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October 12, 2008 11:02:23 PM CDT

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Stories related to: capital punishment

Stories

Stories 1 - 20 of 42

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  • September 2008

    • Inmate Too Fat to Execute: Just Shoot Me

      CNN  |  Sep 17, 08 12:54 PM CDT

      Inmate Too Fat to Execute: Just Shoot Me

      (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 my veins,” Cooey told CNN. “If it would make people happy, shoot me in the head with a .45. Do it legally.” More »

      Tags

      obesity  • death penalty  • capital punishment  • Richard Wade Cooey III

    • Con Wins Death Stay in Judge Affair Appeal

      ABC News  |  Sep 10, 08 11:48 AM CDT

      Con Wins Death Stay in Judge Affair Appeal

      (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 a problem with jury instructions during his trial for murder and robbery. More »

      Tags

      Texas  • affair  • capital punishment  • judge  • execution  • death row  • prosecutor  • Texas capital punishment

    • Death Row Con Wins Hearing Over Courtroom Hanky Panky

      ABC News  |  Sep 5, 08 7:33 AM CDT

      Death Row Con Wins Hearing Over Courtroom Hanky Panky

      (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 saying the affair was "common knowledge" at the time. More »

      Tags

      Texas  • affair  • capital punishment  • judge  • execution  • death row  • prosecutor

  • July 2008

    • Army Can Execute Death-Row Soldier, Bush Rules

      Associated Press  |  Jul 28, 08 7:20 PM CDT

      Army Can Execute Death-Row Soldier, Bush Rules

      (AP) - 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 with a spree of four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, NC, area over eight months in the late 1980s while stationed at Fort Bragg. More »

      Tags

      George W. Bush  • capital punishment  • military law  • Dwight Eisenhower

  • June 2008

    • Obama Backs Death Penalty for Child Rapists

      Associated Press  |  Jun 26, 08 6:10 AM CDT

      Obama Backs Death Penalty for Child Rapists

      (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 negates similar laws in five other states. More »

      Tags

      Barack Obama  • John McCain  • US Supreme Court  • Louisiana  • death penalty  • capital punishment  • child rape

    • No Crying in the Courtroom!

      Time  |  Jun 25, 08 11:32 AM CDT

      No Crying in the Courtroom!

      (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 jury’s emotions by crying.” A defense attorney for the trial calls the motion “a little ridiculous.” More »

      Tags

      capital punishment  • lawyer  • prosecutors  • trial lawyers  • crying

  • May 2008

    • Aussie Pardoned 86 Years After Execution

      Reuters  |  May 27, 08 6:27 AM CDT

      Aussie Pardoned 86 Years After Execution

      (Newser) - An Australian man hanged for raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl has been pardoned 86 years after his execution, Reuters reports. Hairs found in his bed that were said to belong to the victim weren’t hers, recent tests showed. The attorney general said the case was a warning against the use of the death penalty, which hasn't been imposed in Australia since 1967. More »

      Tags

      murder  • Australia  • death penalty  • capital punishment  • execution  • pardon  • child rape  • Melbourne  • hanging

    • McCain Veers Right on Supreme Court

      New Yorker  |  May 20, 08 1:10 PM CDT

      McCain Veers Right on Supreme Court

      (Newser) - If you aren’t a conservative activist, John McCain didn’t have you in mind when he recently laid out his position on judicial appointments: The speech was “a dog whistle for the right,” Jeffrey Toobin writes in the New Yorker , in a piece that decodes references meant to assure that he’d continue—“and perhaps even accelerate”—President Bush’s Supreme Court revolution. He denounced those who legislate from the bench, but then took close listeners even deeper. More »

      Tags

      John McCain  • US Supreme Court  • privacy  • capital punishment  • abortion rights  • conservative base

    • Executions Are Back—So Are Fairness Issues

      New York Times  |  May 7, 08 9:05 AM CDT

      Executions Are Back—So Are Fairness Issues

      (Newser) - The problem with the death penalty isn’t the method of execution, it’s “poor people getting lousy lawyers,”  the director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project tells the New York Times . Now that the Supreme Court has green-lighted lethal injection and Georgia has resumed executions, opponents are pointing at shoddy public defense systems they say aren’t equipped to mount an adequate capital defense. More »

      Tags

      death penalty  • North Carolina  • capital punishment  • lawyer  • public defender

    • Ga. Executes Prisoner After Appeal Denied

      Atlanta Journal-Constitution  |  May 6, 08 7:29 PM CDT

      Ga. Executes Prisoner After Appeal Denied

      (Newser) - Georgia executed William Earl Lynd by lethal injection tonight, the first such execution in the nation since the Supreme Court cleared the way for them to resume, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Lynd kidnapped and murdered his girlfriend in 1988. The death penalty had been on hold across the US for eight months before the Supreme Court ruled that lethal injection did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment. More »

      Tags

      capital punishment  • lethal injection

    • Ga. Plans First Execution Since Court Ruling

      Atlanta Journal-Constitution  |  May 5, 08 5:47 PM CDT

      Ga. Plans First Execution Since Court Ruling

      (Newser) - A Georgia killer is slated to be the first US inmate to die by lethal injection since the Supreme Court ruled the method constitutional last month, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The state denied William Earl Lynd clemency today and plans to execute him tomorrow for killing his girlfriend and another woman 20 years ago. More »

      Tags

      Georgia  • US Supreme Court  • death penalty  • capital punishment  • lethal injection

    • Execution Ban Lifted, States Ready the Death Chambers

      New York Times  |  May 3, 08 9:03 AM CDT

      Execution Ban Lifted, States Ready the Death Chambers

      (Newser) - States are getting ready to catch up on executions now that a Supreme Court moratorium has been lifted, the New York Times reports. At least 14 executions have been scheduled in six states in coming months. "The Supreme Court has essentially blessed their way of doing things," a legal expert said. "They’re back from vacation and ready to go to work."  More »

      Tags

      US Supreme Court  • death penalty  • capital punishment  • lethal injection  • execution

  • April 2008