death penalty

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With Less Than 5 Hours to Go, Texas Court Halts Execution

Victim's sister asked state to spare the life of William Speer

(Newser) - Texas' top criminal appeals court stopped Thursday evening's scheduled execution of an inmate who had been condemned for killing another prisoner more than 26 years ago. The victim's sister and religious leaders had recently asked authorities to spare the life of William Speer, 49. His attorneys had asked...

South Carolina Gets Its Hands on Death Penalty Drug

State has obtained pentobarbital to carry out lethal injections, will resume executions after 12 years

(Newser) - South Carolina has obtained a drug needed to carry out lethal injections and is ready to perform the state's first execution in over 12 years, officials announced Tuesday. South Carolina used to be one of the most prolific states in the nation when it came to putting inmates to...

Alabama Wants to Be First With a Nitrogen Execution

State seeks permission to use the method critics call experimental

(Newser) - Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general's office has asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, per the AP . The court filing indicated...

Governor Slams 'Absurd' Reason for Rebuffing Death-Row Inmates

Louisiana's John Bel Edwards asks pardons board to commute death sentences for 56 prisoners

(Newser) - A mass petition from 56 Louisiana inmates seeking commutations from their death sentences has seemingly made its way to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who this week sent a letter to the state's Board of Pardons to ask for movement on this front. Per the Louisiana Radio Network , the...

Synagogue Shooter Eligible for Death Penalty
Synagogue Shooter Is
Given Death Sentence
UPDATED
Aug 2, 2023 11:31 AM CDT

Synagogue Shooter Is Given Death Sentence

Robert Bowers killed 11 people in Pittsburgh in 2018, the nation's deadliest antisemitic attack

(Newser) - The gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh's Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers will be sentenced to death for perpetrating the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history. The same federal jury that convicted 50-year-old truck driver Robert Bowers on 63 criminal counts recommended Wednesday that...

Due to Be Executed After Botched Lethal Injections, He's Concerned

James Barber says he feels 'trepidation,' but not fear, over what's to come

(Newser) - James Barber is set to be put to death in Alabama Thursday night unless an appeals court intervenes, and he will be the first prisoner the state executes since a series of botched lethal injection and lethal injection attempts led to a temporary halt in executions that started in November...

This Country Now Has One of the Toughest Anti-LGBTQ Laws

Despite outcry over bill passed nearly unanimously in March, Uganda's president signs it into law

(Newser) - Uganda just became a decidedly hostile place for the LGBTQ+ community: As Reuters reports, President Yoweri Museveni just signed into law one of the globe's harshest anti-gay measures, and it includes the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality," serial offenders of the law, and those who transmit diseases...

I Watched My Brother Be Executed. It&#39;s Not the Answer
My Brother
Was Put to Death.
It's Not the Answer
OPINION
May 27, 2023 10:00 AM CDT

My Brother Was Put to Death. It's Not the Answer

Robert Towery was executed in 2012; Christine Towery was there

(Newser) - Christine Towery's first memory is an awful one: of her baby brother bound, with duct tape on his mouth, on the floor of the family car. Towery was so terrified her mother would kill her if she moved to help him that she didn't. It was an abuse-filled...

Supreme Court Sides With Alabama Death Row Inmate

Says Kenneth Smith should be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court on Monday sided with an Alabama death row inmate, who had his lethal injection called off at the last minute in November, and argues he should be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia when he is ultimately executed, the AP reports. Justices without comment rejected the...

Florida Executes &#39;Ninja Killer&#39;
'Ninja Killer'
Executed in Florida
Apr 13, 2023 12:00 AM CDT

'Ninja Killer' Executed in Florida

Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, wore ninja clothing during 1989 double murder

(Newser) - Florida executed a man known as the “ninja killer” on Wednesday for the 1989 slayings of a couple visiting the state from New Jersey, the AP reports. Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, was pronounced dead at 6:15pm after receiving a lethal injection, the governor’s office said. He was...

Despite Promise, Biden Retains Trump's Death Sentence Zeal

Defense lawyers say they see no change in direction from the Justice Department

(Newser) - Rejon Taylor hoped the election of Joe Biden, the first US president to campaign on a pledge to end the death penalty, would mean a more sympathetic look at his claims that racial bias and other trial errors landed him on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. But two...

Idaho Poised to Allow Firing-Squad Executions

Bill is headed for governor's desk

(Newser) - Idaho is poised to allow firing squads to execute condemned inmates when the state can't get lethal-injection drugs, under a bill the Legislature passed Monday with a veto-proof majority. Firing squads will be used only if the state cannot obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections—and one death...

Virginia Execution Tapes Capture Convicts' Last Words

State won't release recordings despite open records request

(Newser) - On a 1989 audio recording crackling with static, an inmate is barely audible as he offers his last words before he is executed in Virginia's electric chair. "I would like to express that what is about to take place ... is a murder," Alton Waye—who was convicted...

Man Who Killed His Wife and Her 6-Year-Old Apologizes Before Execution

Gary Green, 51, put to death in Texas

(Newser) - A Texas inmate convicted of fatally stabbing his estranged wife and drowning her 6-year-old daughter in a bathtub nearly 14 years ago was executed on Tuesday, the AP reports. Gary Green, 51, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the September 2009 deaths...

In This State, a Move Forward on a New Execution Method

Alabama says it's 'close' on protocol for using nitrogen gas to put inmates to death

(Newser) - The head of Alabama's prison system said Wednesday that a protocol for using nitrogen gas to carry out executions should be finished this year. "We're close. We're close," John Hamm, commissioner of the state's Department of Corrections, said of the new execution method that...

Pennsylvania Governor Does a 180 on Death Penalty

Democrat Josh Shapiro says he wants it abolished for good, won't sign any execution warrants

(Newser) - Josh Shapiro was once a supporter of the death penalty, including for the suspected gunman in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Philadelphia in 2018. Now, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania says his views on capital punishment have shifted, and that he won't be signing any execution warrants...

Feds Won't Seek Death for Shooter Accused of Killing 23

Patrick Crusius accused of opening fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019

(Newser) - Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for a man accused of fatally shooting nearly two dozen people in a racist attack at a West Texas Walmart in 2019, per the AP . The Department of Justice disclosed the decision not to pursue capital punishment against Patrick Crusius in a...

Oklahoma to Allow Anti-Execution Minister in Death Chamber

U-turn will prevent delay to execution of Scott Eizember, officials say

(Newser) - Oklahoma prison officials said Wednesday that they will allow an anti-death penalty minister with a history of protest-related arrests inside the execution chamber for Thursday's lethal injection of death row inmate Scott Eizember. Department of Corrections Director Steven Harpe said he reversed his earlier decision not to allow the...

US Executes First Transgender Inmate

Missouri puts transgender woman to death

(Newser) - A Missouri inmate was put to death Tuesday for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the US, the AP reports. (It's thought to be the country's first execution of any openly transgender person, male or female, CNN...

2022 Will Go Down as the 'Year of the Botched Execution'

35% of those attempted were 'visibly problematic'

(Newser) - Among the various things we'll remember 2022 for, death penalty researchers add an ignoble item to the list: botched executions, and a lot of them. The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) in its year-end report found that the number of people who were executed in the US—18—was...

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