Death Penalty News

Weeks before calling to abolish capital punishment in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine commuted the man’s death sentence to life in prison without parole. When Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called on lawmakers to abolish the state’s death penalty last week, he wouldn’t tell reporters if he would spare any of the more than 100 people on death row. Three weeks earlier, however, DeWine quietly did just that for Gregory Lott, a man with intellectual disabilities. Lott, now 64, will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for the death of an 82-year-old East Cleveland man he set on fire during a home burglary in 1986.

After prosecuting Saldaño's murder case, Texas officials joined the man's bid to remand the case to a trial court to fully weigh his intellectual disability argument. WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a Texas man’s bid to stave off his looming execution related to a murder conviction based on his argument that he is intellectually disabled. Victor Saldaño was previously successful in challenging a 1994 murder conviction and death sentence, but when retried in 2004 he again faced the death penalty, which he argues was wrong due to his trial attorney’s failure to present mental health or intellectual disability evidence.

Harris County district judge recommends compassionate release for Clarence Jordan A 1977 convenience store robbery that resulted in a clerk’s death landed Clarence Jordan on Texas Death Row, where he remained for decades even though he was declared incompetent for execution. On Monday, a judge recommended that the disabled man be released.  Harris County District Court Judge Katherine Thomas resentenced Jordan to life with the possibility of parole and suggested that he be considered for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Medically Recommended Intensive Supervision program, also known as compassionate release.

Court throws out state’s challenge to judicial finding that inmate convicted of murder is ineligible for death penalty The US supreme court on Thursday threw out a challenge by the state of Alabama to a judicial finding that a death row inmate convicted of a 1997 murder is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible under the US constitution for the death penalty. In this highly unusual move, and in a single-sentence, unsigned order, the court dismissed Alabama’s petition for review in Hamm v Smith without deciding it, effectively undoing its earlier decision to take up an appeal by state officials to the method used by a lower court to determine that Joseph Clifton Smith was intellectually disabled and therefore could not be executed.

Texas puts man to death for a retired professor's killing in its 600th execution since 1982  A man who experts for both prosecutors and defense attorneys had said was intellectually disabled became the 600th person executed in Texas since 1982, put to death Thursday evening for the killing of a retired 77-year-old college professor.  Edward Busby Jr. was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. local time following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after a divided Supreme Court lifted a stay over his disabilities claims. The execution followed a series of last-minute legal efforts by Busby's attorneys in a bid to spare his life after the nation’s high court lifted a stay hours earlier.

Thursday’s execution was blocked by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “pending further order” from the court. A federal appeals court has temporarily halted Thursday’s scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Edward Busby, citing concerns over his eligibility for capital punishment because of intellectual disability. The 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is in place “pending further order” of the court. Busby argued that a federal district court improperly denied the inmate’s request for funding to test him for intellectual disability. The appeal also provided two new tests from experts, including one provided by the state, that his lawyers argue prove Busby is intellectually disabled.

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday that Clarence Jordan’s punishment was unconstitutional  A death sentence handed down by a Harris County jury in 1978 was overturned Thursday by the Court of Criminal Appeals.  Clarence Jordan, 70, has been on Texas Death Row for almost 50 years, serving out one of the longest death sentences in the nation while suffering from intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia, his attorney told the Houston Press. 

The high court ruled in 2002 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.” The Supreme Court will clarify how IQ scores should be evaluated when a death sentence is barred based on an intellectual disability. The court already ruled in 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia , that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” but justices did not define intellectual disability.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah death row inmates routinely spend three decades or more awaiting execution, with some dying of natural causes before their sentences can be carried out. One Republican lawmaker says the system is broken and is pushing legislation to accelerate the appeals process. Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, sponsor of  House Bill 495, told a House committee on Feb. 19, 2026, that prolonged delays undermine the death penalty's purpose and burden taxpayers with indefinite appeals. She cited the case of Ralph Menzies, who spent 36 years on death row before dying of natural causes last year after his scheduled firing squad execution was halted over competency concerns.

The Indiana Catholic Conference (ICC) is hailing positive developments at the midpoint of the legislative session, including the rejection of a push to introduce execution by firing squad as a means of capital punishment.  Following impassioned debate on the House floor, a bill that would have added this controversial method of carrying out the death penalty in Indiana was defeated in a close vote. Rep. Bob Morris (R-Fort Wayne), a Catholic lawmaker who last year introduced legislation to abolish the death penalty altogether, was among those appealing to his colleagues to vote no on House Bill 1119. 

