capital punishment

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Woman's 'Death by Stoning' Sentence Rattles Activists

It's the first such sentence in Sudan in nearly a decade

(Newser) - An October military coup in Sudan may have shifted the movement on women's rights there, and not in a good way. A 20-year-old woman arrested in White Nile state last month and charged with adultery has now heard her fate: death by stoning, the first known sentence like it...

Arrested at 13, He Faced Execution. Now He's Free

Murtaja Qureiris, said to be youngest Saudi prisoner for political protest, reportedly out of prison

(Newser) - Update: Murtaja Qureiris is now a free man. Human rights activists say the 21-year-old, who was arrested in Saudi Arabia at age 13 after being accused of participating in Arab Spring protests three years earlier, has been released from prison, reports CNN . Qureiris, who once faced the death penalty for...

SCOTUS Sides With Inmate Who Asked for Firing Squad

Michael Wade Nance says lethal injection would be unusually painful for him

(Newser) - Update: The Supreme Court has narrowly ruled in favor of a condemned Georgia inmate who has requested death by firing squad because he has a medical condition that would make lethal injection a long and extremely painful process. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that Michael Nance could proceed...

Judge Clears Oklahoma's Drug Cocktail for Executions

Move clears way for more death-row inmates, though an appeal is expected

(Newser) - A federal judge in Oklahoma on Monday ruled the state's three-drug lethal injection method is constitutional, paving the way for the state to request execution dates for more than two dozen death-row inmates who were plaintiffs in the case. Judge Stephen Friot's ruling followed a six-day federal trial...

Arizona Death Row Inmate Won't Die in Gas Chamber

Frank Atwood is now scheduled to be executed by lethal injection

(Newser) - Updated: Arizona death-row inmate Frank Atwood had until 12:01am Friday to select whether he wanted to die via lethal injection or in the state's refurbished gas chamber. He declined to make a choice, so the state's default method—lethal injection—will be used on June 8. It...

Missouri Execution Goes Forward
Carman Deck
Executed in Missouri

Carman Deck Executed in Missouri

It's the country's 5th execution this year

(Newser) - A Missouri man who killed a couple during a robbery at their rural home more than a quarter of a century ago was put to death Tuesday, becoming just the fifth person executed in the United States this year, the AP reports. Carman Deck, 56, died by injection at the...

'Zero to Singapore on This': Disabled Man Is Hanged

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for over a decade

(Newser) - Singapore on Wednesday executed a mentally disabled Malaysian man condemned for a drug offense after a court dismissed a last-minute challenge from his mother and international pleas to spare him. Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for over a decade after he was convicted of trafficking about...

Texas Executes Its Oldest Death Row Inmate

As Tennessee issues temporary reprieve to an inmate there

(Newser) - Texas’ oldest death row inmate was executed Thursday for killing a Houston police officer during a traffic stop nearly 32 years ago. Carl Wayne Buntion, 78, was executed at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the June 1990 fatal shooting of Houston police officer James Irby, a...

Forced to Choose, Inmate Opts for Firing Squad

But Richard Moore is still fighting to avoid execution in South Carolina this month

(Newser) - A South Carolina prisoner has decided to die by firing squad rather than in the electric chair later this month, according to court documents filed Friday. Richard Bernard Moore, 57, is the first state prisoner to face the choice of execution methods after a law went into effect last year...

His Mission: Don't Let 'Those Who Kill Turn Us Into Killers'

New Hampshire Democrat Rep. Renny Cushing dies at 69

(Newser) - "Being a survivor of a homicide victim has a pain for which there aren’t any words," said Robert "Renny" Cushing during a 2019 discussion with the Death Penalty Information Center. Earlier that year, New Hampshire became the 21st state to outlaw capital punishment, after its House...

States Carry Out Year's First 2 Executions

Divided SCOTUS cleared way for Alabama execution of Matthew Reeves

(Newser) - Alabama executed an inmate by lethal injection for a 1996 murder on Thursday after a divided US Supreme Court sided with the state and rejected defense claims the man had an intellectual disability that cost him a chance to choose a less "torturous," yet untried, execution method. Matthew...

After 2-Year Hiatus, Japan Resumes 'Abhorrent' Practice

3 death-row inmates executed amid continued controversy over how death penalty is carried out

(Newser) - For two years, Japan hasn't carried out any executions. That changed Tuesday with the hanging of three death-row inmates, reviving outcry from human rights activists on the controversial way in which the country carries out capital punishment. At a presser, Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa cited the "extremely brutal"...

He Escaped Execution in 2018. 3 Years Later, He's Dead

Doyle Lee Hamm, 64, died of natural causes, with complications from lymphoma, per his lawyer

(Newser) - Update: An Alabama man put on death row for killing a motel clerk in 1987 lived through what his lawyer called a "botched" execution attempt in 2018. A private settlement was reached so that the state wouldn't try to execute Doyle Lee Hamm again, but his reprieve, it...

Man Who Tortured Family for 8 Hours Put to Death

David Neal Cox killed his estranged wife and sexually assaulted her daughter

(Newser) - A man who pleaded guilty to killing his estranged wife and sexually assaulting her young daughter as her mother lay dying was put to death Wednesday evening, becoming the first inmate executed in Mississippi in nine years. David Neal Cox, 50, abandoned all appeals and filed court papers calling himself...

Sister Prejean: Let Inmate Have Final Human Touch

John Henry Ramirez deserves to have pastor present at Texas execution, she writes

(Newser) - Sister Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun made famous by the book and movie Dead Man Walking, is making a public appeal on behalf of a death row inmate in Texas. In a New York Times essay, Prejean argues that the state should grant the request of John Henry Ramirez that...

At Oklahoma Execution, a Rare Occurrence

John Marion Grant vomited, convulsed as he was being put to death

(Newser) - Oklahoma administered the death penalty Thursday on a man who convulsed and vomited as he was executed for the 1998 slaying of a prison cafeteria worker, ending a six-year execution moratorium brought on by concerns over its execution methods, the AP reports. John Marion Grant, 60, who was strapped to...

2 Oklahoma Death Row Inmates Get Reprieve

Federal appeals court granted stays of execution Wednesday

(Newser) - A federal appeals court granted stays of execution on Wednesday for two Oklahoma inmates who were scheduled to receive lethal injections in the coming weeks, the AP reports. A three-member panel of the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stays for death row inmates John Marion Grant, who...

Convicted Arsonists Are Executed En Masse in Syria

Human rights activists 'shocked' that 24 were put to death for 2020 wildfires

(Newser) - Wildfires that swept through Syria last year were intentionally lit, and now 24 individuals linked to setting them have been executed, per the country's Ministry of Justice. Al Jazeera notes that while executions aren't uncommon in Syria, so many being killed at once is unusual. It's not...

Alabama Execution Cancelled at Last Minute
After a Brief Reprieve,
Alabama Inmate Executed
UPDATED

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 Gets Hope From Parole Board

Oklahoma panel recommends governor commute death sentence of Julius Jones

(Newser) - Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board on Monday recommended the governor commute the death sentence of convicted killer Julius Jones, who has maintained his innocence in a case that has garnered national attention, per the AP . The board voted 3-1 to recommend Jones’ sentence be commuted to either life or...

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