capital punishment

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Death Row Inmate Has Bizarre Take on Execution

Judge overrules Steven Bixby, who believes only treason is punishable by death

(Newser) - A South Carolina judge has ruled that Steven Bixby, a death row inmate convicted of killing two law enforcement officers in 2003, is mentally fit to be executed, despite his unconventional legal and religious beliefs. Judge R. Scott Sprouse's decision opens the way for Bixby, 58, to receive...

State May Be First to Mainly Use Firing Squads in Executions

Idaho is aiming for this method, using remote-control system

(Newser) - Idaho is preparing to make firing squads its main execution method, a first for any US state, as it works to build a new death chamber south of Boise, to be ready by next summer. Under a new state law, firing squad executions will take priority starting in July...

Utah: Prisoner With Dementia Won't Face Firing Squad

Lawyers argue Ralph Leroy Menzies can't understand why he's facing execution

(Newser) - The impending execution of a man by firing squad in Utah was blocked by the state's Supreme Court on Friday after his attorneys argued he should be spared because he has dementia. As the AP reports, Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed Friday for abducting and...

On Alabama's Agenda: a Nitrogen Gas Execution

Gov. Kay Ivey has set an execution date of Oct. 23 for Anthony Boyd

(Newser) - Alabama has scheduled an October execution by nitrogen gas for an inmate who has an ongoing lawsuit challenging the new method as unconstitutionally cruel. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday set an Oct. 23 execution date for Anthony Boyd. Boyd, 53, is one of four men convicted in the 1993...

Tennessee Man Charged With Killing 4 Faces Death Penalty

Austin Robert Drummond ordered held without bond after first hearing

(Newser) - Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a Tennessee man charged with killing the parents, grandmother, and uncle of an infant found abandoned in a home's front yard. Austin Robert Drummond, 28, appeared Thursday via a video feed from jail before a judge in Tiptonville, two days after...

Inmate's Path to Execution Is Unusually Complicated
Inmate Loses a Battle in
Complicated Execution Fight
the rundown
Jul 31, 2025 2:27 PM CDT

Inmate Loses a Battle in Complicated Execution Fight

There's a legal dispute in Tennessee over Byron Black's defibrillator and his intellectual ability

(Newser) - As of now, a 68-year-old death row inmate is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, but the case of Byron Black is unusually complicated one and could take more twists and turns before then. The main issue involving Black, who murdered his girlfriend and her two young daughters in 1988,...

Texas Death Row Lets Its Inmates Mingle

Program at Livingston's Polunsky Unit breaks the isolation of solitary, lets some share meals, chats

(Newser) - For the first time in decades, Texas death row inmates are experiencing a change in daily life: no handcuffs, no solitary, and—for a select group—a taste of community. After more than 25 years of near-total isolation sparked by a notorious 1998 escape, the Polunsky Unit in Livingston...

Man With Dementia Set for Execution by Firing Squad

Lawyers for Ralph Leroy Menzies file appeal as judge sets execution date for Sept. 5

(Newser) - A Utah judge on Wednesday set an execution date for a man with dementia who has been on death row for 37 years, even as his lawyers file appeals and argue his condition is worsening. Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, is to be executed Sept. 5 for abducting and killing Utah...

Lawsuit: Firing Squad 'Intended to Miss'

Lawyers for condemned SC inmate say shots were meant to cause 'extreme suffering'

(Newser) - An inmate scheduled to die by lethal injection in South Carolina on Friday challenged the state's execution methods in a lawsuit, arguing that lethal injection, the electric chair, and the firing squad are all cruel and unusual punishments. Lawyers for Steven Stanko claimed that in the April firing squad...

Alabama Carries Out Its 5th Nitrogen Gas Execution

Gregory Hunt put to death for woman's 1988 murder

(Newser) - An Alabama man convicted of killing a woman in 1988 was put to death Tuesday evening in the nation's sixth execution by nitrogen gas, the AP reports. Gregory Hunt, 65, was pronounced dead at 6:26pm at a south Alabama prison, authorities said, one of four executions scheduled this...

