5 executions have happened over a week’s span in the US. That’s the most in decades
2 months, 4 weeks ago

5 executions have happened over a week’s span in the US. That’s the most in decades

Associated Press  

OKLAHOMA CITY — Death row inmates in five states have been put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a yearslong trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S. Two more death row inmates, in Missouri and Texas, were pronounced dead Tuesday evening following executions, and an Oklahoma inmate was executed Thursday. When Alabama used nitrogen gas later Thursday to execute a man, it marked the first time in more than 20 years — since July 2003 — that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. The United States has reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, said Robin Maher, the center’s executive director. South Carolina The first of the five executions took place on Friday when South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death for the 1997 killing of a convenience store clerk during a robbery.

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History of this topic

Biden could foil Trump’s plans to resume federal executions
2 days, 18 hours ago

Biden could foil Trump’s plans to resume federal executions

Politico  

Meanwhile, the Justice Department is also on the verge of publishing the findings of a long-running internal review of the lethal injection protocol that the Trump administration adopted in 2019. “We hope the review will find that the problems with lethal injection are one additional reason as to why President Biden should grant clemency to death row prisoners,” said Ruth …

5 U.S. death row inmates were executed in one week, the most in decades
2 months, 3 weeks ago

5 U.S. death row inmates were executed in one week, the most in decades

LA Times  

Death row inmates in five states have been put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a yearslong trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S. Two more death row inmates, in Missouri and Texas, were pronounced dead Tuesday evening following executions, and …

There are 5 executions set over a week's span in the US. That's the most in decades
2 months, 4 weeks ago

There are 5 executions set over a week's span in the US. That's the most in decades

The Independent  

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. If carried out as planned, the executions in …

US man convicted of killing store clerk faces death in first of 5 executions over next week
3 months ago

US man convicted of killing store clerk faces death in first of 5 executions over next week

Firstpost  

Owens was sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of Irene Graves, a mother of three, during an armed robbery of a convenience store in Greenville, South Carolina, on Halloween night in 1997 This undated booking photo obtained from the South Carolina Department of Corrections in Columbia, South Carolina, shows death row inmate Freddie Owens, 46. AFP A man …

Utah scraps untested lethal drug combination for man’s August execution
5 months ago

Utah scraps untested lethal drug combination for man’s August execution

Associated Press  

Utah officials said Saturday that they are scrapping plans to use an untested lethal drug combination in next month’s planned execution of a man in a 1998 murder case. Defense attorneys for Taberon Dave Honie, 49, had sued in state court to stop the use of the drug combination, saying it could cause the defendant “excruciating suffering.” The execution scheduled …

Indiana seeks first execution since 2009 after acquiring lethal injection drug, governor says
5 months, 3 weeks ago

Indiana seeks first execution since 2009 after acquiring lethal injection drug, governor says

Associated Press  

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said the state will resume executions for the first time in over a decade after acquiring a drug used for lethal injections. Indiana’s last execution was in 2009, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The Indiana Department of Correction now has acquired a drug used by multiple states in lethal injections — …

Convicted double murderer to be executed in Missouri
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Convicted double murderer to be executed in Missouri

Hindustan Times  

A Missouri man convicted of murdering his cousin and her husband is to be executed in Missouri on Tuesday, despite widespread calls for his life to be spared. HT Image Brian Dorsey, 52, is to be put to death by lethal injection at 6:00 pm Central Time for the 2006 murders of Sarah Bonnie, 25, and her husband Ben Bonnie, …

Louisiana advances a bill expanding death penalty methods in an effort to resume executions
9 months, 4 weeks ago

Louisiana advances a bill expanding death penalty methods in an effort to resume executions

Associated Press  

— In an effort to resume Louisiana’s death row executions that have been paused for 14 years, lawmakers on Friday advanced a bill that would add the use of nitrogen gas and electrocution as possible methods to carry out capital punishment. Over the past couple of decades, executions in the United States have reduced — in part because of legal …

