capital punishment

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Washington State Suspends Death Penalty

Gov. Jay Inslee 'not convinced equal justice is being served'

(Newser) - Gov. Jay Inslee today brought the use of the death penalty to a screeching halt in Washington state, declaring a moratorium on a system he says has "too many flaws" and pushing his state to "join a growing national conversation" about capital punishment. "There is too much...

14th Female Executed in US Since 1976

Suzanne Basso was convicted in 1998 torture killing

(Newser) - A woman convicted of torturing and killing a mentally impaired man she lured to Texas with the promise of marriage has been put to death in a rare execution of a female prisoner. Suzanne Basso this evening became only the 14th woman executed in the US since the Supreme Court...

Louisiana Stalls Execution to Study New Drug Cocktail

State wants to use combo that caused slow Ohio death

(Newser) - A last-minute switch of lethal-injection drugs has delayed Louisiana's first execution since 2010. Child killer Christopher Sepulvado was scheduled to die tomorrow but was granted a 90-day stay after the state confirmed it could not obtain the barbiturate pentobarbital, reports the Times-Picayune . The state plans to use a mixture...

Feds Want Death for Tsarnaev
 Feds Want Death for Tsarnaev 
Jan 30, 2014 1:39 PM CST

Feds Want Death for Tsarnaev

US will seek death penalty for alleged Boston bomber

(Newser) - The Justice Department will seek the death penalty in its case against alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Eric Holder announced today. "The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision," the attorney general said in a statement . The decision is not exactly...

Supreme Court Holds Off Execution Over Drug Issue

High court is expected to issue ruling today

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court is expected to rule today on two petitions regarding Missouri death row inmate Herbert Smulls, the Missouri Attorney General's office says. Smulls' execution was temporarily stayed late yesterday with an order from the high court signed by Justice Samuel Alito. It was sent about two-and-a-half...

Lethal Drugs Now Rare, States Eye Old-School Executions

Drug shortage raises talk of firing squads, electrocution

(Newser) - With lethal-injection drugs in short supply and new questions looming about their effectiveness, lawmakers in some death penalty states are considering bringing back relics of a more gruesome past: firing squads, electrocutions, and gas chambers. Most states abandoned those execution methods more than a generation ago, but to some elected...

Daughter Suing Over Dad's Slow Execution

McGuire suffered cruel and unusual punishment: lawyer

(Newser) - An Ohio inmate put to death for murder was tortured by his unusually slow execution , the man's daughter said today as she announced plans to file a lawsuit over her father's death. Dennis McGuire's daughter, Amber, referred to the "agony and terror" of watching her father...

Ohio Rejects Killer&#39;s Organ Donation Offer
Ohio Executes Killer With Untried Drug Combo
UPDATED
Jan 16, 2014 10:43 AM CST

Ohio Executes Killer With Untried Drug Combo

'Prolonged' execution takes 15-plus minutes

(Newser) - Dennis McGuire was put to death today with a two-drug combination previously untested in the US, and at more than 15 minutes, it was one of the longest executions in Ohio since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999. McGuire, whose lawyers had attempted to delay his execution by arguing...

What It Was Like to Execute 62 People

Jerry Givens describes 17 years as a Virginia's executioner

(Newser) - Jerry Givens is on a campaign to end capital punishment, and he comes to the issue with a pretty unique perspective: He worked for Virginia's department of corrections for 25 years, and was its executioner from 1982 to 1999. "When I accepted the job, there was nobody on...

Serial Killer Who Shot Larry Flynt Spared Death
 Larry Flynt Shooter Executed 
UPDATED
Nov 20, 2013 7:08 AM CST

Larry Flynt Shooter Executed

After Supreme Court denies 11th-hour appeal over pentobarbital

(Newser) - After a dizzying 11th-hour back-and-forth, the Supreme Court of the United States this morning denied a stay of execution for a racist serial killer linked to 20 murders; Missouri executed Joseph Franklin shortly thereafter, at 6:17am local time, reports the AP . It marked the state's first execution in...

Boy, 14, to Get New Hearing —69 Years After Execution

SC electrocuted George Stinney 84 days after crime

(Newser) - The youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century will have a new day in court, 69 years after an all-white jury in South Carolina took less than 10 minutes to find him guilty of the murder of two young white girls. George Stinney Jr. was just...

Out of Execution Drug, Ohio Will Try Untested Combo

Lawyers appeal for Death Row inmate set to die in 2 weeks

(Newser) - Another state is looking for alternatives after running out of the execution drug pentobarbital . Ohio says it doesn't have enough of the drug to execute child killer Ronald Phillips next month so it plans to use the untested combination of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone for the...

Iran: 'No Need' to Hang Man a Second Time

Execution survivor may get reprieve

(Newser) - The hangman who botched the execution of a drug smuggler in Iran earlier this month might not get a chance to finish the job after all. The country's justice minister says there is "no need" to re-hang the man, who was pronounced dead by a doctor after 12...

Iran Botches Man's Hanging, Plans a Do-Over

If at first you don't succeed...

(Newser) - On the laundry list of public despair over government's inability to do anything right, "executing criminals" doesn't usually get a mention—particularly in Iran, which is more than a little practiced at capital punishment . But the Guardian presents the case of Alireza, a 37-year-old drug smuggler sentenced...

Florida Executes Man Who Says He Controlled Sun

Court didn't buy insanity argument

(Newser) - “I just want everyone to know that I am the prince of God and I will rise again." Those were the last words of mass killer John Errol Ferguson yesterday and a prime example of why his lawyers say he shouldn't have been executed in the first...

Ohio Convict Found Hanged Days Before Execution

Billy Slagle had been trying to get a new trial, was denied clemency

(Newser) - An Ohio convict sitting on death row was found hanged in his cell this morning, just days before he was to be executed on Wednesday. Billy Slagle, 44, was declared dead shortly after he was found at 5am; he had been convicted in the 1987 fatal stabbing of a Cleveland...

Texas Performs 500th Execution

Kimberley McCarthy first woman executed in 3 years in US

(Newser) - Texas yesterday executed Kimberly McCarthy, marking the state's 500th execution since it brought back the death penalty in 1982. McCarthy, 52, was the first woman to face the death penalty in the US in three years, the AP notes. She was associated with three killings, including the stabbing of...

Texas Set for Record 500th Execution Tonight

Kimberly McCarthy due to be executed today

(Newser) - Kimberly McCarthy is due to be executed in Texas today, and if all goes according to plan, she'll be the state's 500th inmate put to death. The Lone Star State has been responsible for almost 40% of the 1,300-plus executions in the US since 1976, the AP...

NC Scraps Law That Brought Executions to Halt

Gov. Pat McCrory signs repeal of 'Racial Justice Act'

(Newser) - North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has put an end to what he calls a "judicial loophole to avoid the death penalty": On Wednesday he repealed the Racial Justice Act, four years after it was put on the books. The law, passed under a Democratic legislature, allowed Death Row inmates...

Saudi Problem: Not Enough Swordsmen for Executions

Firing squads now an acceptable alternative

(Newser) - The only country in the world that still beheads criminals is facing a shortage of swordsmen, leading Saudi Arabian authorities to rule that using a firing squad is an acceptable alternative to publicly lopping the heads of those convicted of crimes including murder, drug trafficking, and apostasy, the New York ...

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