Death Penalty Information Center

06/01/2026

In May 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued deci­sions regard­ing two key types of claims that often appear in cap­i­tal cas­es: jury dis­crim­i­na­tion and intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. A bipar­ti­san group of con­ser­v­a­tive and lib­er­al jus­tices car­ried each deci­sion. The Court ruled in favor of Mississippi pris­on­er Terry Pitchford, allow­ing his jury dis­crim­i­na­tion claim to pro­ceed; the Court sep­a­rate­ly dis­missed an Alabama case as improv­i­dent­ly grant­ed, which pre­serves a low­er court find­ing that Joseph Clifton Smith has intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty and can­not be exe­cut­ed. At the same time, how­ev­er, the Court vacat­ed a low­er court stay and allowed the exe­cu­tion of Edward Busby to pro­ceed in Texas despite expert find­ings that he too had intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty — draw­ing a sear­ing dis­sent from several justices.


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In May 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued deci­sions regard­ing two key types of claims that often appear in cap­i­tal cas­es: jury dis­crim­i­na­tion...

05/30/2026

Texas has now carried out 600 ex*****ons in the modern death penalty era.

On May 14th, Edward Busby became the 600th person executed in Texas, despite agreement from both defense and state-retained experts that he had an intellectual disability and should have been constitutionally ineligible for ex*****on.

A recent analysis from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) underscores that Mr. Busby's ex*****on, and this 600th milestone, is not simply another ex*****on.
Rather, this milestone reflects decades of racial disparities, geographic arbitrariness, wrongful convictions, enormous financial costs, and the ex*****on of vulnerable people- including individuals with intellectual disability and juveniles before constitutional protections were established.

At the same time, the analysis tells another story: Texans are increasingly rejecting the death penalty. Death sentences and ex*****ons have declined dramatically, and the use of capital punishment is now concentrated in just a handful of counties.

Yet even as the use of the death penalty declines, the same systemic concerns persist: arbitrariness, racial disparities, unreliable outcomes, and the continued ex*****on of vulnerable people- realities that have been reflected in every ex*****on Texas has carried out this year.

As Texas sits with this grim milestone, we must confront what 600 ex*****ons have cost our state at both a financial and human level.

You can read the full DPI report at the link below.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/will-a-person-with-intellectual-disability-become-texas-600th-ex*****on-in-the-modern-era

05/29/2026

In most U.S. jurisdictions, when prosecutors seek the death penalty, the case does not end in a death sentence. A 2025 investigation into Maricopa County found that 87% of capital pursuits over 20 years resulted in something other than a death sentence. The capital-case costs were already spent.

The death penalty triggers a more expensive legal apparatus from the moment charges are filed, regardless of outcome: larger legal teams, longer trials, specialist witnesses, death row housing, mandatory appeals.

DPI’s What to Know installment breaks down where the money goes, stage by stage.

Link in bio.

05/28/2026

In the May 2026 episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Dr. Naomi Yavneh Klos (pic­tured), Dean of the Honors College at the University of New Mexico, and a promi­nent schol­ar of the Holocaust. Dr. Yavneh Klos is a found­ing mem­ber of the Jews Against Gassing Coalition, a New-Orleans area group formed to oppose the use of nitro­gen gas as a method of exe­cu­tion in Louisiana. She joins DPI’s pod­cast dur­ing Jewish American Heritage Month to dis­cuss the his­tor­i­cal ties between lethal gas exe­cu­tions and the use of gas as a tool of geno­cide dur­ing the Holocaust.

Dr. Yavneh Klos describes her path from Renaissance schol­ar­ship to Holocaust edu­ca­tor, explain­ing that her work with the Anne Frank House and the exhib­it Anne Frank: A History for Today led her to explore how empa­thy and com­pas­sion can be cul­ti­vat­ed in stu­dents. That same com­mit­ment to his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry and human dig­ni­ty has also shaped her advo­ca­cy work. Dr. Yavneh Klos explains that the Jews Against Gassing Coalition was formed after Louisiana passed leg­is­la­tion in 2024 autho­riz­ing nitro­gen gas exe­cu­tions, and that while the Jewish com­mu­ni­ty holds divid­ed views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment itself, oppo­si­tion to exe­cu­tion by gas was one area of unan­i­mous agree­ment — what she describes as ​“vehe­ment opposition.”

*****ons
To listen to the full episode, visit our website:

In the May 2026 episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Dr. Naomi Yavneh Klos (pic­tured), Dean...

05/28/2026

In her chap­ter of the new­ly pub­lished book Neuroscience in Criminal Justice Systems: The Positive Impact of Neurojustice, Fordham Law Professor and Founding Director of the Neuroscience and Law Center Deborah Denno explores the use of neu­ro­sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence in crim­i­nal cas­es involv­ing brain injury, both from exter­nal caus­es (e.g., car acci­dents or gun­shot wounds) and inter­nal caus­es (e.g., demen­tia or alco­hol-induced brain dam­age). The chap­ter titled, ​“The Neuroscience of Brain Injury in Criminal Cases: An International Scope,” com­pares Professor Denno’s own research in the United States with sim­i­lar stud­ies in five oth­er coun­tries, none of which use the death penal­ty (Australia, Canada, England and Wales, and The Netherlands). She par­tic­u­lar­ly focus­es on the hypoth­e­sized ​“dou­ble-edged sword effect,” in which neu­ro­sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence of brain injury may be seen as both mit­i­gat­ing and aggra­vat­ing in criminal cases.


