death penalty

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Virginia to Become First Southern State to End Executions

Repeal bill is headed to governor's desk

(Newser) - State lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in Virginia, a dramatic turnaround for a state that has executed more people in its history than any other. The legislation repealing the death penalty now heads to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who has said he...

Alabama Wants to Carry Out 2021's First State Execution

Appeals court says pastor needs to be allowed in execution chamber

(Newser) - Alabama is seeking to carry out what would be the first execution by a state in 2021, that of a 51-year-old inmate convicted of the shotgun slaying of a police detective's sister decades ago. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay blocking the Thursday night execution,...

12th Federal Execution Under Trump Takes Place

Corey Johnson put to death in Indiana Thursday night

(Newser) - The US government executed a drug trafficker Thursday for his involvement in a series of slayings in Virginia’s capital city in 1992, despite claims by his lawyers that the lethal injection would cause excruciating pain due to lung damage from his recent COVID-19 infection. Corey Johnson's lawyers have...

Woman Executed by the US for the First Time Since 1953

After much legal back-and-forth, Supreme Court clears way for Lisa Montgomery's execution

(Newser) - After hours of legal back-and-forth, Lisa Montgomery was executed early Wednesday at a federal prison complex in Indiana. The Kansas 52-year-old is the first female put to death in the US since 1953, the AP reports. An appeals court had granted a stay of execution for Montgomery on Tuesday, but...

First Execution of a US Woman in 67 Years Halted

Judge grants stay of execution for Lisa Montgomery

(Newser) - A judge has granted a stay in what was slated to be the US government's first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades—a Kansas woman who killed an expectant mother in Missouri, cut the baby from her womb, and passed off the newborn as her own,...

Attorneys for Woman Set to Be Executed Ask Trump to Intervene

Commute Lisa Montgomery's sentence, her lawyers ask POTUS

(Newser) - The only woman on federal death row is set to be executed Tuesday—but her lawyers are hoping the president will intervene. Lisa Montgomery's defense team filed a petition for clemency Tuesday, USA Today reports. "We're asking now that President Trump to please hear our plea,"...

Bad News for Only Woman on Federal Death Row

Lisa Montgomery could now be executed before Joe Biden takes office

(Newser) - A federal appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, the AP reports. The ruling, handed down Friday by a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, concluded...

Good News for Only Woman on Death Row

Judge rules Lisa Montgomery's execution was set illegally, might get pushed to Biden administration

(Newser) - A federal judge said the Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of the only woman on federal death row, potentially setting up the Trump administration to schedule the execution after president-elect Joe Biden takes office. US District Court Judge Randolph Moss also vacated an order from the director of the...

Dustin Higgs Asks Trump Not to Put Him to Death

His lawyers call the sentencing 'arbitrary and inequitable'

(Newser) - A federal death row inmate who is due to die on Jan. 15 has petitioned President Trump for clemency. The Guardian explains the case Dustin Higgs is trying to make: Essentially that it was "arbitrary and inequitable" to sentence the man who murdered three woman who had been abducted...

One of My &#39;Best Students&#39; Was Sentenced to Die
One of My 'Best Students'
Was Sentenced to Die
OPINION
Dec 15, 2020 11:00 AM CST

One of My 'Best Students' Was Sentenced to Die

'Understanding our own humanity is a lifelong project,' Jennifer Lackey writes

(Newser) - "The death penalty is purportedly reserved for the 'worst of the worst' or those with 'irretrievably depraved characters.' But this is based on a myth." That's according to Jennifer Lackey, founder and director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program. It was through the program...

&#39;Twitter Killer&#39; Hears His Fate
'Twitter Killer' Hears His Fate
Dec 15, 2020 6:40 AM CST

'Twitter Killer' Hears His Fate

Takahiro Shiraishi gets death after pleading guilty to murdering, dismembering 9 in Japan

(Newser) - The "Twitter Killer" of Japan has heard his fate, and he didn't react. Takahiro Shiraishi received the death penalty Tuesday after pleading guilty in September for the murder and dismemberment of nine people, and the judge who handed down the sentence had to ask if the "stone-faced"...

&#39;Brandon&#39;s Execution Is a Stain&#39;
'Brandon's Execution Is a Stain'
Dec 11, 2020 6:39 AM CST

'Brandon's Execution Is a Stain'

Brandon Bernard put to death in Indiana despite outcry over his case

(Newser) - For the ninth time this year, a federal execution has been carried out. Brandon Bernard was put to death in Indiana Thursday despite celebrities and politicians intervening on his behalf. After the Supreme Court denied a request to delay the execution for two weeks and President Trump did not act...

DOJ to Allow for Federal Execution by Firing Squad

Change is one of several to come before Trump's term is up

(Newser) - Death by firing squad could be the fate of federal death row inmates in the US under a new rule from the Justice Department. For decades, federal executions have been carried out by lethal injection. But a new rule to be published Friday in the Federal Register, and take effect...

Her Lawyers Got COVID. Now an Execution Reprieve

Federal judge orders Lisa Montgomery not be put to death before 2021

(Newser) - Lisa Montgomery is getting a bit of a break. Montgomery was set to be executed on Dec. 8 in Terre Haute, Ind., which would make her the first woman put to death by the federal government in nearly seven decades. But two of her attorneys last week requested a delay...

Feds Execute Man Who Buried Texas Teen Alive

Orlando Hall is 8th federal inmate executed this year

(Newser) - Orlando Hall got stiffed on a drug deal and went to a Texas apartment looking for the two brothers who took his money. They weren't home, but their 16-year-old sister was. Late Thursday, Hall was put to death for abducting and killing the teenager, Lisa Rene. His was the...

Feds Plan 3 Executions During Transition Period

They will be the last for at least 4 years

(Newser) - The Justice Department plans to go ahead with three executions during the presidential transition period, including one scheduled for Thursday, despite President-elect Joe Biden's opposition to the death penalty. A federal appeals court cleared the way Wednesday for the Thursday execution of 49-year-old Orlando Hall, who raped and murdered...

Bangladesh's Death Penalty for Rape Isn't Enough: Advocates

Rights groups say system doesn't support victims or hold rapists accountable

(Newser) - From now on, rapists could face the death penalty in Bangladesh. The government is making the change in the face of public outrage over a series of well-publicized attacks on women, the New York Times reports, though human rights groups said the change in the law won't solve the...

Death Row Inmate's Last Words: 'I'm Ready, Father'

Christopher Vialva is first Black inmate put to death since federal executions resumed this year

(Newser) - A man who killed a religious couple visiting Texas from Iowa was executed Thursday, the first Black inmate put to death as part of the Trump administration's resumption of federal executions after a nearly 20-year pause. Christopher Vialva, 40, was pronounced dead shortly before 7pm ET after receiving a...

They Were Put to Death. There Was Something Off With Their Lungs

NPR looked at 216 death-row inmate autopsies

(Newser) - It's impossible to ask a death row inmate whether they're suffering as they are being put to death by lethal injection. The typical three-drug cocktail first anesthetizes them (rendering them unconscious) and then paralyzes them before stopping their heart. But it turns out their bodies can tell us....

This Man Will Die Tonight Against a Government's Wishes

The Navajo Nation has been opposed to the death penalty for Lezmond Mitchell from the start

(Newser) - After a 17-year pause, federal executions resumed this summer, with three men put to death. A fourth man on federal death row is slated to experience the same fate tonight in Terre Haute, Ind., but that fate is one a government—the Navajo government—has vehemently opposed. That's because...

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