Death Penalty News

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison.  At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up.  He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Hours before the State of Florida is scheduled to execute 61-year-old William Frances Silvia , his spiritual advisor plans to hold a virtual press conference to publicly release Silvia’s full final statement. The spiritual advisor, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, is scheduled to meet with Silvia from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18, at Florida State Prison. Following the visit, Hood will host a press conference to read Silvia’s statement in full. Silvia chose to release his statement early to ensure his words are shared at length rather than being limited to the brief final remarks typically allowed inside the execution chamber.

A Tennessee death row inmate and his chosen spiritual advisor have filed a federal lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Correction, alleging state prison policies violate their religious rights by preventing a private confession before execution.  The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, does not challenge Tennessee’s authority to carry out executions. Instead, it asks whether condemned inmates have a constitutional and federally protected right to privately practice their faith before the state carries out a death sentence.  John Michael Bane has spent decades on Tennessee’s death row after a Shelby County jury convicted him of 1st-degree felony murder in the 1988 robbery and killing of 60-year-old Royce Frazier.

Dennis Michael Sochor is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday, the 29th person executed by the state in the past 19 months. Dennis Michael Sochor, convicted of strangling an 18-year-old woman he met at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison. His last wish? To have Gov. Ron DeSantis personally observe his execution up close and personal.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked Alabama from executing an inmate with nitrogen gas after declaring it violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks issued the ruling hours after an appeals court reversed her initial finding that the method was constitutional. Marks permanently enjoined the state from executing Jeffrey Lee, 49, by nitrogen gas. He was scheduled to be executed Thursday. The decision, for now, blocks the use of the controversial new execution method that the state has championed since 2024, but the issue will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel ordered a lower court to consider the feasibility of a firing squad for Jeffrey Lee but did not immediately stay his scheduled Thursday execution. A federal appeals court Monday ordered a new hearing for an Alabama death row inmate scheduled to be executed on Thursday, but did not stay the execution. The three judge panel of 11th Circuit Court of Appeals judges — U.S. District Court judges Adalberto Jordan, Robert J. Luck and Embry Kidd, appointed by Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden — ruled that Alabama’s use of nitrogen gas for executions violated the Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment for Jeffrey Lee, 50, who was sentenced to die for the 1998 murders of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a pawn shop robbery.

During Lance Shockley's final moments in Missouri's execution chamber in October 2025, he wanted his daughter, an ordained minister, by his side as his spiritual adviser. A few years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had expanded religious rights for the condemned, saying spiritual advisers could accompany them into the execution chamber and could touch them while praying aloud. But the Missouri Department of Corrections refused Shockley his chosen spiritual adviser, and he died alone.

MONTGOMERY, Ala.  — The execution of Anthony Boyd by nitrogen gas in Alabama on Thursday marked the longest use of the untested method in U.S. history, stretching nearly 40 minutes amid convulsions, labored breathing and witness accounts of prolonged agony.  At 37 minutes from the start of the procedure until death was declared, Boyd's final moments have reignited fierce debates over whether the oxygen-deprivation technique — touted by states as a painless alternative to lethal injection — constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Anthony Boyd , set to be executed on Thursday, requested that Gov. Kay Ivey meet with him before carrying out his sentence An Alabama death row inmate scheduled to be executed this week is pleading with Gov. Kay Ivey to meet with him in person before his death, insisting that he is innocent and has never received a fair hearing in court. Anthony Boyd had his plea recorded on Monday night from a prison phone call. During a press conference Tuesday morning, hosted by the nonprofit Execution Intervention Project , his spiritual advisor, Dr. Rev. Jeff Hood, shared his message. 

Scotty Gardner wants out of “his cave” at the Varner SuperMax Prison south of Grady, Arkansas. In messages with USA TODAY, he described the conditions of his cell as, “a walk-in closet with a shower, toilet, a sink and drain in the floor that bugs crawl in and out constantly.” He also mentioned recurring issues with black mold and toilets that constantly overflow. To get out, Gardner is asking the state to be the first inmate executed since 2017. 

Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam War veteran, is scheduled for execution on June 25th for a 1976 kidnapping and murder. Advocates argue that the death penalty is inhumane and does not deter crime, citing Jordan's remorse and exemplary prison record. Jordan has been sentenced to death four times, with his initial sentence reduced to life imprisonment before being reinstated. Executions may be legal in Mississippi but that doesn't make them right, a group of advocates for abolishing the death penalty said during a news conference Wednesday, May 28, on the steps of the state Supreme Court.

Alabama plans to execute Alan Lee Miller on September 26. Miller survived a previous execution attempt when the state tried to kill him using lethal injection, and the state later agreed not to employ that method in any subsequent execution. Miller had previously indicated a preference for death by nitrogen hypoxia. If Miller’s execution proceeds as scheduled, he would be just the second person put to death using that method. The first person, Kenneth Smith, was executed in January .

“Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” The abbreviation of the Book of Exodus 21:24 is a favorite for those who support the death penalty. So much so, that the verse regularly even gets recited by those trying to justify their own participation in executions. The logic of course is that if you kill someone then you deserve to be killed. On the inverse, the logic is that if you don’t kill someone then you don’t deserve to be killed. Pretty basic stuff, right? 

Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 

Rev. Jeff Hood served as the spiritual adviser for David Hosier, who was executed by the state of Missouri on June 11, 2024. Shortly before 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, the Rev. Jeff Hood was escorted through a maze of halls and security checks at the prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, leading him into the state’s execution chamber. “Big door after big door closes,” he said. “Every time one of the doors closes, you can ... feel it in your soul.” He was taken into the chamber where he sat down and put his right hand on David Hosier’s shoulder.

David Hosier, who maintained innocence in 2009 murders of Angela and Rodney Gilpin, pronounced dead at 6.11pm Missouri executed a man on death row on Tuesday night, the state’s second lethal injection carried out this year.

Missouri executed four people in 2023. Amber McLaughlin, Michael Tisius, Johnny Johnson and Leonard Taylor, who maintained that he was innocent, all died by lethal injection. The state is one of five in the country that carried out executions last year.

David Hosier, who is weeks away from execution, is in a hospital after suffering what a Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman described as a “medical emergency." ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row prisoner who is due to be executed next month has been hospitalized because of a “medical emergency,” a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections said.

A convicted killer on death row in Alabama told NBC News he no longer wants to delay justice for the families of the five people he murdered eight years ago and is ready to pay the ultimate price for his crimes. In his first-ever interview with a reporter, Derrick Dearman said he mailed nine letters earlier this week to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall, as well as the judges and others involved in the horrific case, informing them he is dropping his appeals and wants to be executed.

Oklahoma is set to carry out the state's first execution of 2024 and the 12th since capital punishment resumed in 2021. Death row inmate Michael DeWayne Smith faces execution by lethal injection Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester for two 2002 murders. The execution is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.