capital punishment

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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...

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...

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...

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