Death Penalty News

James Broadnax, a Texas death-sen­tenced pris­on­er, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 30, 2026. He was con­vict­ed in 2009 by a Dallas County jury for the mur­ders of two music pro­duc­ers, Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler, who were shot and killed out­side their record­ing stu­dio in 2008. On March 19, 2026, a lit­tle more than a month before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion, attor­neys for Mr. Broadnax filed a new appeal and a sworn affi­davit from his code­fen­dant and cousin Demarius Cummings, in which Mr. Cummings admits that he, not Mr. Broadnax, shot the vic­tims. The new fil­ing asks the Texas courts to stay Mr. Broadnax’s exe­cu­tion date, to remand the case to the tri­al court, and to ulti­mate­ly vacate Mr. Broadnax’s death sentence.

In his appeal, James Broadnax, who wants a new trial, included a signed confession by his cousin saying he committed the 2008 Garland murders. With just 42 days remaining until his scheduled execution by lethal injection on April 30, 2026, in Huntsville, Texas death row inmate James Broadnax, 37, filed a new appeal Thursday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, seeking to stay the date, remand his case for a new trial, and ultimately vacate his death sentence for the 2008 capital murders of music producers Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Zion Gate Records studio in Garland. A fabricated story The appeal centers on a signed written declaration from Broadnax's cousin and codefendant, Demarius Cummings, 37—dated March 11 and obtained by media outlets in which Cummings confesses that he alone planned the June 19, 2008, robbery, obtained the pistol used in the crime, and fired the fatal shots during the botched holdup that netted only $2 in cash and a 1995 Fo...

Alabama governor commuted death sentence of Charles Burton, 75, who didn't kill anyone An Alabama man who was outside a building when a man was killed in an armed robbery is looking at life as "a gift from God" after being granted clemency by the state’s governor just days before he was scheduled to be executed.  Charles "Sonny" Burton, 75, was sentenced to death for his role in the robbery of a Talladega AutoZone store that left a man dead in 1991.  While Burton left the store before Derrick DeBruce gunned down customer Doug Battle, he was tried and convicted as an accomplice, with prosecutors insisting Burton acted as the group’s leader in the armed robbery. 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Gov. Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of Charles “Sonny” Burton, who was set to be executed Thursday. The governor’s office released the following statement: “Governor Kay Ivey on Tuesday announced that she has commuted the death sentence of Charles L. Burton to life in prison with no chance of parole. Mr. Burton was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1991 capital murder of Doug Battle in Talladega, Alabama. As required by law, the governor first reached out to a representative of Mr. Battle’s family. She also notified the attorney general. Governor Ivey’s letter to Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm is attached.

With an execution scheduled in days and growing calls for mercy, a petition with more than 60,000 signatures is urging Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to grant clemency to death row prisoner Sonny Burton, whose case has drawn national attention because he did not personally commit the killing that led to his conviction.  Burton, 75, has spent more than three decades on Alabama’s death row and is scheduled to be executed March 12 at Holman Correctional Facility. Supporters argue his case raises serious questions about fairness under Alabama’s felony murder law. 

A broad coalition of voices, including the victim’s daughter and a majority of the still-living jurors, are urging Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to grant clemency to 75-year-old death row inmate Charles “Sonny” Burton before his scheduled March 12 execution.  According to a news release from Burton’s attorneys and advocates, Burton — who has been on death row since 1992 — faces execution despite what the State of Alabama has long acknowledged: he did not kill anyone.  In 1991, Burton and 5 other men robbed an auto parts store in Talladega, Alabama. After Burton left the building, his co-defendant, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed customer Doug Battle.

I have seen three executions. I hope I never see a fourth. Capital punishment is violence. But the state does all it can to conceal that fact. The viewing areas outside the death chamber are still and silent. Bright light floods the small room where people die. The warden pronouncing the sentence speaks in clipped, measured tones, saying no more than needed. You’re expected to view the act as a bloodless execution of justice.

Ronald Palmer Heath killed a traveling salesman in 1989; last year the state had a record 19 executions   A man convicted of killing a traveling salesman he and his brother had met at a bar has become the 1st person executed in Florida this year.  Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was pronounced dead at 6.12pm on Tuesday after a 3-drug injection at the Florida state prison near Starke. Heath was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.  Around 60 protesters gathered outside Florida State Prison on Tuesday evening, a larger crowd than is typical for executions. Joe Lakers, an Iowa resident, came to protest Heath’s execution with the Our Lady of Lourdes church from Daytona Beach.

Alabama has scheduled a March execution date for a man sentenced to death for a fatal shooting during a 1991 robbery even though he didn't pull the trigger.  Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday set a March 12 execution using nitrogen gas for Charles “Sonny” Burton, 75. Burton was convicted as an accomplice in the shooting death of Doug Battle, a customer who was killed during an Aug. 16 robbery that year of an auto parts store in Talladega. 