Blaine Milam executed for 2008 killing of toddler in East Texas East Texas death row inmate Blaine Milam has been executed for the 2008 exorcism-style murder of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson. He was convicted in the December 2008 exorcism-style killing of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson in Rusk County.  Milam received the lethal injection at 6:19 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. this evening. His execution follows a decade of legal challenges as his defense team challenged the use of bite mark evidence and raised concerns about intellectual disability. 

Death row inmate Blaine Milam is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening for the 2008 killing of his then-fiancée’s 13-month-old daughter after his two previous execution dates were delayed. In 2008, Milam and the girl’s mother, Jesseca Carson, called police to their home near Tatum, where authorities found 13-month-old Amora Carson dead, with human bite marks on her body and signs of physical and sexual assault, according to court documents. The two initially gave police different reasons for the toddler’s death, including that they had left the home and found her injured, that she had eaten insulation and later that they had performed an exorcism on the child.

On 14 Aug 2025, Singapore granted clemency to Tristan Tan, commuting his death sentence to life to “reduce disparity” with a co-accused. Yet this disparity arose from opaque prosecutorial discretion, not judicial findings. Meanwhile, clemency was denied to Nagaenthran, who had intellectual disability — exposing troubling inconsistencies in how mercy is applied.  On 14 August 2025, Singapore’s Cabinet advised President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to commute the death sentence of 33-year-old Tristan Tan Yi Rui to life imprisonment.

Government secrecy had as much to do with the botched execution of Byron Black as the toxic chemical Tennessee used to slowly and painfully take his life, death penalty abolitionist Stacy Rector said. “The state has a law shielding the government from having to tell the truth about its death penalty program, and people wonder why these executions keep getting messed up,” said Rector, executive director of Tennesseans Against the Death Penalty. “When you allow the state to take a person’s life with this kind of secrecy, you are setting yourself up for what we are seeing.”

Black, 69, was killed by lethal injection in Tennessee for the murder of his girlfriend and her two daughters. One by one, the media witnesses approached the microphone to describe what they saw at the execution of Byron Black. Speaking at a podium outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, each said a version of the same thing: Black, 69, had suffered before he died.

Experts warned Black’s heart implant could shock him repeatedly during the lethal injection, but the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled the state could kill him without deactivating it “Oh, it’s hurting so bad.” Three minutes after Byron Black began receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison on Tuesday, he lifted his head off of the gurney he was strapped to and groaned. Whether it was the effects of the drug, which can cause pulmonary edema or fluid in the lungs, or shocks to his heart from the defibrillator implanted in his chest, Black was in obvious distress. His spiritual advisor, Rev. Monica Coakley, sang to comfort him.

Nashville, Tenn. — Tennessee is gearing up for an execution on Tuesday that experts say would likely mark the first time a man has been put to death with a working defibrillator in his chest. Gov. Bill Lee declined Monday to grant a reprieve, clearing the way for Byron Black’s execution after a legal battle and ongoing uncertainty about whether the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator will shock his heart when the lethal drug takes effect. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it’s unaware of any other cases in which a person on death row made similar claims to Black's about defibrillators or pacemakers. Black's attorneys said they haven't found a comparable case, either.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee officials must deactivate a death-row inmate 's implanted heart-regulating device to avert the risk that it might try to shock him during his lethal injection, a judge ruled Friday. The order by Nashville Chancellor Russell Perkins comes ahead of the Aug. 5 execution of Byron Black. Black's attorneys have said that the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator could shock him in an attempt to restore his heart's normal rhythm after the single dose of pentobarbital, with the potential for multiple rounds of shocks and extreme pain and suffering.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A Davidson County judge held what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind hearing Monday morning over how the state will handle the scheduled execution of Byron Black. Attorneys for the death row inmate asked the court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to deactivate Black’s implanted defibrillator just before his lethal injection, arguing the device could interfere with the process if not properly shut off by a trained medical professional. This case centers around Black’s attorneys asking for his heart medical device to be turned off at his execution on August 5. They said this is to prevent excruciating pain.

The US Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by Alabama officials of a judicial decision that a man convicted of a 1997 murder is intellectually disabled - a finding that spared him from the death penalty - as they press ahead with the Republican-governed state's bid to execute him. A lower court ruled that Joseph Clifton Smith is intellectually disabled based on its analysis of his IQ test scores and expert testimony. Under a 2002 Supreme Court precedent, executing an intellectually disabled person violates the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment bar on cruel and unusual punishment.