capital punishment

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After Wave of 13 Federal Executions, a Halt

Department of Justice reviewing policies

(Newser) - After the Trump administration restarted federal executions following a 17-year hiatus, Donald Trump oversaw 13 executions —more than any US president since the 1800s, Reuters reports. (Those executions also included the first woman put to death by the federal government in almost seven decades.) On Thursday, US Attorney...

Inmate's Last Words: 'I Truly Regret Killing My Family'

Texas executes John Hummel, who killed wife, daughter, and father-in-law

(Newser) - A Texas inmate was executed Wednesday evening for an attack that killed his pregnant wife, 5-year-old daughter, and father-in-law more than a decade ago. John Hummel received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the December 2009 killings, per the AP . Authorities say Hummel stabbed his wife,...

SC's Top Court Blocks 2 Electric Chair Executions

Justices say men should also be offered option of firing squad

(Newser) - The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked two executions that had been set for this month under the state’s recently revised capital punishment law. The high court halted the planned executions of inmates Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens. The executions had been scheduled less than a month after...

Longest Serving Death Row Inmate Is Resentenced

Raymond Riles is now serving a life sentence

(Newser) - Raymond Riles has been on death row for more than 45 years—longer than anyone else in the US. But no longer: On Wednesday, the 71-year-old Texas man was resentenced to life in prison, CBS DFW reports. Riles, who shot and killed used car dealer John Thomas Henry at a...

South Carolina Judge Won't Block 2 Controversial Executions

They're scheduled for June 18 and June 25

(Newser) - A South Carolina judge on Tuesday refused to block two executions set for later this month as she considers a lawsuit over the state’s new capital punishment law, which effectively forces condemned prisoners to choose to die by either the electric chair or firing squad. State Circuit Judge Jocelyn...

SCOTUS Rejects Request for Firing Squad Execution

Missouri cleared to execute Ernest Johnson with lethal injection

(Newser) - The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from a condemned Missouri inmate who is seeking to be executed by firing squad instead of lethal injection. Lawyers for Ernest Lee Johnson—whose execution was stayed by the top court in 2015—argued that brain damage from tumor surgery would...

Texas Executes Quintin Jones Without Media Witnesses Present

Oversight will never happen again, agency spokesperson says

(Newser) - A Texas man convicted of fatally beating his 83-year-old great aunt more than two decades ago was executed Wednesday evening without media witnesses present because prison agency officials neglected to notify reporters it was time to carry out the punishment, the AP reports. Quintin Jones received the lethal injection at...

4 Years After His Execution, New Evidence Raises Doubt

Profile of unknown male found at murder scene in Ledell Lee case

(Newser) - Ledell Lee maintained his innocence even up to the day of his execution in Arkansas in 2017. Now, new tests on DNA evidence from the 1993 murder scene lends support to those still trying to clear his name, reports Complex :
  • The tests turned up the profile of an unknown male
...

Convicted Killer Wants Firing Squad Considered

Nevada inmate's lawyers say 3-drug combo state wants to use is cruel and unusual

(Newser) - A convicted killer who is fighting a possible June execution date that would make him the first person put to death in Nevada in 15 years is calling for the state to consider the firing squad as an option, a rare method in the United States. Attorneys for Zane Michael...

Virginia Outlaws Death Penalty
Virginia Outlaws Death Penalty
Mar 24, 2021 6:10 PM CDT

Virginia Outlaws Death Penalty

It's the 23rd state to do so, and the first in the South

(Newser) - Virginia's governor signed legislation Wednesday making it the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty, a dramatic shift for the commonwealth, which had the second-highest number of executions in the US. The bills were the culmination of a yearslong battle by Democrats who argued the death penalty has been...

Court May Reinstate Boston Bomber's Death Sentence

Supreme Court agrees to consider Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case

(Newser) - The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , presenting President Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment. The justices agreed to hear an appeal filed by the Trump administration, which carried out executions of 13 federal...

South Carolina Senators Want to Bring Back Firing Squads

Bill would make electric chair the default method

(Newser) - Firing squads will make a comeback in South Carolina if a bill being considered by the state's Senate becomes law. Under current South Carolina law, condemned inmates have the choice between lethal injection or the electric chair, and the state can't force them to die by electrocution if...

Virginia to Become First Southern State to End Executions

Repeal bill is headed to governor's desk

(Newser) - State lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in Virginia, a dramatic turnaround for a state that has executed more people in its history than any other. The legislation repealing the death penalty now heads to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who has said he...

Final Federal Execution Under Trump the 13th Since July
Execution Ends
'Unprecedented
Run'
Jan 16, 2021 5:30 AM CST

Execution Ends 'Unprecedented Run'

Dustin Higgs was the last federal inmate put to death under the Trump administration

(Newser) - The Trump administration early Saturday carried out its 13th federal execution since July, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden—an opponent of the federal death penalty. Dustin Higgs, convicted of ordering the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge...

12th Federal Execution Under Trump Takes Place

Corey Johnson put to death in Indiana Thursday night

(Newser) - The US government executed a drug trafficker Thursday for his involvement in a series of slayings in Virginia’s capital city in 1992, despite claims by his lawyers that the lethal injection would cause excruciating pain due to lung damage from his recent COVID-19 infection. Corey Johnson's lawyers have...

Woman Executed by the US for the First Time Since 1953

After much legal back-and-forth, Supreme Court clears way for Lisa Montgomery's execution

(Newser) - After hours of legal back-and-forth, Lisa Montgomery was executed early Wednesday at a federal prison complex in Indiana. The Kansas 52-year-old is the first female put to death in the US since 1953, the AP reports. An appeals court had granted a stay of execution for Montgomery on Tuesday, but...

Judge Halts Last 2 Executions of Trump's Term

Both inmates tested positive for COVID

(Newser) - COVID-19 has killed more than 375,000 Americans—but it may have saved the lives of two federal inmates. A federal judge has halted the executions of Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs because they have tested positive for the virus, the Hill reports. In what would have been the final...

First Execution of a US Woman in 67 Years Halted

Judge grants stay of execution for Lisa Montgomery

(Newser) - A judge has granted a stay in what was slated to be the US government's first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades—a Kansas woman who killed an expectant mother in Missouri, cut the baby from her womb, and passed off the newborn as her own,...

Attorneys for Woman Set to Be Executed Ask Trump to Intervene

Commute Lisa Montgomery's sentence, her lawyers ask POTUS

(Newser) - The only woman on federal death row is set to be executed Tuesday—but her lawyers are hoping the president will intervene. Lisa Montgomery's defense team filed a petition for clemency Tuesday, USA Today reports. "We're asking now that President Trump to please hear our plea,"...

Bad News for Only Woman on Federal Death Row

Lisa Montgomery could now be executed before Joe Biden takes office

(Newser) - A federal appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, the AP reports. The ruling, handed down Friday by a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, concluded...

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