execution

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Illinois Shuts Down Death Row

State no longer executes criminals

(Newser) - After spending years at the center of national debate over capital punishment, Illinois' death row officially died yesterday when a state law abolishing the death penalty quietly took effect. The fate of executions in the state was sealed in March when Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation ending the death penalty,...

In Country of 1.2B, India Can't Find a Hangman

State of Assam grows desperate to find its next executioner

(Newser) - An unusual job search began in India last month: The country of 1.2 billion is desperately seeking ... a hangman. The New York Times paints a fascinating picture of a country that is no stranger to grisly murders and honor killings, but one in which capital punishment is an extremely...

Syria to Investigate Boy's Brutal Execution

Footage has galvanized protesters, provoked international outcry

(Newser) - A wave of outrage both at home and abroad has forced Syria into investigating the torture and execution of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib. Footage of his brutalized corpse was posted online last week, sending protesters to the streets with a renewed ferocity, and drawing rebukes from the likes of Hillary Clinton....

New Brouhaha: Was Killing Osama Legal?

Some call it an unlawful execution

(Newser) - In the wake of Osama bin Laden's death, some are denouncing the US operation as an illegal execution or assassination, but a senior congressional aide says there was only one way the al-Qaeda honcho would have been allowed to surrender: naked. US officials say troops were told to accept...

California Holds Off on Executions for 6th Year

San Quentin warden asks for time to replace execution team

(Newser) - Officials in California have given up on efforts to resume executing convicts this year, meaning that the state will have gone at least 6 years without executions. A review of lethal injection procedures has been delayed until at least January because the new warden of San Quentin prison wants to...

Supreme Court Stays Two Executions

Both men were to receive controversial new drug

(Newser) - Two death-row inmates have received last-minute reprieves from the Supreme Court, each of whom argued they had lousy lawyers at their trials. In separate rulings, the court put on hold the executions of Daniel Cook in Arizona and Cleve Foster in Texas while their cases are reviewed, reports CNN . Both...

DEA Seizes Georgia's Execution Drug
DEA Seizes Georgia's Execution Drug
Mar 16, 2011 2:12 PM CDT

DEA Seizes Georgia's Execution Drug

Sodium thiopental may have been acquired improperly

(Newser) - The DEA has seized Georgia’s supply of sodium thiopental, one of the key drugs used to execute prisoners, because it believes the state may have improperly imported it. Like many states, Georgia was forced to import the drug from England last year thanks to a shortage in the US,...

Ohio Uses Single Drug to Execute Killer

States coping with nationwide shortage of usual drug

(Newser) - Ohio today became a ground-breaker in how to execute criminals despite the nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental following the discontinuation of the drug by its sole producer : Officials executed a convicted murderer—37-year-old Johnnie Baston—with just one drug, pentobarbital. It's traditionally used to put down dogs, cats, and horses,...

Iran's on an 'Execution Binge:' Rights Group

An inmate meets his maker every 8 hours or so since year began

(Newser) - Iran's basically executing people left and right, says a US-based human rights group. With 47 people hanged since the beginning of the year, Tehran's averaging a staggering pace of one every eight hours. "The Iranian Judiciary is on an execution binge orchestrated by the intelligence and security agencies,"...

Iranian Man Executed as Israeli Spy
Iranian Man Executed
as Israeli Spy
Dec 28, 2010 11:15 AM CST

Iranian Man Executed as Israeli Spy

Second man executed for supporting opposition group

(Newser) - Iran today hanged Ali-Akbar Siadat after convicting him of “spreading corruption on earth,” “supporting the Zionist regime,” and “opposing the Islamic republic" as a spy for Israel. According to Iranian authorities, Siadat met with Israel repeatedly over the course of six years, traveling to such...

Documents Detail California's Search for Death Row Drugs

Undertaking reads like spy fiction

(Newser) - The e-mail from one California prison official to another almost reads like something out of a spy novel: "May have a secret and important mission for you." Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation undersecretary Scott Kernan sent that message to assistant secretary Anthony Chaus on Sept. 29. The "...

California's About to Execute a Framed Man
California's About
to Execute a Framed Man
Nicholas Kristof
Dec 9, 2010 1:54 PM CST

California's About to Execute a Framed Man

Case shows everything that's wrong with the death penalty

(Newser) - Judges around the country are decrying an upcoming California execution, because there’s ample reason to believe the condemned man was framed by police. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to hear the case of Kevin Cooper, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times explains, despite an extraordinary...

Texas Could Soon Rule Death Penalty Unconstitutional

State has unfair risk of wrongful conviction, lawyers will argue

(Newser) - In Texas of all places, the death penalty could soon be declared unconstitutional. The state (which leads the US in number of executions since 1976, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice ) has a disproportionately high number of wrongful convictions, attorneys will argue at a hearing Monday. Twelve...

UK Blocks Export of Popular Execution Drug to US

Thiopental sodium can't be exported for use in executions

(Newser) - Soon, the US will no longer be able to execute criminals using thiopental sodium from the UK. The UK government will issue an order requiring suppliers of the anesthetic to obtain a license before exporting to the US—and if there is a risk it will be used in executions,...

Somali Militants Execute Teens
 Somali Militants Execute Teens 
Nov 23, 2010 10:05 AM CST

Somali Militants Execute Teens

The two boys were accused of molestation, spying, respectively

(Newser) - Militants from Somalia's most feared insurgent group used a firing squad to execute two teenagers in public yesterday, say witnesses and officials. The executions took place in front of hundreds of people summoned to witness the killings in the capital. The firing squad was made up of five masked men....

Pakistani Troops Appear to Kill Unarmed Men on Tape

Pakistan says it's jihadist propaganda

(Newser) - A blurry amateur video has surfaced that appears to show Pakistani troops lining up and gunning down six blindfolded young men, in what would appear to be an unlawful execution. A group called the International Pashtuns’ Association posted the video to Facebook, saying it was shot during the military’s...

Drug Shortage Puts Executions on Hold

Lethal injection ingredient in short supply

(Newser) - Executions by lethal injection have been put on hold in several states because of a shortage of a key ingredient for the killer shot. Sodium thiopental—generally used to render the condemned unconscious before other drugs are injected, although Ohio and Washington use it to kill—is in short supply...

Ga. Executes Inmate Who Attempted Suicide

Triple murderer dies by lethal injection

(Newser) - A Georgia inmate who tried to kill himself last week was executed by lethal injection last night after the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal for a stay of execution. Brandon Rhode, 31—convicted of the 1998 murders of a trucking company owner, his 11-year-old son, and his 15-year-old daughter—...

Virginia Executes Teresa Lewis

She conspired in the murder of her husband and stepson

(Newser) - Virginia has executed 41-year-old Teresa Lewis by lethal injection for conspiring in the murder of her husband and stepson. Lewis' case drew attention around the world because she is the first woman executed in the US in 5 years and the first in Virginia in nearly a century. Her supporters...

Execution Delayed After Inmate's Suicide Attempt

Georgia reschedules death shot for Friday

(Newser) - Georgia officials have delayed the execution of an inmate who tried to take his own life hours before the state was scheduled to take it. Convicted murdered Brandon Rhode slit his wrists and throat before he was due to die by lethal injection yesterday, AP reports. Georgia's Supreme Court granted...

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