Fuller picture emerges of the 13 federal executions at the end of Trump’s presidency
1 year, 2 months ago

Fuller picture emerges of the 13 federal executions at the end of Trump’s presidency

Associated Press  

CHICAGO — A day before the federal government executed a Texas man for the killing of an Iowa couple when he was 18, celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz pleaded with then-President Donald Trump — a former client — to call the execution off. The relatives, Trump explained, were on the road to the prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where federal executions …

New Oklahoma AG seeks to slow pace of lethal injections
1 year, 11 months ago

New Oklahoma AG seeks to slow pace of lethal injections

Associated Press  

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s current schedule of executing a death row inmate roughly every 30 days is placing too much of a burden on prison staff and should be slowed down, the state’s new attorney general wrote in a motion filed Wednesday with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who witnessed last week’s execution of Scott …

Inmates allege Texas plans to use unsafe execution drugs
1 year, 11 months ago

Inmates allege Texas plans to use unsafe execution drugs

Associated Press  

HOUSTON — Texas plans to use expired and unsafe drugs to carry out executions early this year in violation of state law, three death row inmates allege in a lawsuit. Like other states in recent years, Texas has turned to compounding pharmacies to obtain pentobarbital, which it uses for executions, after traditional drugmakers refused to sell their products to prison …

Report: Executions continued decline but many ‘botched’
2 years ago

Report: Executions continued decline but many ‘botched’

Associated Press  

HOUSTON — Public support and use of the death penalty in 2022 continued its more than two-decade decline in the U.S., and many of the executions that were carried out during the year were “botched” or highly problematic, an annual report on capital punishment says. “All the indicators point to the continuing decline in capital punishment and the movement away …

Oklahoma, with a history of botched lethal injections, prepares to start executing a man a month
2 years, 4 months ago

Oklahoma, with a history of botched lethal injections, prepares to start executing a man a month

CNN  

CNN — Oklahoma will soon begin executing death row inmates at a pace of about one man per month, with plans to put to death 25 prisoners over the next two years despite cries by critics and experts who point not only to outstanding questions of the mental fitness or possible innocence of some but also the state’s recent history …

Tennessee execution pause through 2022 could last longer
2 years, 6 months ago

Tennessee execution pause through 2022 could last longer

Associated Press  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After Tennessee Gov. Many of the problems surfaced as part of challenges of Tennessee’s execution process by two death row inmates in federal court. Those cases are on hold until the investigation ordered by Lee concludes — but in the meantime, the state attorney general’s office acknowledged in a May 6 court filing that there may be …

Oklahoma official seeks execution dates for 25 inmates
2 years, 6 months ago

Oklahoma official seeks execution dates for 25 inmates

Associated Press  

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s attorney general has asked the state’s highest appeals court to set execution dates for 25 death row inmates following a federal judge’s rejection of their challenge to the state’s lethal injection method. In 25 similar filings with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday, Attorney General John O’Connor wrote that the federal court’s stays of …

Execution of Missouri man just the 5th in US this year
2 years, 7 months ago

Execution of Missouri man just the 5th in US this year

Associated Press  

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. Please give love, show love, BE LOVE!” Parson, in a statement, said the couple killed, James and Zelma Long, “were innocent …

Attorneys want moratorium, probe after execution halted
2 years, 7 months ago

Attorneys want moratorium, probe after execution halted

Associated Press  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After an undisclosed “oversight” forced Tennessee to call off the execution of Oscar Smith an hour before he was to die last week, Smith’s attorneys on Thursday asked for a moratorium on executions and a review of the state’s execution protocols. Bill Lee issued a brief statement on April 21 at 5:42 p.m. saying that “due to …

Arizona seeks to resume executions after 7-year hiatus
2 years, 9 months ago

Arizona seeks to resume executions after 7-year hiatus

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — Prosecutors on Thursday asked the Arizona Supreme Court to issue an execution warrant for a convicted killer that if carried out would be the state’s first use of the death penalty in seven years. Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office filed the request for a warrant of execution against Clarence Dixon, who was convicted and sentenced to death in …

