death row

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Ohio Convict Found Hanged Days Before Execution

Billy Slagle had been trying to get a new trial, was denied clemency

(Newser) - An Ohio convict sitting on death row was found hanged in his cell this morning, just days before he was to be executed on Wednesday. Billy Slagle, 44, was declared dead shortly after he was found at 5am; he had been convicted in the 1987 fatal stabbing of a Cleveland...

What Death Row Inmates Say Before They Die

Texas keeps an online database of last words

(Newser) - Texas executes more inmates than any other state, but its gone are not forgotten. The state memorializes its executed with a morbidly fascinating online database containing each inmate's last statement, the New York Times reports. Some praise a deity, some tell their family they love them one last time,...

NC Scraps Law That Brought Executions to Halt

Gov. Pat McCrory signs repeal of 'Racial Justice Act'

(Newser) - North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has put an end to what he calls a "judicial loophole to avoid the death penalty": On Wednesday he repealed the Racial Justice Act, four years after it was put on the books. The law, passed under a Democratic legislature, allowed Death Row inmates...

An Infamous Death-Row Teen Goes Free

Paula Cooper, sentenced at 16, saw death sentence commuted

(Newser) - In 1985 at age 15, Paula Cooper was arrested for the murder of a 78-year-old Indiana Bible study teacher. The following year she was sentenced to death, making the then-16-year-old the youngest person on Death Row. Controversy followed, over her age and the purported racism in the criminal justice system...

Woman on Death Row Has Conviction Overturned

Detective in case has history of perjury

(Newser) - Debra Milke has spent 22 years on death row for orchestrating the murder of her 4-year-old son, but the Arizona woman may be on the verge of freedom, after a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge overturned her conviction yesterday. Milke's roommate and a friend shot Milke's son...

Next State to Ban Death Penalty: Maryland?

Yep, if Gov. Martin O'Malley has his way

(Newser) - Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley wants 2013 to be the year his state bans the death penalty once and for all, and he's not wasting any time in getting the ball rolling. The Democrat plans to introduce a bill outlining such a ban this week. If his bid is...

Death Row Inmates Oppose Calif. Execution Ban

Because it would give them less access to paid-for lawyers

(Newser) - Contrary to what you might expect, most inmates on California's death row are against Proposition 34, a measure up for vote next week that would ax the death penalty in favor of life without parole. The Los Angeles Times takes a look at their seemingly surprising stance. Considering the...

Texas Shares Last Words of Executed

Most farewells mention love, life, family, God, 'sorry'

(Newser) - You know you have just minutes to live. What do you say? If you're about to be executed in Texas, you most often mention love, family, life, or God—and that you're "sorry." Those are the words that most frequently pop up in the farewells 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;...

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...

Death Row Inmate Boasts of 'Leisure' Life

'Kill me if you can suckers,' he writes to hometown paper

(Newser) - A murderer awaiting execution in North Carolina wrote a letter to his hometown newspaper ridiculing the justice system and describing his life in prison as one of "leisure." 50-year-old Danny Robbie Hembree Jr. is on death row for killing teenager Heather Catterton in 2009, reports ABC News . Hembree...

Death Row Inmate Won't Die Over Mail Glitch

Supreme Court gives him a rare second chance to appeal

(Newser) - The Supreme Court is making a rare exception that could save the life of a death row inmate in Alabama, reports the Los Angeles Times . The court decreed that Cory Maples deserves a new hearing even though he missed the filing deadline—because his lawyers sort of forgot about him....

Death Row Inmate Gets New Trial Because of Twitter

Juror tweeted throughout trial, raising risk of prejudice: Arkansas Supreme Court

(Newser) - A mere 140 characters has led to quite the mess in Arkansas. The state's Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a 26-year-old death row inmate receive a new trial because a juror tweeted throughout his first one. Though a lower court found Erickson Dimas-Martinez "suffered no prejudice," an...

Mumia Abu-Jamal Won't Face Death Penalty

Former Black Panther will spend rest of life in prison

(Newser) - Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer 30 years ago, is off death row, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer . The city's DA announced today that he is dropping his bid to have the death penalty reinstated against Abu-Jamal and will instead settle for having...

Oregon Governor Declares Execution Moratorium

Kitzhaber says system is 'compromised and inequitable"

(Newser) - John Kitzhaber has declared that there will be no more executions in Oregon as long as he remains governor. "It is time for Oregon to consider a different approach,” the Democrat said at a news conference. “I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable...

Texas Death Row Inmate Wins Stay

Hank Skinner was to be executed tomorrow

(Newser) - Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner was set to be executed tomorrow, but won a second reprieve when the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals granted him a stay of execution yesterday. Skinner, 49, was convicted of killing his girlfriend and her two adult sons in 1993, but he has...

Fla. Politician: It's Time to Bring Back Firing Squads

Lethal injection is too painless, argues state Rep. Brad Drake

(Newser) - Lethal injection is just such a pleasant way to die. At least according to Florida state Rep. Brad Drake, who wants to put an end to the execution method in the state. He argues that Death Row killers shouldn't be allowed to "get off that easy"; the electric...

Firm Demands Its Drug Not Be Used in Florida Execution

Against everything the Danish company stands for, says boss

(Newser) - A Danish drug firm is demanding Florida not use its anesthetic in the planned execution tomorrow of a Cuban national for the murder of a police officer. If Florida goes ahead with the pentobarbital, manufactured by the Lundbeck company under the trademark Nembutal, it would be the first time the...

Man Offers to Cook Texas Inmates' Last Meals, But...

Department of Criminal Justice isn't swayed by Brian Price's free offer

(Newser) - Brian Price made the Texas Department of Criminal Justice an offer they seemingly couldn't refuse—but refuse it they did. The former inmate, who himself cooked 220 final meals before being released, volunteered to cook the last meals for condemned inmates after hearing the state had canceled the tradition...

We Need to Kill Death Penalty, Not Troy Davis

 We Need to Kill 
 Death Penalty, 
 Not Troy Davis 
'NY TIMES' OP-ED
Sep 21, 2011 10:26 AM CDT

We Need to Kill Death Penalty, Not Troy Davis

Case shows, yet again, why death penalty must be done away with

(Newser) - The New York Times doesn't mince words in an editorial about today's scheduled execution of Troy Davis: Calling it a "grievous wrong," the Times declares that yesterday's rejection of his bid for clemency "is appalling in light of developments after his conviction," among...

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