Death Penalty News

The group said 25 Alabama death row prisoners remained under sentences imposed through a practice the state abolished in 2017. We The Jury —a new coalition of jurors, judges, attorneys, elected officials, community advocates and activists—is urging Governor Kay Ivey to grant clemency to death row inmates who were sentenced by judicial override, a now-illegal sentencing scheme that allowed judges to override a jury’s life sentence recommendation in favor of the death penalty.

OCALA, Fla. — State prosecutors announced Thursday they will seek the death penalty against a Citra man accused of the 2024 killing of a 3-year-old child, following the filing of a new capital charge. Jeroen Coombs, 37, appeared in a Marion County courtroom where the state formalized its intent to pursue the execution of the defendant. The notice of intent follows a grand jury indictment that now includes sexual battery on a child under the age of 12.  Coombs was already facing counts of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in connection with the toddler's death. Court records do not explicitly state whether the supplemental sexual battery charge involves the deceased victim or a separate individual. Under Florida’s current capital sentencing statutes, the presence of certain aggravating factors—including the age of the victim and the commission of a felony such as sexual battery during a homicide—allows the state to seek the highest penalty under the law. The case has mo...

The Israeli Knesset’s National Security Committee has approved a bill that stipulates capital punishment for those convicted of fatal "terrorist acts." Key provisions include execution by hanging within 90 days and the removal of the requirement for a unanimous judicial vote. The bill faces its final parliamentary votes next week. JERUSALEM — An Israeli parliamentary committee on Tuesday cleared a controversial bill that would establish the death penalty for individuals convicted of fatal acts of terrorism, moving the legislation toward a final vote in the Knesset. The National Security Committee approved the draft following a series of heated deliberations. The bill, sponsored by MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party, is scheduled for its second and third readings next week. If passed, it would mark the first time Israel has established a specific framework for capital punishment for terror-related homicides. Under the proposed law, the penalty would apply to an...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Michael L. King, setting an execution date of March 17, 2026, at 6 p.m. King was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2008 kidnapping, sexual battery and murder of Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old North Port mother. On January 17, 2008, Michael Lee King abducted 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee from her North Port home by forcing her into his green Chevrolet Camaro. He drove her around while she was bound, including to his cousin's house to borrow tools like a shovel.  King took her to his home, where he sexually battered her, then placed her in the backseat of his car. Later that evening, he drove to a remote area, shot her in the face, and buried her nude body in a shallow grave. Her remains were discovered two days later. During the crime, multiple 9-1-1 calls were made, but communication breakdowns between emergency dispatch centers delayed the response.  The case drew national attention and prompted w...

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.

The cap­i­tal charges filed against Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing con­ser­v­a­tive polit­i­cal activist Charlie Kirk on September 10th, have drawn new atten­tion to Utah’s death penal­ty. Although Utah was among the first states to rein­state the death penal­ty after it was inval­i­dat­ed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, and the first to per­form an exe­cu­tion in the mod­ern era, exe­cu­tions have been rare over the last 50 years. Just eight peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed in Utah since 1977. In 2024, the state exe­cut­ed Taberon Honie, end­ing a 14-year hia­tus in exe­cu­tions. Utah juries have sen­tenced 26 peo­ple to death in the mod­ern era but have not done so since 2008.

Juries in recent years have failed to agree on the death penalty in some gruesome cases, including mass killings at a Parkland, Florida high school and an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray has announced that he is seeking the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk. This decision significantly raises the stakes for prosecutors. While they believe they have a strong case to prove Robinson's guilt, a death sentence is far from guaranteed. To secure it, prosecutors must convince every member of a 12-person jury to unanimously agree that the death penalty is the appropriate punishment for the crime.

Over the past two weeks, two Florida death row pris­on­ers filed fresh chal­lenges to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ deci­sions to sign his tenth and eleventh death war­rants of 2025. On July 29, 2025, Kayle Barrington Bates (also known as Maud Dib Al Sharif) brought a civ­il suit against Gov. DeSantis alleg­ing Florida’s exe­cu­tion war­rant process ​“is infect­ed with racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al arbi­trari­ness.” Included in the claim is a sta­tis­ti­cal analy­sis show­ing that ​“95% of the exe­cu­tions that Governor DeSantis has autho­rized involved white victims.”

In a July podcast episode from Deeper Dive with Dara Kam, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush spoke about his beliefs on capital punishment and his regrets about not having enough time to reform Florida’s death penalty process.  Gov. Bush, who oversaw 21 executions during his eight years in office, said that “it’s one of those things that would probably be unpopular to do, but figuring out a way to reform the system given the existing laws that we have now, I think would be appropriate.” He added that in his “last year, [he] certainly considered it,” but ran out of time. 

Six years ago, Louisianans were weighing the merits of requiring juries to arrive at unanimous verdicts, then the law in every other state save for Oregon. The most vocal opposition to the idea came from district attorneys, some of whom warned that a slew of hung-jury verdicts would result if Louisiana stopped allowing convictions on 10-2 or 11-1 votes.

