Death Penalty News

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.

The Supreme Court these days is generally in the business of helping executions go forward. But on Thursday night, the court did something notable: It told Alabama no. Even then, the court wasn't unanimous. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the refusal to let the nitrogen gas execution of Jeffery Lee proceed. What prompted the rare rejection? In line with the typical shadow docket practice, the court didn't explain itself. Nor did the dissenters, who merely noted their disagreement. But a deeper look at the case helps us understand why a majority of the court was unwilling to help the state this time.

On June 11, the state of Alabama plans to execute Jeffrey Lee with nitrogen hypoxia . He will be the ninth person put to death by this method since its first use in 2024. Lee contends that nitrogen hypoxia will cause him great suffering. On May 28, Federal District Judge Emily Marks agreed with him but said his execution could proceed nonetheless. Hers is a remarkable and shockingly candid decision. It made history, coming after the first trial in the country on the constitutionality of nitrogen hypoxia. To her credit, Judge Marks offered an unusually detailed picture of the pain imposed by capital punishment.

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.

Freedom for Richard Glossip cost $50,000. It also cost 29 years of his life. The former death row inmate convicted of murdering the owner of the motel he managed walked out of jail Thursday for the first time since 1997, after 10% of his $500,000 bond was paid by celebrity and criminal reform advocate Kim Kardashian, her publicist told The Oklahoman. As Glossip’s case stretched on, the documentary “ Killing Richard Glossip ” raised many questions about his convictions – and the eyebrows of Republicans in Oklahoma’s government, including supporters of capital punishment. “Considering the facts we uncovered, and that there exists no physical forensic evidence or credible corroborating testimony linking Glossip to the crime, our conclusion is that no reasonable juror hearing the complete record would have convicted Richard Glossip of first‐degree murder,” said the law firm of Reed Smith after interviewing three dozen witnesses and reviewing more than 145,000 pages of evidence.

When President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, he directed his administration to “ restor[e] the death penalty .” His embrace of capital punishment helped fuel a surge in executions at the state level last year, as I previously reported , and led the Justice Department to produce a report on “strengthening” the federal death penalty, which was released late last month. In the report, the Justice Department defended the use of pentobarbital – a powerful sedative – for lethal injections, criticizing the Biden administration’s determination that it may cause “unnecessary pain and suffering.” Nevertheless, citing ongoing legal challenges to pentobarbital use and related problems obtaining the drugs used in lethal injections, the DOJ recommended expanding the list of federal execution methods by adding firing squads, electrocution, and lethal gas.

Law is, as legal scholars and commentators have long recognized , both a refuge for those seeking to escape abuses of power and a trap in which their claims of justice get lost in a maze of statutory intricacies. Nowhere has this been more clearly on display than in the world of capital punishment. Over the span of half a century, the Supreme Court has gone from championing the rights of capital defendants and death row inmates to deflecting and denying their pursuit of justice. Where once the court carefully scrutinized procedures used in death cases, insisting that they had to conform to the dictates of so-called super due process , today it has made the due process accorded in those cases not super at all .

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from longtime Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed who has sought to test crime-scene evidence that he says will help clear him. The justices left in place a ruling against Reed from the federal appeals court in New Orleans for the second time in less than three years. The three liberal justices dissented. Reed was sentenced to death for the 1996 killing of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. Prosecutors have refused to allow for DNA testing of the webbed belt that was used to strangle Stites as she made her way to work at a supermarket in Bastrop, a rural community about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Austin.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed concerns about Florida’s lethal injection procedure on Tuesday, urging more transparency as the Supreme Court denied a man’s emergency bid to avoid execution later in the day. The seniormost liberal justice voted with her colleagues to allow Melvin Trotter’s execution to move forward over the 1986 murder of a grocery store owner, saying Trotter hadn’t shown enough evidence that the state will mangle the procedure. “Even so, the record to date is troubling,” Sotomayor wrote. Her four-page solo opinion raises alarm that Florida’s lethal injection protocol has possible flaws, but state courts have prevented defendants from obtaining records to prove it.

The execution of Melvin Trotter for the murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford in 1986 comes as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor questions Florida's 'deeply troubling' lethal injection record. Florida has executed its second inmate of the year even as a Supreme Court justice questioned the state's “deeply troubling" record on lethal injections and how it "shrouds its executions in secrecy."  Melvin Trotter, 65, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, Feb. 24, for the 1986 murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford, a mother of 4 who was on the verge of retirement when she was stabbed to death in the corner grocery store that she owned for five decades. Trotter was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. ET. 

