Search Results for: lethal injection

During every execution in the United States, Death Penalty Action* holds a virtual vigil simultaneously with local death penalty abolitionists protesting outside the prisons and state capitals or governor’s mansions where the state-sponsored killing is taking place. When these gatherings are in person, those in attendance toll the same massive bell at the time the [...]

As we prepare to usher in 2024, the outlook on Alabama’s administration of the death penalty holds many terrible knowns, and an even greater number of grim unknowns. At the top of any capital punishment-watcher’s list: Is Alabama really going to move forward with the first state-sanctioned nitrogen gassing execution in US history? If all goes according [...]

A lawyer-turned-death penalty abolitionist and a Jewish cantor join forces for JURIST to argue that the Jewish community has a unique obligation to voice resistance to Alabama’s plans to begin using nitrogen gas as a means of executing death row convicts. In Part 1, Stephen Cooper reflects on his great-grandmother’s death in a Nazi death [...]

The South Carolina Department of Corrections (DOC) filed a motion on Tuesday informing the South Carolina Supreme Court that it obtained a drug to carry out the death penalty through lethal injection. The last time South Carolina executed a prisoner was in May 2011 by lethal injection. Since then, the state halted executions because pharmacies [...]

In November of 1985, legendary liberal Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. declared, “the fatal constitutional infirmity of capital punishment is that it treats members of the human race as non-humans, as objects to be toyed with and discarded.” With Alabama primed to gas condemned prisoners to death with nitrogen — and with other [...]

The “Texas Lawyer’s Creed” was promulgated by the Supreme Court of Texas and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on November 7, 1989. Established to eliminate abusive tactics within the practice of law, it was thought to be a seminal moment in the legal profession; the culmination of months of hard work and spirited debate [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from the state of Alabama regarding a death row inmate’s request for an alternative execution method. With the court’s decision, a lower court ruling in favor of the death row inmate stands and the alternative method, as opposed to lethal injection, should be allowed. [...]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Thursday signed a bill into law that allows juries to recommend the death penalty without unanimous consent. For a jury to recommend the death penalty under Florida law, the jury must unanimously confirm there was an “aggravating factor” present to warrant capital punishment. Aggravating factors include if the crime was especially cruel [...]

A new report released by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) has dubbed 2022 the “Year of the Botched Execution,” shedding light on critical issues that mire the capital punishment process in the US — including racial discrimination and problems with prosecutorial accountability. The report highlights that botched executions and protocol errors have led to [...]

Idaho Governor Brad Little Saturday signed into law a bill allowing execution by firing squad. With the bill signed, Idaho now permits death by lethal injection or firing squad. The bill states the Director of the Idaho Department of Corrections shall determine whether lethal injection is available. If it is not, then a firing squad [...]