death row

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Longest Death-Row Inmate Gets Record Payout

Japan to pay $1.45M to Iwao Hakamata, who spent nearly 50 years on death row before a rare retrial

(Newser) - He served nearly 50 years on death row for murders he didn't commit, but now octogenarian Iwao Hakamata is about to recoup some compensation for his ordeal. The BBC reports that a judge has ordered the Japanese government to pay $1.45 million to 89-year-old Iwao Hakamata, who spent...

Man Will Be First in 8 Years Executed Under a Blue Governor
Arizona Executes First
Inmate in Two Years
UPDATED
Mar 19, 2025 1:32 PM CDT

Arizona Executes First Inmate in Two Years

Aaron Brian Gunches received lethal injection

(Newser) - An Arizona man who kidnapped and murdered his girlfriend's ex-husband was executed Wednesday, the second of four prisoners scheduled to be put to death this week in the US, per the AP . Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, was lethally injected with pentobarbital at the Arizona State Prison Complex in the...

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...

Nuns Find Common Ground With Women on Death Row


Nuns Find
Common Ground
With Women
on Death Row
longform
Mar 2, 2025 9:30 AM CST

Nuns Find Common Ground With Women on Death Row

New Yorker explores an unexpected bond in Texas

(Newser) - The New Yorker has a remarkable, deeply reported story about an unexpected bond between women on death row in Texas and a small order of nuns outside Waco. The story by Lawrence Wright explains that a Catholic deacon ministering to six inmates awaiting death at a prison in Gatesville, Texas,...

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
...

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,...

In SCOTUS Case, a 'Historic Victory for Gender Justice'

Court rules for Oklahoma death row inmate Brenda Andrew, who says she was sex-shamed during trial

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court has ordered a review by the lower courts on a case involving the only woman on death row in Oklahoma. Per NBC News , the nation's highest court issued a 7-2 ruling on Tuesday determining that Brenda Andrew, convicted of murdering her estranged husband, can continue...

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...

Death Row Inmate Asks to Expedite His Execution

State high court rejects Aaron Gunches' request for Valentine's Day, but it could happen in March

(Newser) - Aaron Gunches doesn't want to waste any more time. The death row inmate in Arizona, convicted of murdering his girlfriend's ex more than two decades ago, put in a handwritten request on New Year's Eve to the state's Supreme Court to circumvent the legal wrangling and...

2 Death Row Inmates Don't Want Biden's Commutations

Shannon Agofsky, Len Davis seek injunction to block them

(Newser) - Two federal death row inmates prefer the prospect of death over life imprisonment. Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, both housed at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, have refused to sign paperwork accepting President Biden's commutations of their death sentences and filed emergency motions in federal court in...

Biden Commutes 37 of 40 Federal Death Row Sentences

President converts them to life terms

(Newser) - President Biden announced Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment mere weeks before President-elect Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings,...

Indiana Preps for an Execution After 15-Year Pause

Joseph Corcoran's execution is scheduled for Wednesday

(Newser) - Indiana officials are preparing to execute the state's first death row inmate in 15 years, a man who was convicted a quarter-century ago of killing his brother and three other men, the AP reports. Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on Indiana's death row since 1999. If he is...

Pressure on Biden to Commute All Federal Death Sentences

Some fear the 40 inmates on federal death row risk hanging under Trump

(Newser) - No president has ever issued a mass commutation of federal death sentences, but that's exactly what advocates are asking of President Biden in his final days in office. Several letters asking Biden to commute the sentences of all 40 people on federal death row to life in prison without...

After 2-Year Pause, Executions Will Resume in Arizona

State plans to seek execution warrant for Aaron Brian Gunches

(Newser) - Executions will resume in Arizona following a two-year pause, the state's top prosecutor says. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement sent to the Associated Press on Wednesday that she will soon seek an execution warrant for Aaron Brian Gunches, who is on death row after being...

Alabama Prisoner Curses, Gives Middle Finger Before Execution

Carey Dale Grayson became the 3rd person put to death in the US using nitrogen gas

(Newser) - An Alabama man convicted in the 1994 killing of a hitchhiker cursed at the prison warden and made obscene gestures with his hands shortly before he was put to death Thursday evening in the nation's third execution using nitrogen gas, the AP reports. Carey Dale Grayson, 50, was executed...

Judge's Antisemitism Gives Death Row Inmate New Trial

Texas panel calls former Judge Vickers Cunningham biased against Jewish inmate

(Newser) - A Texas appeals court ordered a new trial Wednesday for a Jewish man on death row because of antisemitic bias by the judge who presided over his case, per the AP . By a vote of 6-3, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that Randy Halprin's conviction be overturned...

Serial Killer's Execution Halted Yet Again

Judge issues temporary stay for Thomas Eugene Creech, on death row since 1981

(Newser) - A federal judge has temporarily halted the planned execution of an Idaho man on death row whose first lethal injection attempt was botched earlier this year, per the AP . Thomas Eugene Creech was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Nov. 13—roughly nine months after the state first...

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