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NEWS ABOUT: death penalty

Mike Huckabee: Death to the Leakers!

Huck joins conservative chorus

(Newser) - Count Mike Huckabee among those who think sending info to WikiLeaks is a hangin’ offense. “Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.” Huckabee opined at a book signing yesterday, according to Politics... More »

UK Blocks Export of Popular Execution Drug to US

Thiopental sodium can't be exported for use in executions

(Newser) - Soon, the US will no longer be able to execute criminals using thiopental sodium from the UK. The UK government will issue an order requiring suppliers of the anesthetic to obtain a license before exporting to the US—and if there is a risk it will be used in executions,... More »

Justice Stevens Explains Shift on Death Penalty

Former supporter cites racism, politics, judicial activism

(Newser) - Former Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens is making clear for the first time why he switched course on the death penalty in 2008, calling it unconstitutional, the New York Times reports. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Stevens, who supported capital punishment in 1976, reveals his revised... More »

Somali Militants Execute Teens

The two boys were accused of molestation, spying, respectively

(AP) - Militants from Somalia's most feared insurgent group used a firing squad to execute two teenagers in public yesterday, say witnesses and officials. The executions took place in front of hundreds of people summoned to witness the killings in the capital. The firing squad was made up of five masked men.... More »

Condemned Iranian Woman: 'I'm a Sinner'

Facing death, Ashtiani allegedly confesses on television

(Newser) - Iranian state-run television has broadcast what it says is a statement from Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman whose on-again, off-again death sentence has sparked an international outcry. (For details click here .) “I’m a sinner,” Ashtiani said—or at least, allegedly said. The woman’s face was... More »

DNA Test Suggests Texas Executed Wrong Man

Then-Gov. George Bush's staff failed to tell him Jones was asking for test

(Newser) - A DNA test has cast doubt on the guilt of a man who was executed in Texas 10 years ago—an execution that went forward after then-Gov. George W. Bush's staff failed to tell him the condemned man was asking for genetic analysis of a single strand of hair. That... More »

US in Company of Thugs on Capital Punishment

Op-ed: It should make all of us stop and think

(Newser) - A new Gallup poll about the death penalty may not change anyone's views on the matter, but one aspect of it should at least "give us all pause for thought," writes Steven L. Taylor at Outside the Beltway . It's not the big takeaway stat—that support for capital... More »

State Fights to Use Animal Death Drug on Humans

Because Oklahoma is short on the anesthetic used in lethal injections

(Newser) - Oklahoma is short on the anesthetic it uses to execute prisoners—so it’s asking a court if it can substitute a drug used to euthanize animals. Several states are dealing with a shortage of sodium thiopental, the only anesthetic yet used in lethal injections; its only manufacturer has shut... More »

Hayes Sentenced to Death for Grisly Triple Murder

Conn. man convicted in fatal home invasion

(AP) - A Connecticut man was condemned to death today for a night of terror inside a suburban home in which Jennifer Hawke-Petit was strangled and her two daughters tied to their beds, doused in gasoline, and left to die in a fire. Jurors in New Haven Superior Court voted unanimously to... More »

Arizona Executes Man Using Unapproved Drug

Shortage of sodium thiopental could be a big problem

(Newser) - What to do when faced with a nationwide shortage of a lethal injection drug? In Arizona's case, take the slightly sketchy step of buying it from somewhere else. The state last night executed Jeffrey Landrigan for a 1989 murder in the state's first execution since 2007—using sodium thiopental it... More »

Debate Over Killer's Fate Seeps Into Conn. Races

Death penalty becomes central issue after home invasion conviction

(Newser) - One of the most horrific crimes in Connecticut's history may weigh on the state's elections. Stephen Hayes is awaiting sentencing for the home invasion murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters next week and Republican candidates for Senate and governor have been making the death penalty a central issue.... More »

Murderer's Last Plea: It's Too Expensive to Kill Me

Conn. killer hopes to avoid execution

(Newser) - With their client convicted in a ghastly triple murder of a mother and her two young daughters, the lawyers for Steven Hayes have mustered what seems like a grasping-at-straws argument to keep him from being executed: It's too expensive. When the penalty phase of the trial begins, the lawyers will... More »

Ga. Executes Inmate Who Attempted Suicide

Triple murderer dies by lethal injection

(Newser) - A Georgia inmate who tried to kill himself last week was executed by lethal injection last night after the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal for a stay of execution. Brandon Rhode, 31—convicted of the 1998 murders of a trucking company owner, his 11-year-old son, and his 15-year-old daughter—... More »

Boston Mayor: Sorry About Torture Rant

Menino caught on tape saying he'd like to 'slowly torture' killers

(Newser) - Boston Mayor Tom Menino apologized today for an off-the-cuff rant in which he said he’d like to “torture” the three people accused of murdering a deliveryman in Hyde Park. “If I saw these guys in a dark alley, I’d like to have a fight with them,... More »

Supreme Court Refuses to Block Woman's Execution

Two of court's three women vote to intervene

(AP) - A woman convicted of two hired killings is scheduled to die by injection tomorrow and become the first woman put to death in the commonwealth of Virginia in nearly a century, after the US Supreme Court refused to block her execution. Two of the three women on the court, Ruth... More »

Execution Delayed After Inmate's Suicide Attempt

Georgia reschedules death shot for Friday

(Newser) - Georgia officials have delayed the execution of an inmate who tried to take his own life hours before the state was scheduled to take it. Convicted murdered Brandon Rhode slit his wrists and throat before he was due to die by lethal injection yesterday, AP reports. Georgia's Supreme Court granted... More »

Iran on Execution of Va. Woman: US Is a Hypocrite

Case shows double standard in outcry over Ashtiani

(Newser) - For those in New York protesting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies today (like the decision to stone a woman accused of adultery to death), Iran has fired back with the old "You're a hypocrite." Seems Tehran thinks Virginia opting to execute Teresa Lewis, a woman with a low IQ who... More »

Why Don't We Execute Women Who Abort?

They're just as guilty as Teresa Lewis, if you believe pro-life rhetoric

(Newser) - Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell thinks Teresa Lewis deserves to die because she bought guns for the men who killed her husband and stepson, and left the door unlocked so they could get in. Taking a life by proxy, in McDonnell’s book, is murder. “Yet every day thousands of... More »

Iran: We Won't Stone Ashtiani

But hanging is still on the table

(Newser) - Ever-benevolent Iran has decided that it doesn't absolutely have to stone Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to death— again? —but it still might hang her. The Iranian foreign minister announced the suspension of the stoning sentence today, Reuters reports, saying the verdict is "being reviewed" and that a final verdict... More »

Times to Iran Woman: Sorry About Lashing

But blasts Tehran's 'pretext' in punishing Ashtiani

(AP) - As if getting sentenced to death by stoning isn't bad enough: The Times of London is apologizing today to the Iranian woman who got an additional 99 lashes after the newspaper wrongly identified her as a bareheaded woman in a photo. The newspaper previously issued a correction, but today denounced... More »

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