phoenix. The autopsy, conducted by Pinal County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. John Hu, established for the first time that medical personnel encountered significant difficulty…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Botched Executions
,Jan 17, 2023
Tennessee Gov. Says No Death Warrants Until Execution Protocol Problems Fixed
Tennessee will not resume executions until it fixes systemic problems with the administration of its execution protocol, Governor Bill Lee has announced. “It’s a very important issue that has to be done correctly,” Lee told reporters on January 5, 2023. “And we will take the time to fix the protocol and to make certain that we don’t move forward until everything’s in place.” Lee, a Republican, halted the execution of Oscar Smith on April 21, 2022 after learning that the Tennessee Department of…
Research
Botched Executions
,Dec 07, 2022
As Lethal Injection Turns Forty, States Botch a Record Number of Executions
On December 7, 1982, Texas strapped Charles Brooks to a gurney, inserted an intravenous line into his arm, and injected a lethal dose of sodium thiopental into his veins, launching the lethal-injection era of American executions. In the precisely forty years since, U.S. states and the federal government have put 1377 prisoners to death by some version of the method. Touted as swift and painless and a more humane way to die — just as execution proponents had said nearly a century before about…
Issues
Time on Death Row
,Nov 16, 2022
Arizona Executes 76-Year-Old Man after Refusing DNA and Fingerprint Testing
In its third execution of 2022, Arizona executed Murray Hooper for a 1980 crime that was never analyzed using modern forensic methods. In the days preceding his execution, his attorneys continued to request DNA testing and pursued new claims of prosecutorial misconduct based on evidence not revealed until Hooper’s clemency hearing. All challenges to his conviction and death sentence failed. In an investigative report published the day before Hooper’s scheduled execution, Liliana Segura of The…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Nov 14, 2022
Week of Four Scheduled Executions Highlights Continued Concerns With the Use of the Death Penalty
The four executions scheduled for the week of November 17th highlight current trends in executions and death sentencing and the continued use of the death penalty against vulnerable populations. The prisoners scheduled to be executed by four states have raised a number of issues, including prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, discrimination against Black jurors, judicial override of jury decisionmaking, serious mental illness, and brain damage. Stephen Barbee (Texas…