Death Penalty News

The upcoming retrial of Richard Glossip, now scheduled for September 28, 2026, marks a pivotal moment in the Oklahoma judicial system. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to vacate his conviction, the case has evolved from a capital punishment dispute into a fundamental test of institutional integrity. Central to this transition is the revelation of "Box 8," a trove of long-withheld prosecution records that exposed a systemic pattern of constitutional violations during the original 2004 proceedings.

Kentucky would make the death penalty off-limits for some defendants diagnosed with severe mental illnesses under a bill that won final legislative approval Friday. The Republican-led Senate voted 25-9 to send the measure to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, capping a long effort led by death penalty opponents to restrict the use of capital punishment. Another proposal that crossed the finish line after languishing for years would require future constables and deputy constables to obtain training and law enforcement certification before wielding police powers. The bill won final Senate passage 23-11 and goes to Beshear's desk. With 4 days left in the 60-day session, stacks of bills are awaiting final decisions by the GOP-dominated legislature. Lawmakers have plenty of heavy lifting ahead, highlighted by work to finish a new 2-year state budget and to decide on tax legislation. The House has endorsed phasing out individual income taxes while extending the state sales tax to more service...

Singapore, Jan 15 (PTI) Indian-origin drug trafficker Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam ’s appeal against his execution will be heard by a five-judge panel of Singapore’s Supreme Court on January 24, according to a media report. Nagaenthran, 33, of Indian-origin and Malaysian citizenship, is appealing against a High Court decision denying him permission to start judicial review proceedings to challenge the death sentence. The appeal is set to be heard by a panel comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Andrew Phang, Judith Prakash, Belinda Ang and Chao Hick Tin, The Straits Times reported on Friday. Represented by lawyer M. Ravi, Nagaenthran has pleaded to not have the mental fitness to be considered as a regular drug trafficker. He has even asked the court to have him assessed by a panel of psychiatrists. Nagaenthran was arrested in 2009 with a stash of heroin strapped to his thigh. He was convicted of trafficking 42.72g of heroin in 2010 and sentenced to the death penalty, whi...

A new Ohio law prohibiting the execution of people who had severe mental illness at the time of their crime has begun seeing its first implementations. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in January signed the bill into law covering killers diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or delusional disorder when they committed their offenses. Earlier this year, judges removed inmates in Butler and Franklin counties from death row after their attorneys successfully argued they met the mental illness criteria under the law. And earlier this month, the law was invoked in a state Supreme Court decision upholding the death sentence of a man who killed four relatives in 2017, including an 8-year-old boy. WHAT ARE THE LAW'S ORIGINS? Whether mentally ill people should be eligible for death sentences has long been debated. Ohio law already prohibited executions if an offender, “because of a mental disease or defect, lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the criminali...

On July 15, the federal government plans to execute Wesley Purkey, a 68-year-old man with multiple brain disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.  The law is clear. Under the Constitution, an execution can only be carried out when the prisoner understands why he is being executed.  Mr. Purkey believes his death is punishment, not for his crime, but for his frequent complaints against prison officials over prison conditions. In a lawsuit filed last November, Mr. Purkey's attorneys point to evidence of decades of delusional behavior and rapidly progressing dementia. An expert who examined Mr. Purkey concluded that his dementia and mental illness have progressed to the point that he is incapable of rationally understanding the reason for his execution. Though that is what the law requires, the Government is rushing forward with his execution, while withholding critical medical records and without giving the courts time to hold a hearing. Institut...

ORLANDO, Fla. — After two days of deliberations, a 12-member jury couldn't unanimously agree on a death sentence for convicted killer Scott Nelson, who then got life in prison for killing a Winter Park personal assistant in 2017. Judge Keith F. White read the jury's decision to the courtroom at the Orange County Courthouse in downtown Orlando late Thursday afternoon. Soon after White read the decision, he officially sentenced Nelson to life in prison. The jury's decision to recommend death for Nelson had to be unanimous, which means at least one juror declined to recommend the sentence. "We respect the decision of the jury, and we are relieved to know this person will no longer be a threat to our community," the State Attorney's Office said in a statement.  The jurors spent Wednesday night sequestered in a hotel with no TV, wifi or private phone calls. About an hour into their deliberations Thursday morning, they had a request for the judge....

Under the measure, defendants who have active psychotic symptoms of certain mental illnesses at the time of the crime would be ineligible for capital punishment. But the bill's author believes death penalty proponents may keep it from passing on a necessary final vote later this week. For the second time in two weeks, the Texas House moved to change death penalty law. On Wednesday, the chamber tentatively passed a measure that would prohibit handing down a death sentence to someone with a severe mental illness, like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. House Bill 1936 by state Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, would let capital murder defendants present evidence at trial that they were severely mentally ill at the time of the crime. If the jury agrees, the defendant would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty. The measure passed on a quick voice vote with no discussion after being delayed several times in the last week. The bill will ...

A comprehensive Virginian-Pilot investigation Bradley Thomas had bipolar disorder and was in a severe depressive episode when he was arrested for a misdemeanor in Oregon. He had spit on his landlord's face and threatened her husband with a sword. While in jail, Thomas refused meals and medication. His condition quickly worsened. Soon he was flooding his cell with toilet water and smearing feces on the walls. He was ordered to a state mental hospital but no beds were available. Thomas, like so many others with mental illness in jail, died in his cell. The Virginian-Pilot tracked the cases of 404 people with mental illness who have died in America's jails since 2010. The total number is likely much larger, but it's untraceable - what little information the federal government keeps on jail deaths does not accurately track the mental health of inmates. These deaths are symptomatic of a bigger problem - how the country's criminal justice system treats ...