capital punishment

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Utah Firing Squad Executes Inmate

No reprieve for Ronnie Lee Gardner

(Newser) - Ronnie Lee Gardner became the first American executed by firing squad in the 21st century at just after midnight in a Utah prison. The convicted killer was strapped into a chair and five police marksmen fired at a target on his chest, AP reports. One gun was loaded with an...

India Elders Get Death in Honor Killing

First use of capital punishment for this crime

(Newser) - The village elders hunted the young couple down, dragging them from a bus, strangling the groom and forcing his bride to drink pesticide in an honor killing with roots thousands of years old. But for the first time, India has sentenced the murderers to death for their actions, setting up...

China Secretly Executes Thousands Each Year—or More

Cattle rustling, vandalism capital offenses in China

(Newser) - Want to find out how many people China executes each year? Not a chance, Kate Allen writes in the Guardian . Though China is known to execute more people each year than all other countries put together, the government keeps the actual numbers under such tight wraps that even Amnesty International...

Condemned Man Spared During Last Meal

Murder convict Hank Skinner granted last-minute reprieve

(Newser) - A death row inmate in Texas was spared Wednesday just as he was finishing his last meal on earth—chicken, a bacon cheeseburger, fries, catfish, onion rings, and a salad. Hank Skinner, who had been on death row since 1995, was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend and...

Guillotine Returns to Paris
 Guillotine Returns to Paris 
Mar 17, 2010 11:22 AM CDT

Guillotine Returns to Paris

On display at museum 33 years after last head rolled

(Newser) - Some 33 years after the last head rolled in France, the guillotine is back—as a cutting-edge display item in a Paris museum exhibit about crime and punishment. The former instrument of death was displayed at the request of Robert Badinter, the politician who ended the death penalty in France,...

Jurors Used Bible to Decide Death Sentence

Amnesty International troubled by Old Testament justice

(Newser) - Death-row foes are complaining that a Texas jury ordered to consider only evidence presented in court consulted the Old Testament before condemning a man to death. Jurors examined highlighted passages in Bibles passed around the jury room to help them decide the fate of Khristian Oliver. The con killed a...

Ohio Con Wins Week Break After Botched Execution

Executioners struggled to find vein for 2 hours

(Newser) - An Ohio death row inmate was given a week-long reprieve by the governor yesterday after the execution team couldn't find a usable vein in over 2 hours of trying at his planned execution, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer . Romell Broom, convicted of raping and killing a teen girl in...

Obama May Soon Face Decisions on Death Penalty
Obama May Soon Face Decisions on Death Penalty
ANALYSIS
Jun 21, 2009 12:50 PM CDT

Obama May Soon Face Decisions on Death Penalty

Cases might alter president's support for narrow use of executions

(Newser) - As if reviving the economy, reforming health care, taming North Korea, and forging relations with Iran weren’t challenges enough, President Obama may soon have to deal with the death penalty. Within months, the cases of six federal death-row inmates, all black and all convicted of capital murder, could land...

Iranian Female Artist Hanged Amid Uproar

Execution follows retracted confession for alleged murder

(Newser) - International supporters yesterday criticized the execution of an Iranian woman for a murder allegedly committed when she was a juvenile, despite a 2-month stay of execution ordered less than 3 weeks ago, the Telegraph reports. Her lawyer wasn’t notified 48 hours before the hanging, as is required. Delara Darabi’...

New Mexico Bans Death Penalty
 New Mexico
Bans Death Penalty
Mar 19, 2009 3:14 AM CDT

New Mexico Bans Death Penalty

Guv abolishes executions after wrestling with conscience

(Newser) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has signed a bill abolishing the state's death penalty, reports the Santa Fe New Mexican. Richardson, who formerly supported capital punishment, said replacing execution with life in prison without the possibility of parole was “the most difficult decision of his political life.” He...

Amnesty Moves to Stop 128 Iraqi Executions

Says international standards may have been ignored in trials

(Newser) - Amnesty International has called for Iraq not to execute 128 prisoners sentenced to death, saying their trials may not have conformed with international rules, Reuters reports. Amnesty says Iraq should release the names of and charges against the prisoners, noting that capital punishment is an ineffective threat when suicide bombing...

Recession May Kill Pricey Death Penalty

Worried about legal costs, states consider abolition

(Newser) - Death and taxes may always be with us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fiddle with them. Specifically, as the recession decreases tax revenue for states, some are considering abolishing the death penalty, which can cost millions. “And we can’t afford that, when there are better...

Punishment Fits the Crime for Colo. Noise Offenders

Teens made to listen to an hour of Manilow after late-night backyard gig

(Newser) - One Colorado judge has had it with teenagers making repeat appearances in his court for noise violations. So rather than issue a fine for mom and dad to pay, he’s devised his own punishment: Noise violators are forced to listen to an hour of gloriously un-hip music, from Barney...

Court Refuses Davis Case; 'Too Fat' Cooey Executed

Decision opens path to controversial Georgia execution

(Newser) - The Supreme Court refused today to decide whether executing an individual backed by a strong claim to innocence violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The rejection paves the way for the execution of Troy Anthony Davis, accused of murdering a Georgia policeman....

Inmate Too Fat to Execute: Just Shoot Me

Cooey says that he didn't intentionally pile on the pounds

(Newser) - Convicted killer Richard Cooey knows there have been jokes at his expense. But he insists he’s not afraid to die— just too fat for lethal injection. At 5’ 7”, 267 pounds, Cooey is so rotund that it’s nigh-impossible to find a vein. “It's hard getting access to...

Con Wins Death Stay in Judge Affair Appeal

Relationship between judge and prosecutor not reason for decision

(Newser) - A Texas death-row inmate who filed an appeal alleging that an affair between the judge and prosecutor compromised his trial has been granted a stay of execution. But, ABC News reports, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals approved Charles Dean Hood's request based not on the affair but because of...

Death Row Con Wins Hearing Over Courtroom Hanky Panky

Alleges affair between judge, prosecutor

(Newser) - A condemned Texas inmate has won a hearing to decide whether his lawyers can question the judge and prosecutor at his capital case trial about an alleged affair the two were having while the proceedings were unfolding, ABC News reports. A former county DA filed a sworn statement last year...

Army Can Execute Death-Row Soldier, Bush Rules

Ronald Gray set to become first service member put to death since 1961

(Newser) - President Bush today approved the execution of an Army private, administration officials said. It was the first time in over a half-century that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the US military. Bush OK'd the military's request to execute Ronald A. Gray, convicted in connection...

Obama Backs Death Penalty for Child Rapists

Dem disagrees with Supreme Court ruling against Louisiana law

(Newser) - Barack Obama joined rival John McCain yesterday in supporting the death penalty for child rapists, the AP reports. The Democratic candidate spoke after the Supreme Court ruled against a Louisiana law allowing capital punishment for child rape, saying it violates the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The verdict...

No Crying in the Courtroom!
No Crying in
the Courtroom!
Jun 25, 2008 11:32 AM CDT

No Crying in the Courtroom!

Murder case prosecutors seek ban on 'strategic bawling' by defense to sway jury

(Newser) - State prosecutors in Ohio want to ban teary-eyed appeals to the jury in an upcoming capital murder case, Time reports. A motion seeking to prohibit blubbering defense attorneys accuses them of crying on cue and violating a 1999 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that it’s “improper to inflame a...

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