death penalty

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High Court: IQ Test Alone Can't Decide Death Penalty

Plus: Justices favor Secret Service in free-speech ruling

(Newser) - The Supreme Court today ruled that states must look beyond an IQ score in borderline cases of mental disability to determine whether a death row inmate is eligible to be executed. The justices said in a 5-4 decision that Florida and a handful of other states cannot rely solely on...

'Deeply Evil' Billionaire Gets Death Penalty

Liu Han yells out in court: 'I was framed'

(Newser) - Two Chinese brothers have been convicted of murder and running a "mafia-style" gang over two decades—and they'll pay the price with their lives. Billionaire Liu Han, 48, and his brother were leaders of a 36-person gang charged with at least eight murders, Chinese media report, per the...

Tennessee Brings Back Electric Chair

As Wyoming debates return to firing squad

(Newser) - Amid shortages of drugs used in lethal injections and controversy over a botched execution in Oklahoma , Tennessee has become the first state to revive an older method of execution. Gov. Bill Haslam yesterday signed a bill allowing the state to use the electric chair if execution drugs are not available,...

Man Who Planned to Kill His Way to Obama Gets Death

James McVay killed elderly SD woman, stole her car

(Newser) - A man who murdered an elderly South Dakota woman in what he described as the first step in a plot to kill and steal his way to Washington and assassinate President Obama has been sentenced to death. After walking away from a minimum-security prison unit, James McVay drank alcohol and...

Court Stops Texas Execution With Just Hours to Spare

Lawyers for Robert James Campbell will get time to prove he has 'intellectual disability'

(Newser) - The nation's first execution since Oklahoma's botched one won't take place this evening after all, but this time the issue isn't about the drugs involved, reports CNN . A federal appeals court in Texas stayed the execution of Robert James Campbell, ruling that his lawyers deserve more...

Oklahoma Inmate Was Tasered Day of Execution

Also, tech had to inject drugs into groin

(Newser) - Oklahoma's prison chief today released a timeline regarding the botched execution of Clayton Lockett, and two items are getting much of the attention: In the morning, guards had to Taser Lockett when he refused to be restrained; and in the evening, a technician had so much trouble finding a...

What the Botched Execution Means for the Death Penalty

Pundits think this is a turning point

(Newser) - Last night's ugly, bungled execution of Clayton Lockett has many wondering about the future of the death penalty in America. By rushing to execute Lockett with secretive, untested means, Oklahoma "elevated a convicted murderer to a status he surely did not deserve in life," writes Andrew Cohen...

Inmate's Last Words: 'Something's Wrong'

Details emerge on Clayton Lockett execution

(Newser) - More details are emerging about the botched execution of Clayton Lockett , including the fact that Lockett was struggling to speak before he died. Reporters from News on 6 and the Tulsa World, who were among 12 media observers, offer minute-by-minute recaps. Some key moments:
  • 6:23pm: The execution begins. The
...

Oklahoma Botches Execution; Inmate Dies

Clayton Lockett began writhing 3 minutes after being declared unconscious

(Newser) - An Oklahoma inmate whose execution was halted tonight because the delivery of a new drug combination was botched died of a heart attack, the head of the state Department of Corrections said. The execution began at 6:23pm when officials began administering the first drug, and a doctor declared Clayton...

Ohio's Solution to Drawn-Out Execution: Bigger Dose

Inmate didn't suffer during long execution, state decides

(Newser) - The unusually long execution of Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire with a previously untested combo of drugs did not cause him "any pain or distress," state authorities have decided—but they plan to up the dosage in the future to be sure. McGuire, who raped and murdered a pregnant...

4.1% of Those Sentenced to Die Are Innocent
4.1% of Those Sentenced
to Die Are Innocent
STUDY SAYS
Apr 29, 2014 12:03 AM CDT

4.1% of Those Sentenced to Die Are Innocent

Most end up serving life, 'forgotten'

(Newser) - At least 4.1% of people sentenced to death in the US are innocent, a new report warns—and most of them end up neither executed nor exonerated, but serving life behind bars. Researchers say that at a conservative estimate, one in 25 of the thousands of people condemned to...

Oklahoma: Warden Can Pick Any of 5 Lethal Injections

Inmates' lawyers raise concerns over chemical combinations

(Newser) - After a pair of executions were delayed over a dearth of fatal drugs, Oklahoma is saying that as of Friday, it has a new execution protocol—and its warden can now pick from any of five options for its lethal injections. Lawyers for death-row inmates Charles Warner and Clayton Lockett...

Tennessee to Execute 10, Keep Details Secret

Law allows it to keep executioner, where drugs came from under wraps

(Newser) - Tennessee officials plan to execute a record number of death row inmates over the next two years, all under a cloak of secrecy. The state late last year asked its Supreme Court for permission to execute at least a dozen convicts—its biggest request ever—and intends to use a...

Death Row's Longest Serving Inmate Goes Free

All-white jury convicted Glenn Ford of murder in 1984

(Newser) - In 1984, Glenn Ford, who is black, was wrongfully convicted by an all-white jury in the murder of an elderly white man in Louisiana. He spent the next three decades on death row—but yesterday afternoon, he was finally set free, the Atlantic reports. During the case, Ford had cooperated...

Texas May Have Executed Innocent Man

Informant lied to strike a deal, says advocacy group

(Newser) - Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 after being convicted of an especially heinous crime: murdering his three young daughters in a fire. But a decade later, the Innocence Project says newly discovered documents suggest something else heinous: The state killed an innocent man. As the New York ...

Accused Craigslist Killer's Dad: OK to Execute Her

If Miranda Barbour is found guilty and jury wants death, Sonny Dean says that's fine

(Newser) - Should Miranda Barbour be convicted of killing a 42-year-old she and her husband are accused of luring via Craigslist and murdering , execution would be a fine punishment. So says her ... father. In an interview with the Daily Item , Sonny Dean says that he would actually "stand side by side"...

Pharmacy Won't Help Missouri Execute This Man

Oklahoma's Apothecary Shoppe responds to Michael Taylor's suit

(Newser) - Michael Taylor is scheduled to be executed by the state of Missouri next Wednesday, and an Oklahoma pharmacy says it will not provide the drug needed to carry out his fate. Taylor had filed a lawsuit against Tulsa's Apothecary Shoppe that his lawyers argued was providing a compounded version...

Washington State Suspends Death Penalty

Gov. Jay Inslee 'not convinced equal justice is being served'

(Newser) - Gov. Jay Inslee today brought the use of the death penalty to a screeching halt in Washington state, declaring a moratorium on a system he says has "too many flaws" and pushing his state to "join a growing national conversation" about capital punishment. "There is too much...

Missouri Executed This Man Minutes Before Court Ruled

Herman Smulls died at 10:20pm; the high court denied his stay request at 10:24pm

(Newser) - Lately, the lion's share of death-penalty controversy has surrounded the drugs now used in executions. But writing for the Atlantic , Andrew Cohen airs a new issue, specific to Missouri: Men have been put to death while their appeals were still pending. Herbert Smulls, who was executed last Wednesday , was...

Feds Want Death for Tsarnaev
 Feds Want Death for Tsarnaev 
Jan 30, 2014 1:39 PM CST

Feds Want Death for Tsarnaev

US will seek death penalty for alleged Boston bomber

(Newser) - The Justice Department will seek the death penalty in its case against alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Eric Holder announced today. "The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision," the attorney general said in a statement . The decision is not exactly...

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