US Execution Pace Is Fastest in a Decade

There may be 4 more taking place this week

(Newser) - It's another busy week in an unusually busy year for US executions: Four more are scheduled—in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Oklahoma, reports the Guardian . The latter has been blocked by a judge temporarily, though a challenge by the state attorney general could put it back on...

Lawyers Hit Indiana Execution as 'Finality Over Fairness'

State puts cop killer Benjamin Ritchie to death by lethal injection, in state's 2nd execution since 2009

(Newser) - In a rare move for Indiana, the state has executed Benjamin Ritchie, marking only its second use of the death penalty since 2009. Ritchie, 45, was executed by lethal injection early Tuesday at Indiana State Prison, after being convicted in 2002 for the 2000 shooting death of Beech Grove...

Florida Executes Man Who Was Eyed in OJ Simpson Case

Glen Rogers was convicted of 1995 murder; LAPD says he didn't kill OJ's ex, her friend

(Newser) - A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the OJ Simpson double-murder case was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman in a Tampa motel room. Glen Rogers, 62, was pronounced dead at 6:16pm after receiving an injection at Florida State Prison near...

Pathologist: SC Botched Firing Squad Execution

Physician says Mikal Mahdi was in excruciating pain for as long as a minute

(Newser) - A man who was put to death last month in South Carolina's second firing squad execution was conscious and likely in extreme pain for as long as a minute after the bullets, meant to quickly stop his heart, struck him lower than expected, according to a pathologist hired by...

State's Longest Death-Row Inmate Gets an Execution Date

Richard Jordan, 78, will be put to death on June 25, after nearly 50 years on Mississippi's death row

(Newser) - Mississippi's Supreme Court has set June 25 as the execution date for Richard Gerald Jordan, the state's longest-serving death row inmate, condemned for the 1976 kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter in Harrison County. Jordan, 78, has contested his sentence for decades, but his most recent appeal...

Gulf War Vet Executed for Killing Girlfriend, Her 3 Kids

Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, denied carrying out 1998 shotgun murders in Florida

(Newser) - An Army combat veteran whose Gulf War experience triggered severe mental problems was executed Thursday evening in Florida for the 1998 shotgun slayings of his girlfriend and her three young children , the AP reports. Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, was pronounced dead at 8:15pm following a lethal injection at Florida State...

'I Just Shot My Family': Gulf War Vet Faces Execution

Jeffrey Hutchinson scheduled to receive lethal injection in Florida on Thursday

(Newser) - A Gulf War veteran who maintains his innocence faces execution Thursday in Florida for the 1998 killings of his girlfriend and her three children. Details:
  • The state is scheduled to execute Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, convicted of fatally shooting girlfriend Renee Flaherty, 32, and her three children, ages 4 through
...

Alabama Killer Apologizes as He's Put to Death

Tracy Lynn Brown, 44, was murdered by James Osgood and girlfriend

(Newser) - An Alabama man who dropped his appeals and said he deserved to die for the rape and murder of a woman in 2010 was put to death Thursday evening. James Osgood, 55, was pronounced dead following an injection at a south Alabama prison, authorities said. A jury in 2014 convicted...

With Execution Nigh, Inmate Says He Welcomes Death

James Osgood dropped all his legal appeals last summer

(Newser) - A man on Alabama's death row wants his execution to go forward Thursday, saying he believes in an "eye for an eye." "The reason I dropped my appeals is I am guilty of murder," James Osgood told the AP in a telephone interview from prison....

Luigi Mangione Will Face the Death Penalty

Pam Bondi calls UnitedHealthcare CEO's murder a 'premeditated, cold-blooded assassination'

(Newser) - US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday she has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4. Mangione, 26, faces separate federal and state murder charges for the killing. The...

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