Appeals court paves the way for 2 more Oklahoma executions
2 years, 10 months ago

Appeals court paves the way for 2 more Oklahoma executions

Associated Press  

OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal appeals court rejected a request from two Oklahoma death row inmates to temporarily halt their upcoming lethal injections. The two have argued that the state’s current three-drug lethal injection protocol that uses midazolam as the first drug will expose them to a constitutionally unacceptable risk of severe pain. The judge also determined that Grant and …

Federal judge grants stay of execution to Oklahoma inmate
2 years, 11 months ago

Federal judge grants stay of execution to Oklahoma inmate

Associated Press  

OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge in Oklahoma has granted a stay of execution for a death row inmate who was scheduled to receive a lethal injection in March. The order reinstates Coddington as a plaintiff in a case with other death row inmates who are challenging Oklahoma’s three-drug lethal injection protocol. Firing squad is one of several authorized execution …

Executions in the U.S. in 2021 hit a three-decade low with 11, report says
3 years ago

Executions in the U.S. in 2021 hit a three-decade low with 11, report says

LA Times  

States and the federal government carried out 11 executions in 2021, the lowest number since 1988. States and the federal government carried out 11 executions this year, the fewest since 1988, as support for the death penalty has continued to decline. That’s according to an annual report on the death penalty released Thursday, which was also sharply critical of the …

Report: 11 executions in 2021 mark three-decade low
3 years ago

Report: 11 executions in 2021 mark three-decade low

Associated Press  

CHICAGO — States and the federal government carried out 11 executions this year, the fewest since 1988, as support for the death penalty has continued to decline. That’s according to an annual report on the death penalty released Thursday, which was also sharply critical of the Supreme Court and its role in green-lighting executions. Pandemic-related disruptions partly accounted for the …

Timeline of events involving capital punishment in Oklahoma
3 years, 1 month ago

Timeline of events involving capital punishment in Oklahoma

Associated Press  

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma conducted 112 executions from 1976 to October 2015, when the state imposed a moratorium following three consecutive flawed executions or attempted executions. The U.S. Supreme Court says later it will consider whether Oklahoma can use midazolam during executions, but it doesn’t disrupt Warner’s rescheduled execution. — June 29, 2015: A divided U.S. Supreme Court upholds Oklahoma’s …

Oklahoma set to resume lethal injections after 6-year pause
3 years, 1 month ago

Oklahoma set to resume lethal injections after 6-year pause

Al Jazeera  

A 60-year-old Oklahoma man who stabbed a prison cafeteria worker to death in 1998 is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday in the state’s first attempt to administer the death penalty since a series of flawed executions more than six years ago. The state moved forward with John Marion Grant’s lethal injection after the US Supreme Court, in …

Federal appeals court temporarily halts Oklahoma executions
3 years, 1 month ago

Federal appeals court temporarily halts Oklahoma executions

Associated Press  

OKLAHOMA CITY — 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 panel wrote, “We find nothing in the relevant case law that specifically requires a prisoner to designate a method of execution to be used in his case by ‘checking a box’ …

Oklahoma sets 7 executions in 6 months; 1st since 2015
3 years, 3 months ago

Oklahoma sets 7 executions in 6 months; 1st since 2015

Associated Press  

Oklahoma scheduled seven executions Monday in what would be the first lethal injections for the state since putting them on hold six years ago following a series of mishaps. Among the men scheduled to die is Julius Darius Jones, even though the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board just last week recommended that his death sentence be commuted to life in …

Federal executions halted; Garland orders protocols reviewed
3 years, 5 months ago

Federal executions halted; Garland orders protocols reviewed

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is halting federal executions after a historic use of capital punishment by the Trump administration, which carried out 13 executions in six months. Attorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement Thursday night, saying he was imposing a moratorium on federal executions while the Justice Department conducts a review of its policies and procedures. It also …

