death penalty

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Gulf War Vet Executed for Killing Girlfriend, Her 3 Kids

Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, denied carrying out 1998 shotgun murders in Florida

(Newser) - An Army combat veteran whose Gulf War experience triggered severe mental problems was executed Thursday evening in Florida for the 1998 shotgun slayings of his girlfriend and her three young children , the AP reports. Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, was pronounced dead at 8:15pm following a lethal injection at Florida State...

'I Just Shot My Family': Gulf War Vet Faces Execution

Jeffrey Hutchinson scheduled to receive lethal injection in Florida on Thursday

(Newser) - A Gulf War veteran who maintains his innocence faces execution Thursday in Florida for the 1998 killings of his girlfriend and her three children. Details:
  • The state is scheduled to execute Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, convicted of fatally shooting girlfriend Renee Flaherty, 32, and her three children, ages 4 through
...

Faulting Forensic Analysis, Judge Drops Murder Conviction

Jimmie Duncan's lawyers liken bite mark conclusions to 'junk science' in Louisiana murder case

(Newser) - A Louisiana man who has spent nearly three decades on death row has had his conviction overturned by a district judge following a review of forensic analysis that the inmate's legal team argued was based on "junk science." Jimmie Duncan was convicted of first-degree murder in 1998...

The Doctor 'Had No Business Conducting Executions'

Corinna Lain finds some of those doing the jobs don't have squeaky clean records

(Newser) - Few jobs are more shrouded in secrecy than that of a death row executioner, but in a lengthy piece for the Guardian , death penalty researcher Corinna Lain reveals what she's discovered after years of study: The people responsible for carrying out executions are rarely who you might expect....

Judge Would Allow Execution in Idaho Killings Despite Diagnosis

Prosecution argued Bryan Kohberger's mild autism includes no intellectual impairment

(Newser) - A judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors can pursue the death penalty against Bryan Kohberger if he is convicted of murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022, despite the defendant's recent autism diagnosis. Kohberger, 30, is charged in the stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and...

Youth Soccer Coach Charged in Murder of California Teen

Coach also accused of sexual assault in separate case

(Newser) - Oscar Omar Hernandez, 13, was found dead on a Southern California roadside earlier this month—and now youth soccer coach Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino has been charged with the young teen's murder. The charges include murder with a special circumstance of lewd acts with a child, making Garcia-Aquino eligible...

Luigi Mangione Will Face the Death Penalty

Pam Bondi calls UnitedHealthcare CEO's murder a 'premeditated, cold-blooded assassination'

(Newser) - US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday she has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4. Mangione, 26, faces separate federal and state murder charges for the killing. The...

Oklahoma Execution Is Third of the Week in US
Florida Execution Is
4th of the Week in US
UPDATED
Mar 21, 2025 12:00 AM CDT

Florida Execution Is 4th of the Week in US

Florida executes man on same day Oklahoma carried out another death sentence

(Newser) - A busy week of executions continued across the nation on Thursday, the latest two in Oklahoma and Florida:
  • Oklahoma: The state on Thursday morning executed 56-year-old Wendell Grissom, who fatally shot a woman during a robbery of her home 20 years ago. Grissom received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma
...

Experts on SC's New Firing Squad: 'It's Going to Be Traumatic'

They're concerned about ricochets, dangerous fumes, hearing damage, and 'gore'

(Newser) - Witnesses to South Carolina's planned firing squad execution of convicted killer Brad Sigmon, the first of its kind in the state, will watch Friday from behind "bullet-resistant" glass. But experts nonetheless fear ricochets are possible, along with hearing damage and exposure to dangerous fumes, NPR reports. According to...

How SC's Firing Squad Execution Will Happen

3 volunteers will fire rifles at Brad Sigmon, strapped to a chair with a hood over his head

(Newser) - When a South Carolina man who killed his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat steps into the death row chamber Friday night, it won't be lethal injection or electrocution that ends his life. It will be three people holding rifles about 15 feet away who will complete his...

