execution

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Supreme Court Halts Another Lethal Injection

Stay of execution for Virginia man could signal moratorium

(Newser) - The Supreme Court issued a stay of execution yesterday for Christopher Scott Emmett, four hours before the Virginia inmate was scheduled to die. Observers say the move signals a de facto moratorium on executions, as the court considers the legality of lethal injection. One expert called it “the most...

Texas Won't Halt Executions, Despite Stay

State will stick to schedule after Supreme Court ruling

(Newser) - Texas officials plan to go forward with death-row executions, even as other states put them on hold in the wake of the Supreme Court's last-minute stay for Carlton Turner earlier this week. More stays like Turner's are expected in Texas as the court deliberates on the legality of lethal injections,...

Supreme Court Will Take Up Lethal Injection

Constitutionality at issue; docket also includes voting rights

(Newser) - The Supreme Court will take up the constitutionality of lethal injections in what a public defender called one of the most critical death penalty cases “in decades.” The challenge stems from a 2004 suit by two Kentucky inmates on death row who charged that the method constitutes cruel...

China Will Scale Back Executions
China Will Scale Back Executions
Sep 14, 2007 9:50 AM CDT

China Will Scale Back Executions

Supreme Court orders judges to go easy on the death penalty

(Newser) - China's Supreme Court has ordered judges to stop being so execution-happy. China carries out more capital punishment than the rest of the world combined, but the Supreme People's Court posted an order on its website today that the death penalty should be used only for "an extremely small number...

Americans Losing Taste for Death Penalty

Capital sentences and executions slow as public attitudes change

(Newser) - Capital punishment seems to be dying a slow death in the US. As public sentiment shifts toward life sentences, the number of death sentences has dropped 60% since the mid-'90s and the number of executions has fallen 46% since 1999, reports the Economist. Then there’s Texas, which has carried...

Texas Gov. Spares Prisoner Hours Before Execution

Kenneth Foster was sentenced to death as accomplice to 1996 murder

(Newser) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry commuted a death-row prisoner's sentence to life imprisonment today, six hours before he was to die for his role in a 1996 murder. Kenneth Foster drove the getaway car in a robbery gone awry, and under Texas law was eligible for the death penalty. Perry, in...

Lay Judges to Join Bench in Japan
Lay Judges
to Join Bench
in Japan
Aug 25, 2007 8:38 AM CDT

Lay Judges to Join Bench in Japan

Will citizens temper Japan's courts, where 99.9% are found guilty?

(Newser) - Japan will give citizens the gavel in an effort to counteract its judicial system’s prejudice for presuming guilt. Six citizens and three trained jurists will sit on criminal cases, and the majority will rule, Bloomberg reports. The new system follows a clamor of criticism about forced confessions, inhumane treatment...

Texas Executes 400th Inmate
Texas Executes 400th Inmate
Aug 23, 2007 8:25 AM CDT

Texas Executes 400th Inmate

More set to die next week as capital punishment opponents call for moratorium

(Newser) - Texas has executed its 400th inmate since reinstating the death penalty 25 years ago, putting a convicted murderer to death by lethal injection last night. Johnny Ray Conner is the 21st prisoner to be sent to death this year, with three more slated to follow next week. Capital punishment opponents...

Iran Executes 30 in Past Month
Iran Executes 30 in Past Month
Aug 19, 2007 1:18 PM CDT

Iran Executes 30 in Past Month

(Newser) - Iran executed up to 30 people in the past month, mostly in public hangings, in a nationwide crackdown on murderers, sex offenders, drug traffickers, and other threats to "social security," reports the Observer. Human rights advocates say the sweep, also advertised as countering an alleged surge in US-backed...

Taliban Ups Demands for 23 Korean Hostages

Kidnappers want full prisoner release

(Newser) - Taliban militants holding 23 Korean aid workers hostage increased their demands today, insisting that  the government release all insurgent prisoners in the province, according to a kidnap spokesman. The militants threatened to kill the hostages  if a response isn't forthcoming by 10:30 a.m. EDT, the AP reports.

Taliban Claims 2 German Hostages Killed

Demand German troop pullout, threaten South Korean captives

(Newser) - Two German citizens abducted in Afghanistan have been shot to death, a Taliban spokesman claimed today. The Taliban had demanded the withdrawal of the more than 3,000 soldiers Germany has stationed in Afghanistan, a demand to which they did not accede. The Germans were working on a dam project...

SD Carries Out 1st Execution in 60 Years

Man convicted in 2000 torture murder refused appeals, last words

(Newser) - South Dakota executed a prisoner last night for the first time since 1947. Officials administered a lethal injection to convicted murderer Elijah Page, who had pleaded guilty in 2001 to torturing and killing a 19-year-old acquaintance the year before, the Argus Leader reports. One of his two co-defendants remains on...

Supremes Halt Execution of Insane Inmate

Kennedy is swing vote against punishment for schizophrenic killer

(Newser) - The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to block the execution of a schizophrenic condemned killer because Texas criminal courts had not taken his mental health into account. Anthony Kennedy joined the court's liberals and wrote the decision, which reaffirmed previous injunctions against executing the insane; Kennedy wrote that the "punishment...

Hamas Executes Captives
Hamas Executes Captives
Jun 14, 2007 9:30 PM CDT

Hamas Executes Captives

Palestinian Authority on brink of collapse as Fatah 'collaborators' shot

(Newser) - The Palestinian Authority is teetering on collapse after Hamas declared victory in Gaza, executing captured Fatah leaders accused of collaborating with Israel. The Palestinian government  was dissolved by President Mahmoud Abbas while Fatah militants in the West Bank ominously rounded up Hamas supporters. 

China Curbs Executions as Olympics Loom

Executions down 40% in runup to 2008

(Newser) - Capital punishment is on the decline in China, a country responsible for more than half of the world's executions. Beijing doesn't release figures, but human rights watchers say death penalty cases are down as much as 40% over the last six years. Sinologists reckon much of that drop represents an...

Botched Execution Takes 2 Hours
Botched Execution
Takes 2 Hours
May 26, 2007 7:14 PM CDT

Botched Execution Takes 2 Hours

Condemned killer took bathroom break during lethal injection

(Newser) - Prison staff at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility spent two hours administering lethal injection to condemned killer Christopher Newton—inserting needles ten times before finding a suitable vein to inject the deadly chemicals. Newton had been sentenced to die for killing his cellmate during an argument after a chess game.

Gunmen Execute 23 In Kurdish Sect
Gunmen Execute 23 In Kurdish Sect
Apr 22, 2007 3:54 PM CDT

Gunmen Execute 23 In Kurdish Sect

Yazidis pulled from bus and shot in reprisal for stoning

(Newser) - Gunmen in northern Iraq stopped a bus carrying workers home from a textile factory  today, identified 23 members of a tiny religious sect on board, and shot them to death. The bus was filled with Christians and Yazidis, a mostly Kurdish sect that worships an angel, the AP reports.

Stories 661 - 677 | << Prev