capital punishment

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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...

Missouri Executes Man Who Claimed Innocence Till the End

Raheem Taylor was convicted of killing his live-in girlfriend, her 3 kids

(Newser) - A Missouri man convicted of killing his live-in girlfriend and her three young children was executed Tuesday despite his claims that he was in another state when the killings occurred. As the AP reports, Raheem Taylor, 58, was the third Missouri inmate put to death since November at the state...

'All Right, Warden, I'm Ready to Ride'

Texas executes Wesley Ruiz for killing Dallas police officer in 2007

(Newser) - Texas on Wednesday executed an inmate convicted of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer nearly 16 years ago after a high-speed chase. Wesley Ruiz, 43, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, for the March 2007 killing of Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix. "I...

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...

Everyone on Oregon's Death Row Gets Sentence Commuted

Gov. Kate Brown says action was taken because death penalty is 'immoral'

(Newser) - Oregon's death row will soon be empty. Gov. Kate Brown is commuting the death sentences of all 17 people on it to sentences of life without the possibility of parole, she announced Tuesday. Declaring that the death penalty "cannot be and never has been administered fairly and equitably,...

Lawyer: 'Tonight ... Missouri Killed Kevin Because He Is Black'

Kevin Johnson died by lethal injection Tuesday night

(Newser) - A Missouri man convicted of ambushing and killing a St. Louis area police officer he blamed in the death of his younger brother was executed Tuesday night, the AP reports. Kevin Johnson, 37, died after an injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre. It was the state’...

Scheduled Execution Takes Several Twists and Turns

Alabama ultimately called off the planned execution of Kenneth Smith

(Newser) - An appellate court on Thursday night issued a stay halting the scheduled execution of Alabama inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, and the state then appealed to the US Supreme Court—which vacated the stay, theoretically allowing the 57-year-old's lethal injection to proceed. But the SCOTUS decision was issued just hours...

Arizona Man Executed After SCOTUS Rejects Appeal

'It’s all been said. Let it be done,' Murray Hooper told execution team

(Newser) - An Arizona man convicted of murdering two people in 1980 was put to death Wednesday in the state’s third execution since officials started carrying out the death penalty in May after a nearly eight-year hiatus. Murray Hooper, 76, died by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence for...

Texas Executes Man Who Killed His Mom, Buried Her in Yard

Tracy Beatty's lawyers had argued his mental illness history should rule out death penalty

(Newser) - A man who killed his mother and buried her body in her backyard was executed Wednesday in Texas despite his lawyers’ appeals that he should not be put to death because he had a history of mental illness, the AP reports. Tracy Beatty, 61, received a lethal injection at the...

Oklahoma Executes Man Who Killed Infant Daughter

Attorneys for Benjamin Cole argued he was mentally ill

(Newser) - Oklahoma executed inmate Benjamin Cole on Thursday morning despite claims from his attorneys that he had been severely mentally ill. Cole was pronounced dead at 10:22am at Oklahoma’s state penitentiary in McAlester, per the AP . He was the sixth Oklahoma inmate to be put to death since the...

Judge Rules Against 2 Execution Methods in SC

Electric chair, firing squad are unconstitutonal, she says

(Newser) - A South Carolina judge ruled this week that the state's newly created execution firing squad, as well as its use of the electric chair, are unconstitutional, siding with four death row inmates in a decision sure to be swiftly appealed as the state struggles to implement its new execution...

Inmate Had No Last Words, Which Some See as Suspicious

Private autopsy suggests Joe Nathan James Jr.'s arm may have been cut to find a vein

(Newser) - An anti-death penalty group alleges that Alabama corrections officials apparently botched an inmate's execution last month, citing the length of time that passed before the prisoner received the lethal injection and a private autopsy indicating his arm may have been cut to find a vein. Joe Nathan James Jr....

Daughters, Brother of Slain Woman Want Mercy for Her Killer

They've asked Alabama governor to stop the execution

(Newser) - Terryln Hall was just 6 years old when her mother, Faith, was fatally shot by a former boyfriend. Now, nearly 30 years later, Hall and her sister—along with their uncle—oppose Alabama’s plan to execute the man who killed their mother, the AP reports. Unless a judge or...

Woman's 'Death by Stoning' Sentence Rattles Activists

It's the first such sentence in Sudan in nearly a decade

(Newser) - An October military coup in Sudan may have shifted the movement on women's rights there, and not in a good way. A 20-year-old woman arrested in White Nile state last month and charged with adultery has now heard her fate: death by stoning, the first known sentence like it...

Arrested at 13, He Faced Execution. Now He's Free

Murtaja Qureiris, said to be youngest Saudi prisoner for political protest, reportedly out of prison

(Newser) - Update: Murtaja Qureiris is now a free man. Human rights activists say the 21-year-old, who was arrested in Saudi Arabia at age 13 after being accused of participating in Arab Spring protests three years earlier, has been released from prison, reports CNN . Qureiris, who once faced the death penalty for...

SCOTUS Sides With Inmate Who Asked for Firing Squad

Michael Wade Nance says lethal injection would be unusually painful for him

(Newser) - Update: The Supreme Court has narrowly ruled in favor of a condemned Georgia inmate who has requested death by firing squad because he has a medical condition that would make lethal injection a long and extremely painful process. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that Michael Nance could proceed...

Judge Clears Oklahoma's Drug Cocktail for Executions

Move clears way for more death-row inmates, though an appeal is expected

(Newser) - A federal judge in Oklahoma on Monday ruled the state's three-drug lethal injection method is constitutional, paving the way for the state to request execution dates for more than two dozen death-row inmates who were plaintiffs in the case. Judge Stephen Friot's ruling followed a six-day federal trial...

Arizona Death Row Inmate Won't Die in Gas Chamber

Frank Atwood is now scheduled to be executed by lethal injection

(Newser) - Updated: Arizona death-row inmate Frank Atwood had until 12:01am Friday to select whether he wanted to die via lethal injection or in the state's refurbished gas chamber. He declined to make a choice, so the state's default method—lethal injection—will be used on June 8. It...

Missouri Execution Goes Forward
Carman Deck
Executed in Missouri
May 3, 2022 9:14 PM CDT

Carman Deck Executed in Missouri

It's the country's 5th execution this year

(Newser) - A Missouri man who killed a couple during a robbery at their rural home more than a quarter of a century ago was put to death Tuesday, becoming just the fifth person executed in the United States this year, the AP reports. Carman Deck, 56, died by injection at the...

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