New drugs and med­ical treat­ments under­go rig­or­ous test­ing to ensure they are safe and effec­tive for pub­lic use. Under fed­er­al and state reg­u­la­tions, this test­ing typ­i­cal­ly involves clin­i­cal tri­als with human sub­jects, who face sig­nif­i­cant health and safe­ty risks as the first peo­ple exposed to exper­i­men­tal treat­ments. That is why the law requires them to be ful­ly informed of the poten­tial effects and give their vol­un­tary con­sent to par­tic­i­pate in trials. Yet these reg­u­la­tions have not been fol­lowed when states seek to use nov­el and untest­ed exe­cu­tion meth­ods — sub­ject­ing pris­on­ers to poten­tial­ly tor­tur­ous and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly painful deaths. Some experts and advo­cates argue that states must be bound by the eth­i­cal and human rights prin­ci­ples of bio­med­ical research before using these meth­ods on prisoners.

On October 23, 2025, Alabama exe­cut­ed Anthony Boyd, despite his unwa­ver­ing claim of inno­cence and a fiery dis­sent authored by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, renew­ing the seri­ous con­cerns that have been con­sis­tent­ly raised about the state’s use of nitro­gen gas. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, dis­sent­ed from the Court’s October 23, 2025, denial of a stay of exe­cu­tion, writ­ing that Alabama’s use of nitro­gen gas ​“vio­lates the Constitution by inflict­ing unnec­es­sary suf­fer­ing[.]” Justice Sotomayor not­ed sev­en peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed by nitro­gen gas since the January 2024 exe­cu­tion of Kenneth Smith , and argued that the Court should have pre­vent­ed Mr. Boyd from becom­ing the eighth.

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.

Alabama executes inmate Anthony Boyd despite innocence claims in 1993 burning death  Alabama executed an inmate using nitrogen gas Thursday night, despite the man’s claims of innocence and a legal fight calling the execution method unconstitutional.  Anthony Todd Boyd , 54, died by breathing in nitrogen through a gas mask at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The prison is where Alabama death row is housed, holds the state’s only execution chamber and is just miles north of the Florida border. 

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the case of Stacey Humphreys , who was sentenced to death in Georgia after a single juror “bullied” the others into voting for death. In an opinion joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson , Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the Court’s decision “allowing a death sentence tainted by a single juror’s extraordinary misconduct to stand.” Stacey Humphreys was charged with killing two women inside a model home after forcing them to undress and robbing them at gunpoint.

Mississippi executes a man convicted of raping and killing a college student  A Mississippi man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 20-year-old community college student in 1993 was executed Wednesday.  Charles Crawford, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.  Crawford had spent more than 30 years on death row. His execution comes several months after the execution of Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate in a year of increasing executions nationwide. 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — As Missouri prepares to execute Lance Shockley on Oct. 14, Amnesty International and human rights supporters are calling on Gov. Mike Kehoe to halt the execution, citing alleged trial irregularities and the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear his appeal. Amnesty International USA Deputy Director for Research Justin Mazzola urged the governor Monday to grant clemency, according to a press release. “Amnesty International urgently calls on Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe to act now to stop the scheduled execution of Lance Shockley,” said Mazzola. “We are seeing an outpouring of support for Lance Shockley to live. Last week, petitioners delivered a petition with 31,000 signatures to Governor Kehoe’s office calling on him to stop Shockley’s execution.”

Former death row inmate Richard Glossip, who spent nearly 30 years on death row before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction earlier this year, may be released from prison today. Glossip, 62, will appear in court on Wednesday in Oklahoma City for a bond hearing regarding his potential release. The former motel manager was convicted in 1997 of commissioning the murder of his former boss Barry Van Treese, the owner of a motel in Oklahoma City. Glossip has maintained his innocence. The Supreme Court threw out Glossip’s murder conviction in February because a key witness lied in court and prosecutors withheld information about him.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is fac­ing accu­sa­tions that he broke a writ­ten agree­ment that would have freed for­mer death row pris­on­er Richard Glossip from prison more than two years ago, accord­ing to court doc­u­ments filed in mid-July 2025.  The rev­e­la­tion cen­ters on email exchanges from April 2023, where AG Drummond, in a thread with Don Knight, coun­sel for Mr. Glossip, agreed to a plea deal that would have result­ed in Mr. Glossip’s imme­di­ate release after more than two decades on death row. AG Drummond has reversed course and is now seek­ing anoth­er first-degree mur­der con­vic­tion against Mr. Glossip.

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.”