To learn more, visit our website:

In her chap­ter of the new­ly pub­lished book *Neuroscience in Criminal Justice Systems: The Positive Impact of Neurojustice*, Fordham Law Professor and...

05/27/2026

Tennessee​’s attempt to exe­cute Tony Carruthers on May 21, 2026, failed after exe­cu­tion team mem­bers could not estab­lish an intra­venous line after more than an hour of attempts, prompt­ing Governor Bill Lee to grant a one-year reprieve. In a writ­ten state­ment, the Tennessee Department of Corrections said med­ical per­son­nel had quick­ly estab­lished a pri­ma­ry IV line but were unable to estab­lish a back­up line as required by the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. Efforts to insert a cen­tral line also failed, and offi­cials called off the ex*****on.

According to coun­sel for Mr. Carruthers, exe­cu­tion team mem­bers punc­tured him more than a dozen times while repeat­ed­ly attempt­ing to estab­lish an IV line before the exe­cu­tion was stopped. Maria DeLiberato, one of Mr. Carruthers’ attor­neys who was in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber, said she saw Mr. Carruthers ​“winc­ing and groan­ing” while offi­cials attempt­ed to find a vein, call­ing it ​“hor­ri­ble” to watch, and telling the media they ​“should have been in that room with” her to witness it.

*****on
To learn more, visit our website:

Tennessee​’s attempt to exe­cute Tony Carruthers on May 21, 2026, failed after exe­cu­tion team mem­bers could not estab­lish an intra­venous line...

05/22/2026

The Death Penalty Information Center’s new report on race and the death penal­ty in South Carolina places the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem in his­tor­i­cal con­text, doc­u­ment­ing how racial and state sanc­tioned vio­lence con­tin­ue to influ­ence the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty.Examining South Carolina’s History of Racial Violence and Capital Punishment, released May 2026, notes the state’s well-doc­u­­men­t­ed use of state-sanc­­tioned vio­lence that has dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed Black com­mu­ni­ties for more than 150 years.

These acts of racial ter­ror are not sep­a­rate from for­mal sys­tems of pun­ish­ment Western and Central regions of South Carolina reflect con­ti­nu­ity with the state’s his­to­ry of racial vio­lence. Counties such as Lexington and Greenville, which account for 13 doc­u­ment­ed racial ter­ror lynch­ings, have also imposed 28 death sen­tences on Black defen­dants since 1975.


To learn more, visit our website:

The Death Penalty Information Center’s new report on race and the death penal­ty in South Carolina places the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem in...

05/20/2026

Absent court action, Tony Carruthers is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Tennessee on May 21, 2026, despite untest­ed DNA evi­dence, an inno­cence claim, and seri­ous men­tal ill­ness con­cerns. On May 18, faith lead­ers, civ­il rights advo­cates and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers marched to the state capi­tol to urge Governor Bill Lee to grant Mr. Carruthers clemen­cy or stay his exe­cu­tion to allow addi­tion­al DNA test­ing, deliv­er­ing a peti­tion with over 130,000 sig­na­tures. Gov. Lee announced on May 19 that he has no plans to inter­vene and stop the exe­cu­tion. Mr. Carruthers’ case has drawn nation­al atten­tion as his sched­uled exe­cu­tion date nears, includ­ing from celebri­ty Kim Kardashian, who urged her 345 mil­lion Instagram fol­low­ers to call Gov. Lee’s office to press for the DNA test­ing, and from Demetrius Minor, the Executive Director of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.


To learn more, visit our website:

Absent court action, Tony Carruthers is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Tennessee on May 21, 2026, despite untest­ed DNA evi­dence, an inno­cence...

05/20/2026

On July 16, 2020, the federal government executed Wesley Purkey. His defense team received notification that the ex*****on would proceed via email hours after his originally scheduled ex*****on time had passed.

In this episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, Elizabeth Vartkessian, Executive Director of Advancing Real Change (ARC) and a mitigation specialist on Mr. Purkey’s defense team, discusses the procedural anomalies surrounding his ex*****on and the impact those systemic failures have on capital defense work.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at the link in our bio.

12:01: The Death Penalty in Context is a podcast produced by DPI providing in-depth conversations on the realities of the U.S. capital legal system. 

05/19/2026

On May 13, 2026, the city of Austin, Texas agreed to pay $35 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion to four men — three sur­viv­ing and one deceased — who spent years under the shad­ow of wrong­ful con­vic­tions, accused of an infa­mous quadru­ple mur­der that DNA proved none of them com­mit­ted. The set­tle­ment, which must still be approved by the Austin City Council, came less than three months after a Travis County judge declared Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn, and Maurice Pierce inno­cent of mur­der charges that once made head­lines. Mr. Springsteen had been sen­tenced to death, Mr. Scott was sen­tenced to life in prison, Mr. Welborn and Mr. Pierce were charged and pub­licly iden­ti­fied as involved in the crime but nev­er tried. Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax issued a pub­lic state­ment call­ing the set­tle­ment ​“the final chap­ter of a dev­as­tat­ing sto­ry in Austin’s his­to­ry,” and expressed ​“hope that this set­tle­ment brings a sense of clo­sure to every­one affect­ed by this horrific event.”


To learn more, visit our website:

On May 13, 2026, the city of Austin, Texas agreed to pay $35 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion to four men — three sur­viv­ing and one deceased — who spent...