capital punishment

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Illinois to Ban Death Penalty

Gov. Quinn expected to sign repeal bill today

(Newser) - Capital punishment is facing its end in Illinois and a last-minute reprieve from the governor is highly unlikely. Pat Quinn is expected to sign legislation today abolishing the death penalty in the state, and abolition supporters have been invited to a private bill-signing ceremony, reports the Chicago Tribune . "They...

China Drops Death Penalty for Tax Evasion

Along with a dozen other non-violent crimes

(Newser) - China has eliminated the death penalty as a possible punishment for 13 non-violent offenses, the AP reports. But critics say it probably won't make a big dent in the estimated 5,000 annual executions in the country—nearly 70 crimes still carry a possible death sentence, many of them non-violent....

Iran to Execute Two Porn Site Operators

Last month, another man received same sentence

(Newser) - Two people in Iran were condemned to death yesterday for running porn sites, reports the AFP . "Two administrators of porn sites have been sentenced to death in two different (court) branches and (the verdicts) have been sent to the supreme court for confirmation," said Iran's prosecutor general. In...

Even If Convicted, Loughner Unlikely to Be Executed

Federal death penalty has been carried out just 3 times in 23 years

(Newser) - Even though the prosecution is looking hard at the death penalty for Jared Lee Loughner in the Tucson shootings, he could still die an old man behind bars, reports the LA Times . Loughner faces charges in federal court, where death penalties are rarely given out—only three out of 182...

Sole Producer of Lethal Injection Drug Quits

Hospira's decision could cause delays for states

(Newser) - The capital punishment system faces a serious obstacle: the only US producer of an anesthetic used in lethal injection has decided to stop making it, the Wall Street Journal reports. Thiopental sodium is made exclusively by Hospira, an Illinois company. It had already suspended production in 2009 because of manufacturing...

California's About to Execute a Framed Man
California's About
to Execute a Framed Man
Nicholas Kristof
Dec 9, 2010 1:54 PM CST

California's About to Execute a Framed Man

Case shows everything that's wrong with the death penalty

(Newser) - Judges around the country are decrying an upcoming California execution, because there’s ample reason to believe the condemned man was framed by police. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to hear the case of Kevin Cooper, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times explains, despite an extraordinary...

Texas Prosecutors 'Stand Mute' at Death Penalty Hearing

Challenge to decide whether Texas' death penalty is constitutional

(Newser) - The death penalty is facing a major constitutional challenge in Texas, but the district attorney in the case literally doesn’t think it’s worth talking about. At a hearing yesterday to determine whether Texas’ death penalty is unconstitutional because it doesn't have enough safeguards for defendants, prosecutors said they’...

Texas Could Soon Rule Death Penalty Unconstitutional

State has unfair risk of wrongful conviction, lawyers will argue

(Newser) - In Texas of all places, the death penalty could soon be declared unconstitutional. The state (which leads the US in number of executions since 1976, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice ) has a disproportionately high number of wrongful convictions, attorneys will argue at a hearing Monday. Twelve...

Justice Stevens Explains Shift on Death Penalty

Former supporter cites racism, politics, judicial activism

(Newser) - Former Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens is making clear for the first time why he switched course on the death penalty in 2008, calling it unconstitutional, the New York Times reports. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Stevens, who supported capital punishment in 1976, reveals his revised...

Iraqi President Refuses to Execute Saddam Cohort

He won't sign order for Tariq Aziz

(Newser) - Although Tariq Aziz has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by Iraq's supreme court, the president of the country says he won't sign the order. Interestingly, Aziz is also on trial for attacks on the Kurds, and President Jalal Talabani is a member of the ethnic...

US in Company of Thugs on Capital Punishment
US in Company of Thugs
on Capital Punishment
OPINION
Nov 10, 2010 1:58 PM CST

US in Company of Thugs on Capital Punishment

Op-ed: It should make all of us stop and think

(Newser) - A new Gallup poll about the death penalty may not change anyone's views on the matter, but one aspect of it should at least "give us all pause for thought," writes Steven L. Taylor at Outside the Beltway . It's not the big takeaway stat—that support for capital...

Debate Over Killer's Fate Seeps Into Conn. Races

Death penalty becomes central issue after home invasion conviction

(Newser) - One of the most horrific crimes in Connecticut's history may weigh on the state's elections. Stephen Hayes is awaiting sentencing for the home invasion murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters next week and Republican candidates for Senate and governor have been making the death penalty a central issue....

Drug Shortage Puts Executions on Hold

Lethal injection ingredient in short supply

(Newser) - Executions by lethal injection have been put on hold in several states because of a shortage of a key ingredient for the killer shot. Sodium thiopental—generally used to render the condemned unconscious before other drugs are injected, although Ohio and Washington use it to kill—is in short supply...

Ga. Executes Inmate Who Attempted Suicide

Triple murderer dies by lethal injection

(Newser) - A Georgia inmate who tried to kill himself last week was executed by lethal injection last night after the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal for a stay of execution. Brandon Rhode, 31—convicted of the 1998 murders of a trucking company owner, his 11-year-old son, and his 15-year-old daughter—...

Utah AG Tweets Execution News

Critics find social media approach disrespectful

(Newser) - Today's execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner —the first by firing squad in 14 years—was also likely the first execution announced on Twitter, Mashable reports. Utah AG Mark Shurtleff tweeted about the event: “I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner’s execution....

Utah Firing Squad Executes Inmate

No reprieve for Ronnie Lee Gardner

(Newser) - Ronnie Lee Gardner became the first American executed by firing squad in the 21st century at just after midnight in a Utah prison. The convicted killer was strapped into a chair and five police marksmen fired at a target on his chest, AP reports. One gun was loaded with an...

India Elders Get Death in Honor Killing

First use of capital punishment for this crime

(Newser) - The village elders hunted the young couple down, dragging them from a bus, strangling the groom and forcing his bride to drink pesticide in an honor killing with roots thousands of years old. But for the first time, India has sentenced the murderers to death for their actions, setting up...

China Secretly Executes Thousands Each Year—or More

Cattle rustling, vandalism capital offenses in China

(Newser) - Want to find out how many people China executes each year? Not a chance, Kate Allen writes in the Guardian . Though China is known to execute more people each year than all other countries put together, the government keeps the actual numbers under such tight wraps that even Amnesty International...

Condemned Man Spared During Last Meal

Murder convict Hank Skinner granted last-minute reprieve

(Newser) - A death row inmate in Texas was spared Wednesday just as he was finishing his last meal on earth—chicken, a bacon cheeseburger, fries, catfish, onion rings, and a salad. Hank Skinner, who had been on death row since 1995, was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend and...

Guillotine Returns to Paris
 Guillotine Returns to Paris 
Mar 17, 2010 11:22 AM CDT

Guillotine Returns to Paris

On display at museum 33 years after last head rolled

(Newser) - Some 33 years after the last head rolled in France, the guillotine is back—as a cutting-edge display item in a Paris museum exhibit about crime and punishment. The former instrument of death was displayed at the request of Robert Badinter, the politician who ended the death penalty in France,...

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