The Criminal Justice Act (CJA) program ran out of money on July 3, 2025, leaving thousands of court-appointed attorneys and their support staff unpaid and threatening the constitutional right to effective counsel and the federal court system.
Former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price released a podcast episode highlighting the systemic misconduct in capital cases and the ongoing constitutional crisis in California’s justice system, revealing a 30-year history of prosecutorial misconduct and the targeting of Black and Jewish jurors for removal from death penalty juries.
The Delaware Legislature has voted to advance a constitutional amendment banning the death penalty, a historic move in a state once known for having the highest per capita execution rate in the nation.
A federal judge has found Channen Smith to be “actually innocent” in the 2010 killing of Dominique Jasper, but Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is pushing to keep Smith incarcerated despite the court’s ruling and new evidence suggesting he was wrongly convicted.
Sandra Hemme, who spent 43 years in prison for a murder she did not commit, is suing the city of St. Joseph, Missouri, for allegedly concealing and manipulating evidence that led to her wrongful conviction.
Byron Black, a 69-year-old man with an intellectual disability, was executed by the state of Tennessee despite strong public opposition to the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities, highlighting the moral bankruptcy of the system.
Tennessee executed Byron Black, a 69-year-old man with an intellectual disability and a live heart implant, despite widespread ethical concerns and objections from medical experts and advocates.
Byron Black, a man convicted of murder 40 years ago, is scheduled to be executed on August 5, 2025, despite his documented intellectual disability and serious medical complications, which have been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Attorneys for Byron Black, a 66-year-old man on Tennessee’s death row, have filed a motion for a stay of his execution due to the potential for his implanted defibrillator to trigger a prolonged and gruesome death.
Byron Lewis Black, a death-sentenced man in Tennessee, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution and review his case on the grounds that he is constitutionally ineligible for execution due to intellectual disability, which the State of Tennessee has conceded, but Tennessee courts have denied relief due to procedural bars.
The California Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of Aaron Norman Dunn, who was found guilty of killing two people and attempting to kill five others during a 2006 mass shooting in Elk Grove.
After spending 32 years in prison, including a decade on death row, for a wrongful conviction, a Maryland man is suing the prosecutors and police detectives who mismanaged his case, four of whom have now died.
In February 2024, prison officials launched a new group recreation program at the Polunsky Unit, the state’s notoriously strict death row, increasing inmates’ activities outside of solitary confinement and providing them with exercise, television, games, and religious practice.
Robert Roberson, a Texas man sentenced to death for the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, has filed an emergency motion with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeking a stay of execution and oral argument to present new evidence of innocence, including expert opinions and a reversal of position from the lead detective.
DNA evidence used to convict Kevin Cooper in the 1983 Chino Hills murders has been called into question due to chain of custody issues, contamination, and the presence of unidentified male DNA on key evidence.
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence of Timothy W. Fletcher for the 2009 murder of Helen Googe, rejecting all nine arguments raised by Fletcher’s appellate team.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is seeking a first-degree murder charge against Richard Glossip despite previously agreeing to release him from prison after two decades on death row.
Robert Roberson, a Texas man convicted of his daughter’s 2002 death based on the discredited “Shaken Baby Syndrome” theory, has his execution date set for October 16, 2025, despite evidence of innocence and widespread support for his clemency petition.
The US has carried out 25 executions this year, with 60% concentrated in Florida, Texas, and South Carolina, while new death sentences have dropped to near historic lows, reflecting a disconnect between political decisions and public sentiment.
Utah Judge has issued an execution warrant for Ralph Menzies, a 67-year-old man with advanced vascular dementia, despite his legal team’s ongoing appeals and a new petition asserting his further cognitive decline.