death penalty

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Texas to Execute Man Deemed Mentally Retarded

Tomorrow's penalty would run counter to Supreme Court ruling

(Newser) - A Texas prisoner diagnosed as mentally retarded is set for the death penalty tomorrow—despite a 2002 US Supreme Court ruling barring mentally retarded people from execution. The court decision left states some leeway in carrying out executions, and Texas controversially continues to use its own definition of mental retardation,...

DA: Holmes Case 'Not a Slam Dunk'

Death penalty will come down to suspect's sanity

(Newser) - Don't expect a quick resolution to James Holmes' court case: It's "not a slam dunk," says district attorney Carol Chambers. "In a case like this, the investigation doesn’t stop. It will continue right up to the trial," she noted. Prosecutors will decide "...

Court Halts Execution of Georgia Inmate

Says lethal injection changes may require public comment

(Newser) - Georgia's high court has halted a controversial execution in the nick of time. Warren Hill, whose lawyers say he is mentally retarded and thus can't be executed, was set to die last night. But the court delayed the move for an entirely different reason: Judges are set to...

Georgia to Execute Man Deemed Mentally Retarded

State isn't convinced he meets the definition, despite court ruling

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court declared that the death penalty for mentally retarded criminals was unconstitutional in 2002. Georgia, however, is set to execute a prisoner so labeled next week, reports the Guardian . The execution of Warren Hill is proceeding because Georgia, alone among the states, says that learning disabilities must...

Scott Peterson Appeals Death Sentence

Lawyer alleges juror misconduct, bias, evidence problems

(Newser) - Scott Peterson is still protesting his innocence in the murder of pregnant wife Laci in 2002, and has filed an automatic appeal of his death sentence with the California Supreme Court. Peterson was sentenced in 2004 after a highly publicized trial, and his lawyer argues in the 423-page document that...

Arkansas High Court Strikes Down Execution Law

Legislature, not corrections dept., must set death penalty rules: court

(Newser) - A split Arkansas Supreme Court says the state's execution law is unconstitutional. The state's constitution says that execution rules must be set by the legislature, but a 2009 law put matters in the hands of the Department of Corrections, the AP reports. Under that law, the director of...

600 Miles and 25 Years Apart, Brothers Sentenced to Die

Rodney, Roger Berget led troubled lives

(Newser) - Twelve years after his older brother Roger Berget was executed for killing a man, Rodney Berget sits on South Dakota's death row awaiting his own death sentence. Roger was convicted in 1987 of murdering a man for his car and was put to death in Oklahoma at age 39;...

Zimmerman May Face Hate-Crime Charges

Which carry death penalty: WFTV

(Newser) - A local TV station in Orlando says FBI investigators are questioning witnesses to seek evidence for hate-crime charges against George Zimmerman. The killer of Trayvon Martin currently faces second-degree murder charges that could send him to prison for life. If the feds add hate-crime charges and get a conviction, Zimmerman...

How Texas Executed an Innocent Man
 How Texas 
 Executed an 
 Innocent Man 
NEW REPORT
May 15, 2012 8:56 AM CDT

How Texas Executed an Innocent Man

Carlos DeLuna allegedly took the fall for Carlos Hernandez

(Newser) - Carlos DeLuna was executed in 1989 for the murder of Wanda Lopez, but a 400-page article in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review asserts that Texas actually put the wrong man to death, while the real killer bragged about the murder and the fact that DeLuna took the fall. Lopez,...

9/11 Victim's Spouse Goes to Gitmo to Save Plotters' Lives

Blake Allison meets with defendants' lawyers

(Newser) - The husband of a 9/11 victim opposes the death penalty in all cases—and he went to Guantanamo to fight for his beliefs. Blake Allison won one of 10 slots in a 9/11 mourners' lottery, allowing him to visit the island for the arraignment of admitted mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed....

