death row

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Alabama Execution Cancelled at Last Minute
After a Brief Reprieve,
Alabama Inmate Executed
UPDATED
Oct 22, 2021 1:40 AM CDT

After a Brief Reprieve, Alabama Inmate Executed

Willie B. Smith III was convicted of killing Sharma Ruth Johnson

(Newser) - Update: An Alabama man who avoided execution in February was put to death Thursday for the 1991 killing of a woman who was abducted during a robbery and then shot in a cemetery. Willie B. Smith III, 52, received a lethal injection at a prison in southwest Alabama, the AP...

Death Row Inmate Suing for a Final Touch Gets Reprieve

Supreme Court blocks John Henry Ramirez's execution

(Newser) - A Texas death row inmate won a reprieve Wednesday evening from execution for killing a convenience store worker during a 2004 robbery that garnered $1.25 after claiming the state was violating his religious freedom by not letting his pastor lay hands on him at the time of his lethal...

He Has Eaten 3 Last Meals, Is Fighting to Avoid No. 4

'Rolling Stone' looks at the case of Richard Glossip in Oklahoma

(Newser) - How close has Richard Glossip come to execution? He has eaten the same "last meal" three different times, writes Brenna Ehrlich at Rolling Stone . For the record: fish and chips, a Baconator sandwich from Wendy's, pizza, and a strawberry shake. Each time, Glossip has won a late stay...

This Death Row Inmate Is Suing for a Final Touch

John Henry Ramirez wants his pastor to lay hands on him at the moment of death

(Newser) - John Henry Ramirez is set to die on Wednesday, and one federal lawsuit filed in August in his case has nothing to do with stopping the execution. Rather, the 37-year-old Texan is seeking to have his pastor lay his hands on him as he is put to death. "It...

After Wave of 13 Federal Executions, a Halt

Department of Justice reviewing policies

(Newser) - After the Trump administration restarted federal executions following a 17-year hiatus, Donald Trump oversaw 13 executions —more than any US president since the 1800s, Reuters reports. (Those executions also included the first woman put to death by the federal government in almost seven decades.) On Thursday, US Attorney...

Inmate's Last Words: 'I Truly Regret Killing My Family'

Texas executes John Hummel, who killed wife, daughter, and father-in-law

(Newser) - A Texas inmate was executed Wednesday evening for an attack that killed his pregnant wife, 5-year-old daughter, and father-in-law more than a decade ago. John Hummel received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the December 2009 killings, per the AP . Authorities say Hummel stabbed his wife,...

Longest Serving Death Row Inmate Is Resentenced

Raymond Riles is now serving a life sentence

(Newser) - Raymond Riles has been on death row for more than 45 years—longer than anyone else in the US. But no longer: On Wednesday, the 71-year-old Texas man was resentenced to life in prison, CBS DFW reports. Riles, who shot and killed used car dealer John Thomas Henry at a...

South Carolina Judge Won't Block 2 Controversial Executions

They're scheduled for June 18 and June 25

(Newser) - A South Carolina judge on Tuesday refused to block two executions set for later this month as she considers a lawsuit over the state’s new capital punishment law, which effectively forces condemned prisoners to choose to die by either the electric chair or firing squad. State Circuit Judge Jocelyn...

Arizona&#39;s Gas Chamber &#39;Ready&#39; for Inmates
Arizona Readies
Its Gas Chamber
Jun 2, 2021 7:26 AM CDT

Arizona Readies Its Gas Chamber

State has also procured ingredients for lethal gas used by Nazis at Auschwitz

(Newser) - Arizona officials are procuring ingredients for the lethal gas used at Nazi extermination camps, including Auschwitz, in the hope of using it on death row inmates. Arizona's Department of Corrections has spent more than $2,000 on ingredients to make the lethal hydrogen cyanide gas and has also refurbished...

California to Review Infamous Murder Case

Death row inmate Kevin Cooper has long maintained in his innocence in 1983 slayings of 4 people

(Newser) - A wish has been granted to death row inmate Kevin Cooper, a Black man convicted of quadruple murders in 1983. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday calling for an independent investigation into the stabbing deaths of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and 11-year-old neighbor...

Brothers Who Were on Death Row Awarded $75M

Henry McCollum, Leon Brown were wrongfully convicted in 1983 rape and murder of girl

(Newser) - A jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case has awarded $75 million to two Black, intellectually disabled half brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. The eight-person jury on Friday decided Henry McCollum and Leon...

Convicted Killer Wants Firing Squad Considered

Nevada inmate's lawyers say 3-drug combo state wants to use is cruel and unusual

(Newser) - A convicted killer who is fighting a possible June execution date that would make him the first person put to death in Nevada in 15 years is calling for the state to consider the firing squad as an option, a rare method in the United States. Attorneys for Zane Michael...

Serial Killer on Death Row for Murdering Family Dies

Victims of Joseph Edward Duncan, 58, who'd been diagnosed with brain cancer, included 2 boys

(Newser) - A convicted serial killer whose victims included two young boys died Sunday at a hospital in Indiana, authorities said. Joseph Edward Duncan died at the medical center near the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, where he was on death row, according to a statement from prosecutors in Riverside County,...

AP: Executioners' Accounts Didn't Sync With What We Saw

It weighs in on the 13 federal executions it witnessed as a member of the media

(Newser) - Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys "beds" and final breaths "snores." But those tranquil accounts are at odds with reports by the AP and...

Relief in Cleveland: 'We Can Go On Because He's Dead'

Victims' families relieved after serial killer, rapist Anthony Sowell dies in prison hospital

(Newser) - A serial killer and rapist who terrorized Cleveland before the bodies of 11 women were found on his property has died on death row. "Cleveland strangler" Anthony Sowell was moved Jan. 21 from Ohio's Chillicothe Correctional Institute to the end-of-life care unit at the Franklin Medical Center in...

Final Federal Execution Under Trump the 13th Since July
Execution Ends
'Unprecedented
Run'
Jan 16, 2021 5:30 AM CST

Execution Ends 'Unprecedented Run'

Dustin Higgs was the last federal inmate put to death under the Trump administration

(Newser) - The Trump administration early Saturday carried out its 13th federal execution since July, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden—an opponent of the federal death penalty. Dustin Higgs, convicted of ordering the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge...

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,"...

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