Death Penalty News

Indiana law says that the press has no right to be present when the state carries out executions. It limits those who can attend to the warden of the prison where the execution is carried out, immediate family members of the crime victim, no more than five friends or relatives of the convicted person, the prison physician, and the prison chaplain. Only if an inmate selects a member of the press as one of the five friends may they attend.

When Lance Shockley was exe­cut­ed in Missouri in October 2025, he request­ed the pres­ence of his daugh­ter, an ordained min­is­ter, in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber as his spir­i­tu­al advis­er. The Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) denied his request, and Mr. Shockley was exe­cut­ed. His case rep­re­sents one exam­ple of how states have applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 rul­ing in Ramirez v. Collier , a deci­sion that acknowl­edged the reli­gious rights of death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers at the time of their exe­cu­tion. In its 8 – 1 rul­ing, the Supreme Court held that John Ramirez, a death-sen­tenced pris­on­er in Texas, had the right to have a spir­i­tu­al advis­er touch him and pray aloud dur­ing his exe­cu­tion. The Court based this deci­sion on both the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and urged states to adopt clear poli­cies for allow­ing spir­i­tu­al advis­ers into execution chambers.

Idaho will spend more than $900,000 to renovate its execution chamber to accommodate a firing squad as its lead method, state prison officials told the Idaho Statesman.  The Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) announced in late May its plans to begin construction on a remodel project without detailing the cost. This decision aligns with a July 2026 deadline set by a legislative bill passed in March, which prioritizes the firing squad as the primary execution method. Governor Brad Little signed this bill into law, building upon a 2023 law he approved that established the firing squad as a backup to lethal injection and allocated $750,000 for construction. No new funds were included in the latest legislation, as the IDOC is expected to cover the cost difference through other budget savings.

EVANSVILLE — A federal judge declined to force Indiana prison officials to let journalists witness executions while a lawsuit brought by several news organizations proceeds. Judge Matthew P. Brookman, of the Southern District of Indiana, denied the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction on the grounds that they were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claim that reporters have a First Amendment right to witness executions. The ruling, issued late Friday, comes just before the scheduled execution of Benjamin Ritchie on Tuesday. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murder of a Beech Grove police officer in 2002.

Idaho prison officials must let media witnesses at executions watch as lethal injection drugs are prepared and administered to a condemned person, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.  U.S. District Judge Debora K. Grasham ordered the Idaho Department of Correction to provide the audio and visual access for any executions that occur while a First Amendment lawsuit from a coalition of news organizations moves forward in court. The Associated Press, The Idaho Statesman and East Idaho News sued the state's prison director in December, arguing that key steps of the lethal injection process were being unconstitutionally hidden from public view. 

On December 18, Indiana hopes to get back into the execution business. On that date, it plans to put Joseph Corcoran to death for the 1997 murder of four people, including his brother. Corcoran is one of eight men on Indiana’s death row—also called “X Row.” The others include an inmate who “stabbed two co-workers after he was fired,” another who “shot and killed a police officer,” and two people who each “killed multiple children.” Corcoran’s lawyers are seeking a stay of execution because he has long suffered from a serious mental illness. As they explain, he “cannot distinguish between reality and his delusions and hallucinations — his delusions are his reality.”

Joe Nathan James Jr. executed for 1994 killing of ex-girlfriend in Alabama Alabama death row inmate Joe Nathan James Jr. was executed by lethal injection Thursday night for the slaying of his ex-girlfriend nearly 3 decades ago. It’s an execution the victim’s family fought to keep from happening. The 50-year-old James was executed at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The prison is where death row inmates in the state are housed, and is the only state facility with an execution chamber. He was set to be put to death at 6 p.m., but the prison did not transport media witnesses to Holman until 6:33 p.m. After an over 2-hour delay with media witnesses waiting in a prison van, the execution began at 9 p.m. and the death warrant was read at 9:03 p.m. James’ eyes were closed for the entire procedure and he had no last words when briefly asked by the warden. The IV attached to James’ arm shook slightly with movement at 9:05 p.m, and one minute later James appeared to have la...

