death penalty

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Drug Glitch Leads Oklahoma to Halt 3 Executions

Problem was discovered just hours before one execution was scheduled

(Newser) - Oklahoma's highest criminal court unanimously agreed Friday to halt all of the state's scheduled executions after the state's prison system received the wrong drug for a lethal injection this week. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted the state's request and issued indefinite stays of execution...

Man Who Killed 5 for $170 Dodges Death Penalty

Holmes case may have ended death penalty in Colorado

(Newser) - A man convicted of stabbing five people to death during a Denver bar robbery that netted $170 will be formally sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. A judge will issue a mandatory sentence of life without parole for Dexter Lewis, 25, who was convicted in August of five counts...

Man Arrested at 17 in Saudi Arabia to Be Crucified

Ali Mohammed al-Nimr's appeals have run out

(Newser) - Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was just 17 when he was arrested in 2012 and accused of taking part in anti-government protests and illegally possessing firearms; he was sentenced to death by crucifixion in 2014. Now, Saudi Arabia has dismissed his final appeal and he has no other legal options to fight...

Arkansas to Resume Executions After 10 Years

Governor announces 4 double executions

(Newser) - Arkansas will resume lethal injections after a 10-year gap starting next month with the first of four double executions, Gov. Asa Hutchinson says. The state hasn't executed an inmate since 2005, largely because of court challenges to its lethal-injection law and a nationwide shortage of drugs often used during...

Ohio's Trouble: 24 Executions, No Drugs

State has just 4 months to line them up

(Newser) - Ohio has four months to get the lethal drugs it needs to execute two-dozen condemned killers, the first of whom is scheduled to die Jan. 21. The state's last execution was performed in January 2014, when it tested a new two-drug execution method that left a condemned man gasping...

Death Row Inmate Dies, but Not via Execution

California has only executed 13 out of hundreds of death row inmates since 1978

(Newser) - Ronald Seaton had been on death row at San Quentin State Prison for 26 years following a 1986 conviction for murder, robbery, and burglary. On Friday, he died of natural causes while awaiting execution, NBC Bay Area reports. Seaton became the 69th death row inmate to die of natural causes...

Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty in Church Massacre

Dylann Roof won't go on trial before July 2016

(Newser) - Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old charged with killing nine people in the June shooting massacre at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. In court documents filed today, the prosecutors cited reasons for pursuing the death penalty, including the number of people killed and the...

How the Pope Could Save This Killer on Death Row

Lidia Guerrero hopes Francis will intervene on behalf of son

(Newser) - When Lidia Guerrero met with Pope Francis in Rome last year, he told her he knew all about Guerrero's son, who has been on death row in Texas for 19 years. "I've prayed so much for that young man," she says Francis told her. The short...

Tenn. Judge: There's Nothing Wrong With Lethal Injection

Says inmates didn't prove one-drug method led to painful, lingering death

(Newser) - A Tennessee judge yesterday upheld the state's lethal injection process for executing inmates. Davidson County Chancery Judge Claudia Bonnyman said from the bench that the plaintiffs, 33 death row inmates, didn't prove that the one-drug method led to a painful and lingering death. She also said the plaintiffs...

Man's Retrial Thanks to Bad Fire Science Ends in Shocker

Ed Graf's retrial for murdering 2 stepsons in shed fire based on new arson science

(Newser) - In 1988, Ed Graf was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for killing his stepsons Joby, 9, and Jason, 8, in 1986 by locking them in a shed, dousing it with gasoline, and setting it on fire. Everything was there to prove the case against the Texas man, per...

The 11 Men on Connecticut's Death Row Won't Die

At least, not by the state's hand, after court overturns death penalty

(Newser) - The 11 men sitting on death row in Connecticut won't die by the state's hand following today's ruling by the state's highest court. The state abolished the death penalty in April 2012 , but only for future crimes; today's decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court concerned...

One Holdout Juror Saved James Holmes

Death penalty required a unanimous decision

(Newser) - James Holmes will live out his life in prison instead of facing execution because one of his 12 jurors wouldn't budge on the subject. Nine others wanted the death penalty and two were unsure but willing to discuss it, but Holmes' life was spared because a unanimous decision is...

Jurors Spare Life of James Holmes

They deliberate 7 hours, fail to agree on death penalty

(Newser) - Jurors spared the life of James Holmes today: He will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of execution for his rampage in a Colorado movie theater, reports USA Today . The nine women and three men on the jury deliberated about seven hours over two...

James Holmes Jury Leaves Death on the Table

Jury reached a decision today in second phase of trial

(Newser) - The second phase of James Holmes' trial wrapped up today, and there will be a third. The jury decided the Aurora movie theater shooter should face a possible death sentence after considering the "mitigating factors." The Denver Post reports that the criminal trial, whose jury selection began in...

End of Road for Frenchman Set to Die in Indonesia

Court denies Serge Atlaoui's final appeal; execution planned after July 17

(Newser) - An Indonesian court today denied the final appeal of a French citizen who faces execution for drug offenses, setting the stage for diplomatic retaliation by France after executions of other foreigners strained relations with Australia and Brazil. Eight people were executed in April; Serge Atlaoui , 51, wasn't part of...

Those Who Believe in Pure Evil Tend to Support This

And the issue becomes more black-and-white

(Newser) - As Nebraska becomes the 19th state to abolish capital punishment, researchers out of Kansas State University have been investigating just what makes some Americans more fervently in favor of the death penalty than others. One clear factor, they report in the journal Personality and Individual Differences , is whether someone believes...

Texas May Have Executed an Innocent Man

Witnesses say Lester Bower did not commit the crime

(Newser) - Earlier this month, Texas executed Lester Bower for the 1983 murders of four men in an airplane hangar. Questions of his guilt lingered—and Bower maintained his innocence—until the end, and a Politico exposé suggests that he may have been telling the truth. Journalist Tim Madigan followed Bower’s...

The 'Untold Story' of That Very Botched Execution

Jeffrey E. Stern explores the death of Clayton Lockett in 9K words

(Newser) - June's issue of the Atlantic packages Jeffrey E. Stern's 9,000-word piece on Clayton Lockett's botched April 2014 execution in Oklahoma as the "untold story" of what happened. And while many of the details have surfaced elsewhere—a September report by the Oklahoma Office of Public...

Nebraska Veto Override Abolishes Death Penalty

Lawmakers get just enough votes to overturn governor's decision

(Newser) - Nebraska no longer has the death penalty. State lawmakers today overrode the governor's veto of legislation to abolish it by a vote of 30-19, getting the precise number of votes necessary to do so, reports the Omaha World-Herald . The move to defy Gov. Pete Ricketts makes Nebraska "the...

Nebraska Gov. Uses Pen to Keep Death Penalty Alive

Pete Ricketts vetoes repeal bill

(Newser) - Gov. Pete Ricketts has vetoed a bill to repeal the death penalty in Nebraska, saying it would send a message to criminals that the state is "soft on crime." State lawmakers voted 32-15 last week against capital punishment, the Omaha World-Herald reports. It will take 30 votes to...

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