Feds Send Inmate to Oklahoma for Execution

Convicted killer George John Hanson had been serving a life sentence in federal prison

(Newser) - Federal prison officials transferred an inmate to Oklahoma custody so that he can be executed for a 1999 killing, following through on President Trump's sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty. George John Hanson, 60, was moved from a federal prison in Louisiana to the Oklahoma...

Supreme Court Throws Out a High-Profile Death Sentence

Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip had been served a last meal 3 times

(Newser) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the murder conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man who has steadfastly maintained his innocence and averted multiple attempts by the state to execute him. The justices found that Glossip's trial violated his constitutional rights, reports the AP . The...

Longtime Death-Row Inmate Dies Ahead of March Execution

'Justice should have been delivered long ago,' Louisiana AG says of death of 81-year-old inmate

(Newser) - The oldest inmate on Louisiana's death row, a terminally ill man convicted of killing his young stepson in the early '90s, has died, just weeks before he was set to be executed. The state's Department of Public Safety and Corrections announced that 81-year-old Christopher Sepulvado died Saturday...

2 Men Executed an Hour Apart
2 Men Executed,
One Hour Apart
Feb 14, 2025 1:00 AM CST

2 Men Executed, One Hour Apart

Richard Lee Tabler executed in Texas after James Dennis Ford put to death in Florida

(Newser) - Texas and Florida both carried out executions Thursday night, about an hour apart:
  • In Florida, James Dennis Ford was put to death via lethal injection, USA Today reports. In 1997, Ford invited his co-worker Gregory Malnory and Malnory's wife, Kimberly, on a fishing trip to a sod farm. They
...

He Hates the Death Penalty, Advocates for Firing Squads

Texas doctor views them as the most humane method of execution

(Newser) - James Williams, an ER doctor in Texas, occupies what for him is an uncomfortable place in the conversation about the death penalty. He tells the Marshall Project that he is "mostly opposed to capital punishment," and yet he has emerged as perhaps the nation's foremost expert on...

Alabama Carries Out Nation's 4th Nitrogen Gas Execution

Man was also convicted of a murder in Michigan

(Newser) - An Alabama man convicted of murdering a woman after breaking into her apartment as she slept was put to death Thursday evening in the nation's fourth execution using nitrogen gas, the AP reports. Demetrius Frazier, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:36pm at a south Alabama prison for his...

Texas Executes Man Who Robbed, Killed Pastor

Steven Lawayne Nelson died by lethal injection

(Newser) - A Texas man convicted of beating and suffocating a Dallas-area pastor in his church during a robbery was put to death Wednesday evening, the second execution in the US this year and the first of four scheduled in Texas over the next three months, the AP reports. Steven Lawayne Nelson,...

South Carolina Readies for Third Execution in 4 Months

State is clearing a backlog of Death Row prisoners since it got its hands on pentobarbital again

(Newser) - South Carolina is preparing to execute the third inmate since September as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn't find lethal injection drugs. Marion Bowman Jr.'s execution is scheduled for 6pm Friday at a Columbia prison, reports the...

Trump Signs Death Penalty Order
Trump Signs
Death Penalty Order
Jan 21, 2025 1:00 AM CST

Trump Signs Death Penalty Order

He directs attorney general to help states get lethal injection drugs

(Newser) - President Trump signed a sweeping execution order Monday on the death penalty that directs the attorney general to "take all necessary and lawful action" to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions, the AP reports. Trump's order, coming just hours after he returned...

Tennessee Muddies Up Its Execution Manual

State releases a shorter, redacted version of guidelines for carrying out death penalty

(Newser) - Tennessee on Thursday released a redacted version of its new execution manual, blacking out sporadic titles and team names throughout the trimmed-down document that now provides vague guidelines and omits previously detailed steps on carrying out the death penalty. The Department of Correction initially would not hand over the manual...

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