Death Penalty Information Center

On May 28, 2026, an Alabama fed­er­al dis­trict judge ruled that nitro­gen gas exe­cu­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al and do not vio­late the Eighth Amendment’s pro­tec­tion against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. In the first fed­er­al bench tri­al exam­in­ing nitro­gen gas as a method of exe­cu­tion, U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks found that death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Jeff...

After fac­ing nine exe­cu­tion dates, and being giv­en three last meals, Richard Glossip was released on bail on May 14, 2026 and set foot out­side of prison walls for the first time in near­ly three decades. In an inter­view with *The Intercept*, Mr. Glossip dis­cuss­es adjust­ing phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly to his new life as he awaits a pos­si­ble retri­al for the 1997 c...

In a June 1, 2026, op-ed in *The New York Times*, Maria DeLiberato, senior coun­sel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Capital Punishment Project, offers a first-per­son account of the May 21 attempt by Tennessee to exe­cute her client, Tony Carruthers — and the hour of suf­fer­ing she wit­nessed before Governor Bill Lee called off his execution. Ms. DeLiberato, who j...

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 dis­crim­i­na­tio...

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...