Death Penalty News

  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will leave office in January 2027 after the 2026 gubernatorial election. Florida's constitution limits governors to two consecutive four-year terms. DeSantis was first elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022, so he is term-limited and cannot run for a third consecutive term in the November 3, 2026 election. TALLAHASSEE — As Gov. Ron DeSantis exits office, one of the legacies he‘ll leave behind is a record-shattering embrace of the death penalty.

Judicial appointments and the death penalty are among areas where a lame-duck administration can still leave a mark. Donald Trump’s second presidential term will begin on Jan. 20, bringing with it promises to dramatically reshape many aspects of the criminal justice system. The U.S. Senate — with its authority over confirming judicial nominees — will also shift from Democratic to Republican control.

Less than half of millennials, Gen Z are in favor of it for convicted murderers WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Younger generations of U.S. adults are far less likely than older generations to favor the death penalty for convicted murderers. As a result, overall support for the death penalty in the U.S. has fallen to 53% today, a level not seen since the early 1970s.

Kamala Harris, once openly opposed to the death penalty despite political costs, now avoids the topic as a candidate. Meanwhile, Donald Trump advocates tougher criminal policies, though presidential authority in this area is limited. A few blocks from downtown Richmond, Virginia, the intersection of Spring Street and Belvidere Street now presents a completely different view. Where once stood a grim, old brick building, there is now a modern building with a glass facade reflecting the sun shining on Virginia’s capital. Trees along the wide Belvidere Street give the neighborhood a promenade-like feel, with the James River flowing nearby along the memorial for American war dead.

The VP was once a vocal opponent of the practice. Freddie “Khalil” Owens. Marcellus “Khaliifah”  Williams. Emmanuel Littlejohn. Travis Mullis. Alan Eugene Miller. All five men were executed within one week in five different states, a period political scientist Austin Sarat condemned as “the worst execution spree in three decades.”

Pro-life advocates have seen significant gains in rolling back the death penalty in states around the country in recent years. A smaller but still determined band of activists and policymakers, meanwhile, is hoping for a similar victory at the federal level.  The vast majority of executions in the United States are carried out at the state level. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1976 Gregg v. Georgia decision affirming the legality of the death penalty, just 16 convicts have been put to death by the federal government, compared with nearly 1,600 by state governments.

It's the first time the party has not opposed the practice nationally since 2016 and the first time since 2004 that it has been omitted entirely. The Democratic Party has omitted the death penalty from its national platform for the first time in 20 years, following back-to-back cycles of opposing the practice outright. The news came on Aug. 19, when the delegates to the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago voted to approve the new document, which is to guide the party’s electioneering for the next four years. 

Attorney General Kris Mayes said this week her office would begin pursuing executions in cases early next year, potentially bringing to an end a two-year pause on capital punishment in Arizona. Executions have been on hold since early 2023, when Mayes and Gov. Katie Hobbs, both Democrats, stopped the state from carrying out the death penalty and launched a review of procedures. Resuming them could happen in less than a year, according to a letter from Mayes' office obtained by The Arizona Republic.

A bill to repeal the death penalty in Pennsylvania has passed a committee in the commonwealth’s House of Representatives. The Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee voted 15-10 in favor of HB 999 on October 31, 2023. That vote is the first step toward abolishing the death penalty in Pennsylvania, which has had a formal moratorium on executions since 2015 and has not executed anyone since 1999.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For the first time since Gallup started asking about the fairness of the death penalty's application in the U.S. -- a trend that dates back to 2000 -- more Americans say it is applied unfairly (50%) than fairly (47%). This represents a five-point increase in the percentage who think it is applied unfairly since the prior measurement in 2018. From 2000 through 2015, between 51% and 61% of Americans thought capital punishment was used fairly in the U.S., but since 2016, readings on the measure have averaged 49%. The latest reading is from Gallup’s annual Crime survey, conducted Oct. 2-23.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor's race, holding off a crowded field of candidates. The win is a major victory for the GOP as they reclaim the governor's mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek reelection due to consecutive term limits. Edwards is the only Democratic governor in the Deep South.

The Death of Ricky Ray Rector Ricky Ray Rector grew up in Conway, Arkansas, just an hour’s drive from Bill Clinton’s own hometown of Hot Springs. From the very earliest days of his life, Ricky was considered different and strange. He had few friends, and while other children were out running around, Ricky sat under a tree playing alone with sticks. Those who saw him said he was dreamy and detached, “as if he were locked into some private daze of withdrawal.”

President Joe Biden made history in 2021 when he became the first president to publicly oppose the death penalty. It wasn’t a position he spoke about often but tucked into his campaign platform was a promise to work with Congress to abolish the federal death penalty through legislation and incentivize states to do the same.  In July 2020, the Trump administration ended a 17-year de facto moratorium on federal executions and killed Daniel Lewis Lee. Over the next several months, former President Donald Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr raced to execute as many people as possible before leaving office. Dustin Higgs, a Black man scheduled to be executed on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, was the thirteenth and final person to be killed. Ultimately, he died in the early hours of the following day while suffering from COVID-19, just four days before Biden’s inauguration. Like many of the people executed before him, there were extensive unresolved legal issues in Higgs’ cas...

