News & Developments
Belize 834 MNH Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson Wedding, Flowers, R / More News
Mental Illness
May 06, 2022
Judge Rules That Arizona Death-Row Prisoner Who Had Been Previously Found Legally Insane Is Competent to Be Executed
An Arizona trial court has ruled that Clarence Dixon, a death-row prisoner with auditory and visual hallucinations and delusional thought processes from paranoid schizophrenia, is competent to be executed. In an opinion d…
Innocence
May 05, 2022
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case of Texas Death Row Prisoner Rodney Reed
In a case legal experts say could redress a miscarriage of justice or institutionalize it, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the Texas federal courts’ refusal to permit DNA testing of crime-scene evidenc…
Arbitrariness
May 04, 2022
Jury Selection Chaos and Confusion Causes Further Delays in Parkland Shooting Capital Sentencing Trial
The capital sentencing trial of Nikolas Cruz in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (pictured) in Parkland, Florida has been delayed once again as jury selection in the …
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…
Representation
May 02, 2022
Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Death Penalty Cases that Could Limit Access to Federal Court Review
The U.S. Supreme Court has heard argument in two death penalty cases that present highly technical legal issues that could profoundly affect the extent to which prisoners convicted in state courts will have meaningful access to fe…
Apr 29, 2022
Missouri Plans to Execute Prisoner Whose Death Sentence Was Reversed Three Times and Reinstated on a Technicality
Carman Deck (pictured) has been sentenced to death three times. Each of those death sentences were overturned — once by the U.S. Supreme Court — as a result of prejudicial constitutional violations in his trials. Nonetheless, he f…
Race
Apr 28, 2022
Supreme Court Refuses to Review Case in Which Texas Judge Seated Juror Who Believed ‘Non-White Races’ More Violent
Five years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas death sentence when an expert witness had testified that a Black defendant posed an increased risk of committing future acts of violence because of his race, the Court ha…
Executions Overview
Apr 27, 2022
Arkansas Marks Five Years Since End of 2017 Execution Spree
On April 27, 2017, Kenneth Williams convulsed violently as he died on the gurney, the fourth prisoner put to death in an eleven-day execution spree in which Arkansas intended to execute eight men before its supply of execution dru…
Methods of Execution
Apr 26, 2022
Executions Halted in South Carolina Amid Challenges to Constitutionality of Firing Squad and Electric Chair
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…
Innocence
Apr 25, 2022
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Stays Melissa Lucio’s Execution and Orders Hearing on Her Innocence Claims
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted the scheduled April 27, 2022 execution of Melissa Lucio