Capital Punishment
The Capital Punishment section covers all things related to the death penalty — from legal decisions to ethical considerations.
As of April 17, 26 death row inmates have been transferred to California Institution for Men following the closure of segregated units at San Quentin and Central California Women’s Facility
The lawsuit says California’s death penalty violates the state constitution’s equal protection guarantees because courts and prosecutors apply it in a racially biased way
More than 70 current and former prison officials, including chaplains, wardens and COs, had written a letter asking the governor to grant Brian Dorsey clemency
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen is petitioning the county Superior Court to resentence 14 men — all being held in San Quentin State Prison — to terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole
“I’ve decided to drop my appeals and have my sentence carried out… I was fairly tried and convicted. I agreed with the court’s decision,” the inmate said
The inmate is the first person executed in Oklahoma this year and the 12th put to death since the state resumed executions in 2021 following a nearly seven-year hiatus
The inmate was sentenced to die for the 1999 beating death of Daisy Hallum, 70, and to life without parole for the shotgun slaying of her son, Sam Hallum, 38
Willie James Pye was executed at 11:03 p.m. on March 20, making him the 54th prisoner killed by lethal injection in Georgia and the 77th person executed by the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976
The condemned prisoners will be rehoused in the general population across two dozen high-security state prisons, where they will gain access to a broader range of rehabilitative programming and treatment services
Attorney General Russell Coleman said that the families of victims deserve “justice” via these executions
The new methods, including electrocution and nitrogen hypoxia, are approved to be used on the state’s nearly 60 death row inmates starting July 1
The governor also signed bills that eliminate parole for adults who commit crimes after Aug. 1 and dramatically cut the availability of good behavior credits in prison
Thomas Creech was issued a stay of execution about a half hour after Idaho DOC officials called off his lethal injection when they couldn’t locate a vein for an IV
Thomas Creech, 73, has been in prison for half a century; he was already serving a life term when he beat a fellow inmate to death in 1981 — the crime for which he was to be executed
Ivan Cantu received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. at the Huntsville State Penitentiary for the 2000 fatal shooting of his cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend
Louisiana’s special session also included bills that included restricting parole eligibility, harsher penalties for some crimes and publicizing some juvenile court records
The jury voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty after convicting the 24-year-old man in the death of Mobile Police Officer Sean Tuder
South Carolina’s current execution law requires inmates to be sent to the electric chair unless they choose a different method
“This pace also protects our team’s mental health and allows time for them to process and recover between the scheduled executions,” the Oklahoma DOC executive director said
Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma have OK’d nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, although Oklahoma’s law allows it only if lethal injection is no longer available
“We do not believe Mr. Creech is worthy of grace or mercy,” the three parole board members said. “This decision was based on the coldblooded nature of David Dale Jensen’s murder and the sheer number of victims that Mr. Creech has created over his lifetime”
The AG said there will be more nitrogen executions in Alabama, stating his regret was that it took so long for the 1996 sentence to be carried out
Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. at William C. Holman Correctional Facility after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask, marking the first time that a new execution method has been used in the U.S.
The execution planned for Jan. 25 would be the first attempt to use a new method since lethal injection was introduced in 1982; three states have authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method
“Generally, we believe in the use of capital punishment. But we are in agreement that the death penalty is not the appropriate punishment for Brian Dorsey,” a letter from dozens of former and current Missouri DOC employees stated
The lawsuit argued that Alabama DOC’s rule mandating a three-foot distance between the reverend and inmate during nitrogen execution was “hostile toward religion”
Attorneys for two of Idaho’s longest-serving death row inmates are challenging the state’s refusal to disclose the date of purchase for lethal injection drugs
Lawyers claim that the Alabama DOC’s rule on staying three feet away from the inmate during the nitrogen execution is unscientific and violates his right to practice religion
