capital punishment

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Oklahoma Town Insists It Owns 'Old Sparky'

But state won't give back electric chair, in case it needs to use it

(Newser) - It is one of the craziest custody disputes you could imagine. A city in Oklahoma wants the state to give it back "Old Sparky," an electric chair last used about 50 years ago. McAlester officials want to put it on display as a piece of history. But 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,...

Execution of Inmate With Birth Defect Halted

'Are they gonna screw it up?' Bucklew asks

(Newser) - What would have been the first execution since the botched lethal injection of an Oklahoma inmate last month has been called off with a last-minute stay issued by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Missouri inmate Rusty Bucklew suffers from a birth defect called cavernous hemangioma that causes unstable tumors in...

Now Oklahoma Ready to Execute 2
Now Oklahoma
Ready to Execute 2
Apr 24, 2014 12:07 AM CDT

Now Oklahoma Ready to Execute 2

Court decides inmates don't need to know drug source

(Newser) - In yet another turnaround for Oklahoma murderers Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, the state Supreme Court has lifted its own stay of execution , clearing the way for the two men to die by lethal injection next week. The court decided that the two inmates are not entitled to know the...

Okla. Courts Halt Executions in Fight Over Drug Secrecy

State courts squabble over jurisdiction

(Newser) - The execution of two murderers in Oklahoma has been delayed once again amid legal battles over drug secrecy. A judge ruled last month that it would be unconstitutional for the state to conceal the source of the drugs it plans to use to execute Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, but...

Southerners Twice as Likely to Apologize Before Execution

Though they're no more likely to show genuine remorse: researcher

(Newser) - In their final moments, Southerners stand apart from other Americans: In statements before execution, Southern inmates were twice as likely to say they were sorry for their actions, a study finds. They weren't, however, "more likely than non-Southerners to express remorse," says researcher Judy Eaton, who perused...

Tenn. Senate Votes to Bring Back Electric Chair

Meanwhile, Ohio considers sweeping new restrictions

(Newser) - What do you do when you can't get your hands on the drugs in your lethal injection cocktail? As far as Tennessee's Senate is concerned, you fire up Old Sparky. The state's Senate yesterday voted 23-3 to advance a bill allowing the state to execute inmates via...

Mississippi Woman on Death Row Gets Retrial

Michelle Byrom says she only confessed to protect her son

(Newser) - A Mississippi woman is glimpsing a ray of sunlight after 14 years on death row. Days after her official execution date , the state Supreme Court today ruled that Michelle Byrom, 57, will be retried, CNN reports. Byrom was convicted 14 years ago of masterminding the murder of her allegedly abusive...

Egypt Tries 682 More— Plus Brotherhood Leader

Lawyers boycott trial presided over by judge who ordered death of 529

(Newser) - A day after sentencing 529 people to death , Egypt launched another mass trial today, this time accusing 683 Muslim Brotherhood members—including the Brotherhood's top spiritual leader, Mohammed Badie—of crimes including murder and inciting violence in connection with a riot at a police station in Minya. Only 68...

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...

Miss. to Execute Woman— for Crime Son Confessed To

Byrom to be first woman executed in state since 1944

(Newser) - Mississippi is preparing to execute its first woman in 70 years—for a crime her son repeatedly confessed to. Michelle Byrom, 57, was found guilty of hiring a friend of her son's to kill her husband in 1999, but jurors were never shown letters in which son Edward Byrom...

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...

Texas Scores New Batch of Execution Drug

State was down to last few doses of pentobarbital

(Newser) - The nation's most prolific executioner has a new drug dealer that officials in states including Oklahoma , Louisiana , and Missouri would probably like to meet. Texas says it has secured enough of the lethal-injection drug pentobarbital to continue executing people after the end of this month—but the state plans...

Oklahoma Can't Find Lethal Injection Drugs

Pair of executions delayed after failed 'Herculean' effort

(Newser) - Two executions in Oklahoma have been pushed back a month as the state scrambles to find a source of lethal-injection drugs. The two inmates had filed a lawsuit seeking more information about the drugs that would be used to kill them, but the state's Court of Criminal Appeals decided...

New Hangman Sees Gallows, Quits

Sri Lanka searching for replacement

(Newser) - Sri Lanka is looking for a new hangman after its latest recruit quit in horror at his first sight of the gallows. The country's prison commissioner says the man was "shocked and afraid" after seeing the gallows after a week of training, reports the BBC . He is the...

Florida Executes Man for Boy's Horrific Murder

Slain boy's parents pushed for stronger predator laws

(Newser) - Would-be child abductors should think twice about killing their victims because "people will not forget, they will not forgive," said the father of 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce after his son's killer was executed last night. "We will hunt you down and we will put you to death....

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...

14th Female Executed in US Since 1976

Suzanne Basso was convicted in 1998 torture killing

(Newser) - A woman convicted of torturing and killing a mentally impaired man she lured to Texas with the promise of marriage has been put to death in a rare execution of a female prisoner. Suzanne Basso this evening became only the 14th woman executed in the US since the Supreme Court...

Louisiana Stalls Execution to Study New Drug Cocktail

State wants to use combo that caused slow Ohio death

(Newser) - A last-minute switch of lethal-injection drugs has delayed Louisiana's first execution since 2010. Child killer Christopher Sepulvado was scheduled to die tomorrow but was granted a 90-day stay after the state confirmed it could not obtain the barbiturate pentobarbital, reports the Times-Picayune . The state plans to use a mixture...

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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