Connecticut Kills Death Penalty

 Connecticut Kills Death Penalty 
Apr 26, 2012 1:53 AM CDT

Connecticut Kills Death Penalty

Law won't affect murderers already on death row

(Newser) - Life without the possibility of parole has replaced lethal injection as the harshest punishment Connecticut's courts can hand down. Gov. Dan Malloy signed a bill to repeal capital punishment, making the state the 17th to do so, and the fifth in the last five years, ABC reports. The new...

California to Vote on Death Penalty

Repeal measure makes it onto November ballot

(Newser) - Voters in California, home to nearly a quarter of America's death row inmates, will decide on abolishing the death penalty this November. A ballot measure on repealing the death penalty has received the necessary 500,000 signatures, reports the Los Angeles Times . The measure would make life imprisonment without...

Landmark Racial Ruling Takes Inmate Off Death Row

North Carolina judge says prosecutors kept jury mostly white

(Newser) - A black inmate in North Carolina came off death row today thanks to a controversial new law in the state. A judge reduced the sentence of Marcus Reymond Robinson to life without parole after ruling that prosecutors purposely sought to keep blacks off his jury, reports the News & Observer...

Experts Can't Figure Out If Death Penalty Deters Murder

Existing studies are flawed, and shouldn't be considered: committee

(Newser) - Ohio executed one death-row inmate yesterday and has 11 executions on the books over the next 20 months. The AP notes that could once again make the state one of the country's busiest executioners. So is all that capital punishment deterring murders there? Who knows? That's basically the...

Battling the Death Penalty: Two Men Who Fought for It
Battling the Death Penalty:
Two Who Fought for It
'a colossal failure'
Apr 7, 2012 3:31 PM CDT

Battling the Death Penalty: Two Who Fought for It

Ron Briggs and Donald Heller wish they could undo Proposition 7

(Newser) - Californians will soon consider an initiative to repeal the state's death penalty. Two of its biggest backers? The men who successfully championed the expansion of California's death penalty 34 years ago, the New York Times reports. Ron Briggs, now a farmer and Republican county official, ran the campaign...

Connecticut to Kill the Death Penalty

Senate OKs bill repealing capital punishment

(Newser) - The death penalty is a dead man walking in Connecticut. The state is almost certain to become the 17th one to do away with capital punishment, following a 20-16 vote in the state Senate. That—the 10 hours of debate and the 2:05am vote—was the hard part, explains...

US World's No. 5 Executioner: Amnesty

Executions surge in Middle East

(Newser) - Fewer countries than ever are executing people, but those countries are doing so with gusto, according to a new report from Amnesty International. Just 20 nations still use the death penalty. The US executed 43 people last year, making it 5th globally, and the only Western democracy on the list,...

Death Penalty May Await Soldier in Afghan Killings

Army soldier accused of killing 16 Afghans would face lethal injection: lawyer

(Newser) - The US soldier accused of gunning down 16 Afghan civilians near Kandahar may himself be killed for the crime, a military defense attorney tells MSNBC . "Based on what we’re hearing I suspect this will be prosecuted as a death penalty case," says Philip Cave, who is based...

Prosecutor: Mubarak Must Hang
 Prosecutor: Mubarak Must Hang
Jan 5, 2012 9:06 AM CST

Prosecutor: Mubarak Must Hang

Opening arguments conclude after three days

(Newser) - The team prosecuting Hosni Mubarak says he and all the other defendants in his case must die. Mustafa Khater, one of the prosecutors, concluded the team's three-day opening statement in Mubarak's trial today with a call for the death penalty, according to Reuters and the AP . "The...

Iran: We Might Still Stone Adulteress

Tehran apparently still itching to execute Ashtiani

(Newser) - The dizzying saga of Sakineh Mahammadi Ashtiani took another turn today, with Iran saying that it was going forward with plans to execute the convicted adulteress by stoning—unless, of course, it decides to just hang her instead, reports the AP . "There is no haste," said Malek Ajdar...

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