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that state law doesn’t require Gov. Katie Hobbs to carry out the April 6 execution of a prisoner who was convicted of murder. The decision marks a legal victory for the newly elected Democratic governor whose office said the state isn’t currently prepared to carry out the death penalty. The high court had set the April execution date for Aaron Gunches, who fatally shot Ted Price near Mesa, Arizona, in 2002. The order came after Hobbs said executions will not be carried out until Arizonans can be confident that the state isn’t violating constitutional rights when it enforces the death penalty. The governor vowed two weeks ago that she wouldn’t carry out the court’s order while the state reviews death penalty protocols that she ordered because of Arizona’s history of mismanaging executions.

When people have been asked about their biggest concern in politics, crime hasn't popped as the "top" priority in the past year. Shortly before the 2022 midterm elections, it was inflation for Republicans and abortion rights for Democrats that consistently ranked as the top issues. But that doesn't mean crime isn't seen as important and motivating in politics. It's partially why, in the year before a presidential election, the Biden White House is positioning the president to the middle on this issue and a host of other issues, including immigration and the priorities reflected in his budget proposal. The budget includes popular poll-tested items, like raising taxes on the wealthy to preserve Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and capping costs for prescription drugs.

After a report dubbed 2022 “the year of the botched execution,” Catholic activists renewed their calls for an end to capital punishment in the U.S. at both the state and federal levels. Despite declining public support for the practice, and a campaign promise from President Joe Biden, a Catholic and a Democrat, to repeal the federal death penalty, a bill to do so gained little traction last Congress, when Democrats still controlled both chambers.

Outgoing Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (pictured) is commuting the sentences of all 17 people on death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, according to a news release Tuesday from her office. “Since taking office in 2015, I have continued Oregon’s moratorium on executions because the death penalty is both dysfunctional and immoral. Today I am commuting Oregon’s death row so that we will no longer have anyone serving a sentence of death and facing execution in this state,” Brown, a Democrat, said. Brown also talked about the long wait for victims and their families. “I also recognize the pain and uncertainty victims experience as they wait for decades while individuals sit on death row — especially in states with moratoriums on executions — without resolution,” she said. “My hope is that this commutation will bring us a significant step closer to finality in these cases.” The governor will use executive clemency powers to commute the sentences, and the order is set to t...

The majority of Americans, 55%, are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers in the U.S. While this marks the 6th consecutive year that support for capital punishment is between 54% and 56%, it is below the 60% to 80% readings recorded in the 4 prior decades between 1976 and 2016. When Gallup initiated this measure in 1936, 59% of U.S. adults favored the death penalty for convicted murderers -- and majorities have supported it since then, with the exception of several readings taken between 1957 and March 1972, including the record-low 42% in 1966. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in June 1972, majorities continued to back it. When it was reinstated in 1976, public support for it grew until it peaked at 80% in 1994. At least 60% of U.S. adults favored capital punishment until 2017, when support dipped to the lowest point since 1972, and today it remains at that level. The latest findings are from an Oct. 3-20 Gallup poll that was conduc...

Texas voters are among a minority of Americans whose ballots include the state's courts. And this year, Texans could potentially shake up the Court of Criminal Appeals, which has the power to appeal the sentences of the 191 inmates currently on death row. Texas is 1 of 7 states that elects its own judges in partisan elections and 1 of 2 states with a bifurcated appellate process, meaning there are separate appeals courts for civil and criminal matters. Although the state has 14 lower courts, where criminal cases are typically heard before they reach the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, death penalty cases are unique and go directly to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court. Of the Court of Criminal Appeals' 9 members, 3 judges are up for re-election this year: Mary Lou Keel, Scott Walker and Jesse McClure, although Keel is running uncontested. Currently, all 9 judges are Republicans. Democrats have not won a seat on the court since the late 1990s....

In the race to be Oregon’s next governor, the Democratic candidate says she’ll continue Oregon’s moratorium on capital punishment, while the Republican and unaffiliated candidates indicate they will revoke it, which could allow the state to resume executions. For more than a decade, Oregon governors have placed a moratorium on capital punishment, despite a long-standing, voter-approved constitutional amendment that allows the state to kill people convicted of the most serious crimes. Oregon’s next governor has the power to decide whether to maintain the moratorium of their predecessors, or revoke it, opening up the possibility of the state carrying out death sentences once more. “As long as the death penalty remains a possibility, there’s always the possibility of an execution,” said Jeff Ellis, director of the Oregon Capital Resource Center, which assists attorneys representing people sentenced to death. CANDIDATES' STANCES OPB asked all 3 gubernatorial candidates: If elected gove...