death penalty

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Guy to Jury: Hurry Up and Convict Me

Murder defendant really wanted to watch Monday Night Football

(Newser) - A suspect in a double homicide took callousness to a new level yesterday: While on the witness stand, Nathan Burris snapped his fingers at the jury and told them to hurry up and convict him so he could get back to his cell in time for Monday Night Football, reports...

Judge Scalia: Constitution Doesn't Allow Gay 'Sodomy'

Supreme Court justice also dishes on death penalty, abortion

(Newser) - Hot-button constitutional issues? No problem, says Justice Antonin Scalia—who supports the death penalty, opposes abortion, and believes in criminalizing gay sex. "The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy," he said to a few hundred people gathered at the American Enterprise Institute. He described his...

7 Conn. Inmates Fight Death Penalty

Argue that race, geography affected likelihood of death sentence

(Newser) - Seven of Connecticut's 11 death row inmates are suing the state to get their sentences overturned, arguing that race and geographic bias played a part in their criminal prosecution. They claim their penalty was decided in an arbitrary and discriminatory way based on their race and where they were...

Death Penalty Sought for Assassination Plotters

For December murders of Michael Roark, girlfriend Tiffany York

(Newser) - Prosecutors are aiming for the death penalty in the case of three soldiers accused of murdering an ex-private and his girlfriend to keep the lid on their plot to overthrow Fort Stewart and kill President Obama, the New York Times reports. Isaac Aguigui, Christopher Salmon, and Anthony Peden will face...

Gambian Executions Begin, Says Rights Group

9 put to death; dozens may follow: Amnesty

(Newser) - Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh alarmed human rights activists last week when he vowed to quickly execute all of the nation's prisoners on death row. Amnesty International is now worried that he's started making good on the threat, reports Voice of America . Nine inmates were killed late Thursday, the...

Gambia President Vows to Kill Everyone on Death Row

Human rights groups horrified at Yahya Jammeh's announcement

(Newser) - Human rights groups are condemning President Yahya Jammeh for his vow to execute every death row prisoner in Gambia next month, breaking an almost 30-year hiatus on executions in the country. "All those guilty of serious crimes and are condemned will face the full force of the law,"...

Texas Executes Inmate Despite Low-IQ Claims

Supreme Court rejected his appeal hours earlier

(Newser) - A Texas man convicted of killing a police informant was executed this evening after the Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for the death penalty. Marvin Wilson, 54, was pronounced dead 14 minutes after his lethal injection began at the state prison in Huntsville....

Texas to Execute Man Deemed Mentally Retarded

Tomorrow's penalty would run counter to Supreme Court ruling

(Newser) - A Texas prisoner diagnosed as mentally retarded is set for the death penalty tomorrow—despite a 2002 US Supreme Court ruling barring mentally retarded people from execution. The court decision left states some leeway in carrying out executions, and Texas controversially continues to use its own definition of mental retardation,...

DA: Holmes Case 'Not a Slam Dunk'

Death penalty will come down to suspect's sanity

(Newser) - Don't expect a quick resolution to James Holmes' court case: It's "not a slam dunk," says district attorney Carol Chambers. "In a case like this, the investigation doesn’t stop. It will continue right up to the trial," she noted. Prosecutors will decide "...

Court Halts Execution of Georgia Inmate

Says lethal injection changes may require public comment

(Newser) - Georgia's high court has halted a controversial execution in the nick of time. Warren Hill, whose lawyers say he is mentally retarded and thus can't be executed, was set to die last night. But the court delayed the move for an entirely different reason: Judges are set to...

Georgia to Execute Man Deemed Mentally Retarded

State isn't convinced he meets the definition, despite court ruling

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court declared that the death penalty for mentally retarded criminals was unconstitutional in 2002. Georgia, however, is set to execute a prisoner so labeled next week, reports the Guardian . The execution of Warren Hill is proceeding because Georgia, alone among the states, says that learning disabilities must...

Scott Peterson Appeals Death Sentence

Lawyer alleges juror misconduct, bias, evidence problems

(Newser) - Scott Peterson is still protesting his innocence in the murder of pregnant wife Laci in 2002, and has filed an automatic appeal of his death sentence with the California Supreme Court. Peterson was sentenced in 2004 after a highly publicized trial, and his lawyer argues in the 423-page document that...

Arkansas High Court Strikes Down Execution Law

Legislature, not corrections dept., must set death penalty rules: court

(Newser) - A split Arkansas Supreme Court says the state's execution law is unconstitutional. The state's constitution says that execution rules must be set by the legislature, but a 2009 law put matters in the hands of the Department of Corrections, the AP reports. Under that law, the director of...

600 Miles and 25 Years Apart, Brothers Sentenced to Die

Rodney, Roger Berget led troubled lives

(Newser) - Twelve years after his older brother Roger Berget was executed for killing a man, Rodney Berget sits on South Dakota's death row awaiting his own death sentence. Roger was convicted in 1987 of murdering a man for his car and was put to death in Oklahoma at age 39;...

Zimmerman May Face Hate-Crime Charges

Which carry death penalty: WFTV

(Newser) - A local TV station in Orlando says FBI investigators are questioning witnesses to seek evidence for hate-crime charges against George Zimmerman. The killer of Trayvon Martin currently faces second-degree murder charges that could send him to prison for life. If the feds add hate-crime charges and get a conviction, Zimmerman...

How Texas Executed an Innocent Man
 How Texas 
 Executed an 
 Innocent Man 
NEW REPORT
May 15, 2012 8:56 AM CDT

How Texas Executed an Innocent Man

Carlos DeLuna allegedly took the fall for Carlos Hernandez

(Newser) - Carlos DeLuna was executed in 1989 for the murder of Wanda Lopez, but a 400-page article in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review asserts that Texas actually put the wrong man to death, while the real killer bragged about the murder and the fact that DeLuna took the fall. Lopez,...

9/11 Victim's Spouse Goes to Gitmo to Save Plotters' Lives

Blake Allison meets with defendants' lawyers

(Newser) - The husband of a 9/11 victim opposes the death penalty in all cases—and he went to Guantanamo to fight for his beliefs. Blake Allison won one of 10 slots in a 9/11 mourners' lottery, allowing him to visit the island for the arraignment of admitted mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed....

Connecticut Kills Death Penalty

 Connecticut Kills Death Penalty 
Apr 26, 2012 1:53 AM CDT

Connecticut Kills Death Penalty

Law won't affect murderers already on death row

(Newser) - Life without the possibility of parole has replaced lethal injection as the harshest punishment Connecticut's courts can hand down. Gov. Dan Malloy signed a bill to repeal capital punishment, making the state the 17th to do so, and the fifth in the last five years, ABC reports. The new...

California to Vote on Death Penalty

Repeal measure makes it onto November ballot

(Newser) - Voters in California, home to nearly a quarter of America's death row inmates, will decide on abolishing the death penalty this November. A ballot measure on repealing the death penalty has received the necessary 500,000 signatures, reports the Los Angeles Times . The measure would make life imprisonment without...

Landmark Racial Ruling Takes Inmate Off Death Row

North Carolina judge says prosecutors kept jury mostly white

(Newser) - A black inmate in North Carolina came off death row today thanks to a controversial new law in the state. A judge reduced the sentence of Marcus Reymond Robinson to life without parole after ruling that prosecutors purposely sought to keep blacks off his jury, reports the News & Observer...

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