Federal executions halted; Garland orders protocols reviewed
3 years, 5 months ago

Federal executions halted; Garland orders protocols reviewed

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is halting federal executions after a historic use of capital punishment by the Trump administration, which carried out 13 executions in six months. Attorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement Thursday night, saying he was imposing a moratorium on federal executions while the Justice Department conducts a review of its policies and procedures. It also …

US Justice Department halts federal executions after Donald Trump's administration put 13 people to death
3 years, 5 months ago

US Justice Department halts federal executions after Donald Trump's administration put 13 people to death

ABC  

The US Justice Department has announced a halt on federal executions after a historic use of capital punishment by the Trump administration, which killed 13 people in executions over six months. Key points: Donald Trump's Justice Department resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus No president in more than 120 years had overseen so many federal executions There are major …

Executioners sanitized accounts of deaths in federal cases
3 years, 10 months ago

Executioners sanitized accounts of deaths in federal cases

Associated Press  

CHICAGO — Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys “beds” and final breaths “snores.” But those tranquil accounts are at odds with reports by The Associated Press and other media witnesses of how prisoners’ stomachs rolled, shook and …

US Executes First Woman on Federal Death Row In Nearly Seven Decades
3 years, 11 months ago

US Executes First Woman on Federal Death Row In Nearly Seven Decades

News 18  

The U.S. government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, early on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle for her execution by overturning a stay, according to a reporter serving as a media witness. Montgomery’s execution marked the first time the US government has implemented the death sentence for a female prisoner …

US courts delay all federal executions scheduled this week
3 years, 11 months ago

US courts delay all federal executions scheduled this week

Al Jazeera  

A US judge ordered the Justice Department to delay the executions of two condemned murderers until at least March 16 to allow them to recover from COVID-19, hours after a federal judge in Indiana blocked Tuesday’s scheduled execution of the only woman on federal death row in the United States, citing mental health. Their lawyers argued execution Convicted murderer Lisa …

Federal executions exceed state executions for the first time
4 years ago

Federal executions exceed state executions for the first time

LA Times  

For the first time in history, the U.S. government has carried out more executions in a year than all states that still conduct executions, according to an annual report on the death penalty released Wednesday. The Trump administration has three more executions scheduled ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who opposes the death penalty. The newly …

U.S. carries out rare execution during presidential transition
4 years ago

U.S. carries out rare execution during presidential transition

LA Times  

The Trump administration on Thursday carried out its ninth federal execution of the year and the first during a presidential lame-duck period in 130 years, putting to death a Texas street-gang member for his role in the slayings of a religious couple from Iowa more than two decades ago. “I wish that we could all go back and change it.” …

New rule could allow gas, firing squads for U.S. executions
4 years ago

New rule could allow gas, firing squads for U.S. executions

LA Times  

The Justice Department is quietly amending its execution protocols, no longer requiring federal death sentences to be carried out by lethal injection and clearing the way to use other methods such as firing squads and poison gas. The amended rule, published Friday in the Federal Register, allows the U.S. government to conduct executions by lethal injection or use “any other …

U.S. To Continue Executions Through Transition In Break With Precedent
4 years ago

U.S. To Continue Executions Through Transition In Break With Precedent

NPR  

U.S. To Continue Executions Through Transition In Break With Precedent Enlarge this image toggle caption Michael Conroy/AP Michael Conroy/AP The Justice Department is proceeding with plans for more federal executions in the closing days of President Trump's administration, including two scheduled shortly before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Sponsor Message Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center said …

Court panel allows federal execution of Kansas girl’s killer
4 years, 3 months ago

Court panel allows federal execution of Kansas girl’s killer

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — A panel of federal appeals court judges is letting the U.S. government proceed with the planned execution of a man who kidnapped, raped and killed a 10-year-old Kansas girl. In an opinion early Thursday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said a federal law that regulates drugs requires the government to get a prescription for the lethal injection drug …

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