Wisezah Datawn Buckman was sentenced to death on Thursday after a Dare County Superior Court jury recommended the convicted murderer receive that punishment for his role in the slaying of 4 prison employees during a failed escape attempt at Pasquotank Correctional Institution in October 2017. The jury, which deliberated for nearly 5½ hours, recommended Buckman receive the death penalty for 3 of the murders — those of correctional officers Wendy Shannon and Justin Smith, and maintenance mechanic Geoffrey Howe. 

Johnathan Quiles is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly raping and killing his 16-year-old niece. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A man accused of raping and murdering his teenage niece believes Florida’s new death penalty law should not apply to him. Johnathan Quiles, 33, is charged with first-degree murder and sexual battery for allegedly killing 16-year-old Iyana Sawyer.  The girl was last seen leaving Jacksonville’s Terry Parker High School in December 2018. She was pregnant at the time, with what police believe was Quiles’ child. Her body was never found.

The gunman who killed 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 should be sentenced to death, federal prosecutors argued to a jury on Monday, specifically noting his hatred for Jews and ongoing lack of remorse. “He turned an ordinary Jewish Sabbath into the worst antisemitic mass shooting in US history, and he is proud of it,” US Attorney Eric Olshan said of the defendant, Robert Bowers. “This is a case that calls for the most severe punishment under the law – the death penalty,” he said. In contrast, defense attorney Judy Clarke argued his unstable childhood and mental health issues played a role in his “delusional” beliefs. She encouraged the jury to make their own personal moral decisions about the punishment.

Florida’s new death sentencing law cannot apply to defendants who committed their crimes before the law was passed earlier this year, Florida Circuit Judge Kevin Abdoney rules. Florida law previously required that a sentencing jury must unanimously vote for death before the court could impose a death sentence, but in April of 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that allows a jury to recommend a death sentence with as few as 8 votes. The ruling in Bryan Riley’s case means that the new law will not apply in his capital trial because doing so would violate the United States Constitution’s prohibition on ex post facto laws, or laws that retroactively impose criminal liability or punishment.

A jury has found a gunman who murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue is eligible for the death penalty. Robert Bowers, 50, was found guilty last month for the October 2018 attack. This is the second stage of the trial. It now moves on to its final phase, sentencing selection. The same jury will have to decide if Bowers should receive life in prison or be sentenced to death for carrying out the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history. During the last trial phase, the jury will hear victim impact statements and other evidence before deciding if Bowers should be put to death.

I recently had the privilege of meeting Herman Lindsey, who was wrongfully convicted in 2006 and sentenced to death in 2007 for crimes he did not commit. He now lives in Broward County and serves on the board of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. I was a member of the Florida Supreme Court in 2009 when the court unanimously held that there was insufficient evidence to uphold Herman’s conviction. That decision ultimately led to his release, but only after he spent 18 months on death row. Herman was sentenced to death after a jury voted to recommend the death sentence by a vote of 8-4. That is the same vote that is required under Florida’s new capital sentencing law that Gov. Ron DeSantis approved and signed into law on April 20, replacing Florida’s requirement of a unanimous death recommendation.

It took a jury about 40 minutes to decide that Louis Gaskin should die. Dubbed by the media the Ninja Killer because of the dark outfit he wore during his crimes, Gaskin had been found guilty of shooting Robert and Georgette Sturmfels as he burglarized their Flagler County home. His defense attorney offered little to weigh against capital punishment. From what Thomas Stuckey remembers more than three decades after he served on the 12-person jury, they didn’t have much to discuss. “There was no debate whatsoever,” Stuckey said. “It was cut and dried.” Court records, though, reflect a vote of 8-4. That means four people voted for life in prison. But the other eight were all that were needed to send Gaskin to death row.

After pleading guilty in the mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, Nikolas Cruz was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Nov. 2. A jury's decision to sentence the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school mass shooter to life in prison rather than death stunned many Floridians and devastated Parkland families seeking retribution for their loved ones' murder.  In response, Florida legislators are taking the emotional issue into their own hands by revising the state's death penalty law. Driven by that Broward County jury's decision, Spring Hill Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia filed a bill to lower the jury threshold for a death penalty recommendation to 8-4 from its current unanimous requirement. A jury, however, would still have to reach a unanimous agreement on whether the aggravating factors in a case warrant considering the death penalty.

House Bill 14 would require a unanimous vote by jurors to impose a death sentence in capital murder cases in the state of Alabama. The bill is sponsored by State Representative Chris England of Tuscaloosa County. "When I started practicing almost every state imposed the death penalty. Now we are down to 27," said Richard S. Jaffe, a local criminal defense lawyer. "That is very significant in what's going on with the national trend which is many, many, many fewer death verdicts and fewer states even allowing the death penalty. That's the trend." In 3 states, a death sentence can be handed down without a unanimous jury decision.

Florida's first known execution dates back to 1827 and came to a pause in 1972 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty statewide in the case of Furman v Georgia . A couple of years later in 1976, the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty and became the first state to carry out a non-voluntary execution since the court's decision, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.  As of 2023, 299 men and women are on death row in Florida. Some prisoners have offenses that date as far back as the 1970s.  Death row inmates have specific routines that differ from that of other prisoners. Here's a look at the life of a death row inmate: