death sentence

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Attempt of 'Black Widow' to Claim Dementia Goes South

Japan's Supreme Court upholds death sentence for Chisako Kakehi, who murdered 3

(Newser) - For nearly four years, Chisako Kakehi's legal team has been pushing back on her 2017 death sentence, arguing that the 74-year-old woman Japan knows as the "Black Widow" has dementia, rendering her incapable of understanding anything that's going on around her, including her own criminal trial. Those...

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...

Roof's Lawyers: Defense 'Breakdown' Merits Death Sentence Nix

Arguments begun Tuesday to overturn SC killer's conviction

(Newser) - Before white supremacist Dylann Roof was sentenced to death for killing nine Black parishioners at a church in Charleston, SC, he told jurors to "forget" what his lawyers had said about him being mentally ill. Now, the first person sentenced to death for a federal hate crime is asking...

20 Years Later, Killer Apologizes to Victim's Family

Adam Davis was 19 when he conspired with other teens to kill his girlfriend's mother

(Newser) - A man convicted of murder and sentenced to death two decades ago has apologized to his victim’s family, reports the Tampa Bay Times . Adam Davis was in court Monday for a short hearing in which his sentence was changed to life in prison. Davis was convicted in the...

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...

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...

&#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"...

Chinese Kindergarten Teacher to Die for Her School Crime

Wang Yun laced bowls of porridge with sodium nitrite

(Newser) - A former kindergarten teacher in China "should be punished severely in accordance with the law," said a Henan province court ruling Monday, per CNN , and the punishment it doled out is the severest of all: death. Wang Yun killed one child and sickened two dozen others by adding...

Feds Execute Man Who Thought He Killed 'Tinkerbell'

That was the name William LeCroy used for a former sitter who he thought put a hex on him

(Newser) - The US government on Tuesday executed a former soldier who said an obsession with witchcraft led him to kill a Georgia nurse he believed had put a spell on him. William Emmett LeCroy, 50, was pronounced dead at 9:06pm EDT after receiving a lethal injection at the same US...

China Sentences 4th Canadian to Death

Move seen as retaliation for arrest of Huawei exec

(Newser) - China has sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of tech giant Huawei. Ye Jianhui was sentenced Friday by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong,...

Boston Marathon Bomber Has Death Sentence Overturned

New penalty-phase trial is ordered

(Newser) - A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new penalty-phase trial, finding that the judge who oversaw the case didn't sufficiently...

First Federal Execution in 17 Years Is Delayed Again

Judge says legal issues haven't been resolved

(Newser) - A US district judge on Monday ordered a new delay in federal executions, hours before the first lethal injection was scheduled to be carried out at a federal prison in Indiana, per the AP . The administration is certain to ask a higher court to allow the executions to move forward....

Iran to Execute Man Who Spied on Soleimani

Conviction is not related to Iranian general's killing in January

(Newser) - An Iranian man who provided information on Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani to US and Israeli intelligence has been sentenced to die, according to Iran's judiciary. A spokesperson described Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd as a spy for both the CIA and Mossad at a Tuesday news conference, reports Reuters . Gholamhossein Esmaili...

Man Who Killed 8 Gets 4 Death Sentences

Willie Godbolt blamed devil for Mississippi murders

(Newser) - A Mississippi man was given four death sentences by a jury on Thursday, hours after he spoke in court and blamed the devil for his actions the night eight people were shot to death . Willie Cory Godbolt, 37, was convicted Tuesday of the May 2017 slayings of eight people, reports...

DNA Will Prove If State Executed an Innocent Man

Ledell Lee maintained his innocence until he was put to death in 2017

(Newser) - Ledell Lee was executed in Arkansas in 2017 , despite legal challenges requesting more DNA testing using modern technology; the state denied those requests. Lee never stopped insisting he was innocent of the 1993 murder of Debra Reese, and now Slate reports that his case "could result in DNA evidence...

Pakistan Sentences Former Ruler to Death

But Pervez Musharraf has been out of the country for years

(Newser) - A Pakistani court on Tuesday sentenced the country's former military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to death in a treason case related to the state of emergency he imposed in 2007 while in power, officials said. It's the first time in Pakistan's history that a former army chief...

Inmate Uses Last Words to Forgive Victim's Family

Donnivan Schaeffer's parents say they weren't expecting an apology anyway

(Newser) - There was no apology given nor remorse shown before Charles Rhines was put to death in South Dakota Monday night for murdering Donnivan Schaeffer in 1992—but with his last words, Rhines did "forgive" Schaeffer's family, the Rapid City Journal reports. "Ed and Peggy Schaeffer, I forgive...

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