In January 2026, the Alabama Supreme Court authorized Governor Kay Ivey to set an execution date for Charles Burton, allowing the state to proceed with execution by nitrogen gas. This followed the exhaustion of his appeals, and he is now eligible for execution at any time.  MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Charles "Sonny" Burton didn't kill anyone. The state of Alabama could execute him anyway. Burton, 75, is facing execution for his role as an accomplice in a 1991 robbery at an auto parts store where customer Doug Battle was killed.  No one disputes that another man, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed Battle. Burton, one of six men involved in the robbery, was outside the store at the time of the shooting, according to testimony. DeBruce and Burton were both sentenced to death. But DeBruce was later resentenced to life imprisonment, leaving Burton -- who neither fired the gun nor ordered anyone to be killed -- as the only person facing execution.

On June 26, 2025, the United States Supreme Court issued a rare 6 – 3 rul­ing in favor of a Texas death row pris­on­er, Ruben Gutierrez, hold­ing that he may pro­ceed with his law­suit chal­leng­ing Texas’s post-con­vic­tion DNA statute on con­sti­tu­tion­al grounds. Mr. Gutierrez was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the mur­der and rob­bery of an 85-year-old woman but has long main­tained he did not know his code­fen­dants would kill the vic­tim. According to the deci­sion, ​“Gutierrez has stand­ing to bring his §1983 claim chal­leng­ing Texas’ post-con­vic­tion DNA test­ing pro­ce­dures under the Due Process Clause.” 

This will be the first time Creuzot has pursued capital punishment since taking office in 2019. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot confirmed to The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday morning that his office will seek the death penalty against Texas Seven escapee Randy Halprin. This will be the first time Creuzot has pursued capital punishment since taking office in 2019. He has opted not to seek death in other high-profile cases, like accused serial killer Billy Chemirmir, Yaser Said, who fatally shot his two teenage daughters and went on the run for more than a decade, or Nestor Hernandez, who murdered two hospital workers at Methodist Dallas Medical Center.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The U.S. Supreme Court Feb. 24 considered the case of a Texas death-row inmate who is seeking to obtain post-conviction DNA testing on evidence that he claims would show he did not directly participate in a 1998 murder and lead to the repeal of his death sentence. The case presents a complex legal question about his ability to make such an appeal about his death sentence, not his conviction. Under Texas law, a party to murder can be convicted of murder, but it could bar the death penalty sentence. Capital punishment is a practice opposed by the Catholic Church in most circumstances.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Feb. 24 in the case of a man on Texas death row who has long tried to obtain postconviction DNA testing on evidence that he says would exonerate him.  Ruben Gutierrez was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in Brownsville, Tex. Gutierrez has maintained his innocence and says DNA from several pieces of evidence — such as a hair and nail scrapings from Harrison’s finger and blood stains — would show that he was never in Harrison’s home. And if the DNA evidence shows that he never entered Harrison’s home, he contends, the jury would not have sentenced him to death. 

The availability of DNA testing has had a profound impact on the American criminal justice system and on the way Americans think about that system. Time and again, DNA has shown that our criminal justice system is anything but foolproof. The Innocence Project reports that between the first DNA exoneration in 1989 and April 2023, “575 wrongly convicted people have been exonerated based on DNA tests that demonstrated their innocence.” During that same time period, DNA played a key role in the exonerations of 35 people who had been convicted of a capital crime. That is part of the reason why a majority of Americans now believe that the death penalty is applied unfairly.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for a Texas man 20 minutes before he was to receive a lethal injection Tuesday evening.  The inmate has long maintained DNA testing would help prove he wasn’t responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago.

The 57-year-old is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. He was convicted in 1999 of murdering a woman in her trailer The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied a clemency application filed by Ruben Gutierrez, paving the way for his execution for the murder of a woman over two decades ago.

It looks very likely that the state of Texas will execute Ruben Gutierrez on July 16 without ever having DNA tested fingernail scrapings, bloodstains, and hair that he says will prove he is not a murderer.

  Execution of Emmanuel Littlejohn Stayed in Oklahoma Before November 2, 2023 Emmanuel Littlejohn was scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. local time on Thursday, November 2, 2023. The execution, which would have taken place inside the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, will not take place as scheduled. It has been stayed and is awaiting a new execution date.  51-year-old Emmanuel was convicted of murdering Kenneth Meers on June 20, 1992, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For the last 29 years, Emmanuel has resided on death row in Oklahoma.

Saying that recent events in Texas’ attempt to execute death-row prisoner Melissa Lucio had shaken his faith in the criminal legal system, an influential Republican state legislator has said that he would now support a moratorium on executions in the state. In an April 29, 2022 interview on WFAA-TV’s Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely, Representative Jeff Leach, co-chair of the Texas House of Representatives’ bi-partisan Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, said “every option [for death-penalty reform] will be on the table, every tool in the toolbox,” including potentially a moratorium on executions. Leach, who was one of the founding members of the reform caucus, was the driving force behind a bipartisan legislative effort that resulted in majorities of both the Texas House and Senate signing letters calling for the commutation Lucio’s sentence. On April 25, 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted Lucio’s scheduled April 27th execution and directed a Cameron County trial cou...