capital punishment

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Executions Drop to 13-Year Low
Executions Drop to 13-Year Low
Dec 19, 2007 12:14 PM CST

Executions Drop to 13-Year Low

42 people put to death in '07; further decline could follow Court ruling

(Newser) - With the Supreme Court set to hear arguments Jan. 7 about lethal-injection procedures, figures show that US states executed just 42 people this year, a 13-year low. The case before the court has prompted states using lethal injection to execute inmates to stay pending executions; on Monday, New Jersey became...

NJ Formally Outlaws Death Penalty
NJ Formally Outlaws
Death Penalty
Dec 17, 2007 1:23 PM CST

NJ Formally Outlaws Death Penalty

Governor signs controversial bill, says state is 'truly evolving'

(Newser) - New Jersey officially abolished the death penalty today, becoming the first state to ban capital punishment in the 4 decades since the US Supreme Court allowed the practice to resume. "Today, New Jersey is truly evolving," Gov. Jon Corzine said as he signed the measure, which sped through...

NJ on Verge of Abolishing Death Penalty

Governor says he'll sign bill passed today; first state since '65 to ban it

(Newser) - New Jersey's state assembly passed a bill today to abolish the death penalty, and Gov. Jon Corzine says he'll sign it into law within a week, the AP reports. Proponents of the bill, mainly Democrats, say the death penalty costs more than life imprisonment and can claim innocent victims; Republicans...

NJ Closer to Banning Death Penalty
NJ Closer to Banning Death Penalty
Dec 10, 2007 5:51 PM CST

NJ Closer to Banning Death Penalty

Senators pass bill to nix it, and governor has vowed to sign

(Newser) - New Jersey senators nudged the state closer to a likely ban on capital punishment today, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. They passed a bill to nix the penalty by 21-16, sending it to expected approval in the assembly Thursday and signing by Governor Jon Corzine. New Jersey would become the first...

Jury Convicts Chessboard Killer
Jury Convicts Chessboard Killer
Oct 24, 2007 1:42 PM CDT

Jury Convicts Chessboard Killer

Russia's Alexander Pichushkin claims to have killed 61

(Newser) - A Russian jury today convicted the so-called Chessboard Killer, who terrorized a Moscow park for 14 years, on 48 counts of murder. Alexander Pichushkin claims to have killed 61, placing a coin on a chessboard square for each victim. But although many would like to see the country's most infamous...

Report Details Botched US Executions

Amnesty: Injection doesn't yield painless death as advertised

(Newser) - Despite advocates' claims, lethal injection isn’t humane or painless, and it should be stopped in the US, Amnesty International asserts in a new report. Since the practice was instituted in 37 states in 2000, at least nine lethal injections have been bungled, including one in which the condemned took...

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...

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...

China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Czar
China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Czar
Jul 10, 2007 11:44 AM CDT

China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Czar

Regulator convicted of taking bribes to compromise food safety

(Newser) - China carried out a swift death sentence against the former head of its food and drug administration today, in an apparent reaction to concerns about the safety of its exports. Zheng Xiaoyu was killed just over 2 weeks after the supreme court rejected his appeal on a May conviction for...

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...

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...

China Sentences Ex-Drug Chief to Death

Bribery conviction signals pharmaceutical industry crackdown

(Newser) - China's former top food and drug watchdog was sentenced to death today after being convicted of corruption and dereliction of duty. In the midst of an international uproar over food and pharmaceutical standards, the government found that Zheng Xiaoyu, 63, who was forced out in 2005, accepted more than $850,...

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.

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