The United States Supreme Court heard argument November 9, 2021 to review Texas death-row prisoner John Henry Ramirez’s claim that the state’s refusal to allow his pastor to “lay hands” on him or pray audibly during his execution violates the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. The Court appeared troubled by Ramirez’s religious freedom claims, but some conservative justices openly worried that ruling for Ramirez would open a floodgate of last-minute execution-related litigation at the Supreme Court. The Court had stayed Ramirez’s execution on September 8, 2021, in an order issued three hours after he had been scheduled to be put to death. Ramirez had asked that Texas permit his pastor to accompany him to the execution chamber, pray audibly, and “lay lands” on him to administer religious rites, as the state had permitted prison chaplains to do in the past. Texas — which had amended its exe...

If you give a man in a Texas execution chamber the right to a prayer, is he entitled to two? Or three? Can he ask for candles? Or Communion? If the United States Supreme Court says a condemned man has the religious right to have his pastor touch his foot while the state injects a lethal dose of chemicals into his veins, then will the court also have to allow a pastor to touch a man’s hand, his head, or even the place where the needle pierces the skin? The justices quizzed attorney Seth Kretzer about the slippery slope of death penalty prayer on Tuesday morning, as they weighed whether the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), passed by Congress in 2000, give 37-year-old John Henry Ramirez the right to have his pastor lay hands on him and pray aloud when the state of Texas puts him to death. Ramirez committed a brutal murder in 2004. He stabbed a convenience store clerk 29 times and slashed his throat to steal $1.25 in a drug-related robb...

That will be the question presented to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday during arguments in Ramirez vs. Collier, a religious liberty case that challenges restrictions the State of Texas imposes upon religious advisors it allows to preside during executions. John Henry Ramirez, and his attorney Seth Kretzer, have argued spiritual advisers should be allowed to touch inmates and pray aloud as state officials perform executions.  Texas prison officials contend touching poses a security risk and that prayers said aloud could be disruptive. “TDCJ’s execution protocols balance multiple interests, including the solemnity of the occasion, the state’s interests in enforcing valid criminal judgments,” state officials said in court filings. Those interests include maintaining uniformity in executions to reduce the opportunity for errors, the safety and privacy of execution personnel, the rights of the inmate and closure for the victim’s family and the community, state officials said. The hig...

Dana Moore likes to get on the road by 3:30 am. It takes roughly five hours to drive from Corpus Christi to Livingston, Texas, and he tries to beat the morning traffic. He watches dawn slowly break, and stops at the same Buc-ee’s convenience store halfway on his journey to grab coffee and gas. By 8:30 he hopes to have reached the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a prison in Livingston, where he starts his day: ministering to men on Texas’ death row. “I’ve been asked, ‘Why this ministry?’” he says. “In the Bible, Jesus equates visiting those in prison with visiting him… I felt the ministry placed in front of me was a call from God. And so I say, ‘yes I will do that.’ Who can say no to God?" The 58-year-old Southern Baptist pastor became the spiritual advisor to John Ramirez, a 37-year-old death row prisoner, in 2017. Moore visits Ramirez around once a month; they sit and talk through a wall of plexiglass for 2 hours. Ramirez was sentenced to death in 2008 for the 2004 murder of 46-year-old ...

HOUSTON (AP) — Executions in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state face delays amid legal questions over Texas’ refusal to allow spiritual advisers to touch inmates and pray aloud as condemned individuals are being put to death. It’s unclear when Texas may carry out another execution after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear religious freedom claims from death row inmate John Henry Ramirez. The court blocked his execution last month, about three hours after it could have been carried out.  Several other inmates have since made similar claims, and courts have put some of their executions on hold. “It would be unusual for somebody who has the same issue to not get a stay while the Supreme Court is deciding that issue. It would be very unusual,” said Michael Benza, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. A ruling from the Supreme Court could be months away. It’s set to hear oral arguments on Nov. 1. Ramirez says the state is violating his religio...

Ruben Gutierrez was to be executed Oct. 27 for stabbing an 85-year-old Brownsville woman to death in 1998. Another Texas inmate has had his execution delayed over claims the state is violating his religious freedom by not letting his spiritual adviser lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection. Ruben Gutierrez was set to be executed on Oct. 27 for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old Brownsville woman in 1998. But a judge on Wednesday granted a request by the Cameron County District Attorney's Office to vacate the execution date. Prosecutors said the U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming review of similar religious freedom issues made by another inmate, John Henry Ramirez, whose execution the high court delayed last week, will impact Gutierrez's case. "As the Ramirez matter may be dispositive of any issue related to Gutierrez's religious liberty claim, it is in the best interest of the state, the family of the victim of Gutierrez's crimes, that his execution be de...