death penalty

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China to Stop Using Organs From Executed Prisoners

But new supply may be hard to find

(Newser) - China says that on Jan. 1, in response to human rights concerns, it will cease transplanting organs taken from executed prisoners, although uncertainties linger over where a replacement supply will come from, state media reported today. China had previously said it would phase out the practice by sometime in early...

2nd Inmate Freed in Crazy Chicago Death-Row Case

Crime figures in why Illinois scrapped the death penalty

(Newser) - A man wrongly convicted in a 1982 double murder in Chicago is being set free after 15 years, reports CBS Chicago . But this is not your typical case of this variety: Alstory Simon is actually the second person to be freed after a murder conviction for the crime, which is...

China's Pimps May No Longer Face Death

Death penalty could be dropped for 9 non-violent offenses

(Newser) - Good news for China's pimps, counterfeiters, and ammunition smugglers: Their crimes are among those that the government plans to stop punishing with death. A plan put before the National People's Congress yesterday eliminates the death penalty for nine non-violent offenses but still leaves 46 capital crimes on the...

Prosecutors Call for Ferry Captain's Death

Lee Joon-seok 'supplied the cause,' they say

(Newser) - Prosecutors want the captain of a South Korean ferry that sank in April and killed 300 people, mostly schoolchildren, put to death. Prosecutors concluded their case today against Lee Joon-seok by saying he "supplied the cause" that sunk the Sewol, and therefore "has the heaviest responsibility for the...

Pope Francis: Let's Abolish Life Sentences

They are nothing more than a 'hidden death penalty,' he says

(Newser) - That Pope Francis spoke out today against capital punishment is no big surprise. But he made headlines by coming out against life sentences as well, reports the Guardian . In a speech to the International Association of Penal Law, the pope urged all "people of good will" to fight for...

Iran to Hang Woman for Killing Would-Be Rapist

Rayhaneh Jabbari maintains her act of self-defense didn't kill the man

(Newser) - It appears Rayhaneh Jabbari will not die today, but the 26-year-old Iranian woman's plight continues to grab international headlines. Jabbari has been sentenced to death for the 2007 killing of a would-be rapist, and Fox News yesterday reported that she managed to place a phone call to her mother...

Texas Executes Woman Who Starved, Tortured Boy

Lisa Coleman guilty in 9-year-old's death

(Newser) - A Texas woman convicted of the starvation and torture death of her girlfriend's 9-year-old son a decade ago was executed this evening. Lisa Coleman, 38, received a lethal injection after the Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal to spare her. She was pronounced dead at 6:24pm local time,...

Texas Executes Killer After Appeals Fail

Supreme Court opts not to stop lethal injection of Willie Trottie

(Newser) - Texas today executed a man for killing his ex-girlfriend and her brother more than two decades ago in Houston. Willie Trottie's lethal injection was carried out about 90 minutes after the Supreme Court rejected his last-day appeals. Trottie, 45, contended he had poor legal help at his trial and...

Death Penalty Foes Should Cut the Appeals to Human Dignity

They'd have better luck portraying it as a big-government failure: Daniel LaChance

(Newser) - Support for the death penalty is declining in the US, but it doesn't have much to do with botched executions or moral outrage, writes Daniel LaChance in the New York Times . Nope, it's mostly because the death penalty just isn't what it used to be: Executions often...

IV Line in Botched Execution Wasn't Properly Monitored: Report

Intravenous line in Clayton Lockett's groin caused problems, review says

(Newser) - A review of a botched Oklahoma execution in April says an improperly monitored IV line likely caused problems in administering three lethal drugs. The report released today by the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety noted that a paramedic and physician inserted the intravenous line in Clayton Lockett's groin after...

Half-Brothers Cleared of Murder After 30 Years

DNA evidence reveals wrongful conviction of NC teens

(Newser) - Two mentally disabled half-brothers in North Carolina have spent the last 30 years locked up for a murder they didn't commit, DNA evidence has revealed. Leon Brown and Henry McCollum were 15 and 19 years old, respectively, in 1983 when they were arrested for the rape and murder of...

Inmates Sue, Call Electric Chair 'Torture Device'

Tennessee convicts say it shouldn't be alternative to lethal injection

(Newser) - Death-row inmates in Tennessee have sued the state over its possible use of the electric chair to kill them, reports the Tennessean . "Even when the chair works exactly as it is intended, it is a torture device," says an attorney for the inmates. The move stems from the...

In a First, India Executing Women: Sister Serial Killers

Pair convicted of murdering five kids, suspected in other killings

(Newser) - Serial killer sisters, who kidnapped and murdered at least five children, are poised to become the first women hanged in India, reports the Washington Post . “This is indeed one of the rarest of the rare cases where the perpetrators deserve the death sentence,” a human rights lawyer tells...

In Arizona, State Makes Up Execution Rules as It Goes
In Arizona, State Makes Up Execution Rules as It Goes
INVESTIGATION
Aug 18, 2014 2:34 PM CDT

In Arizona, State Makes Up Execution Rules as It Goes

Times investigation shows history of botched, improvised executions

(Newser) - The botched execution of Joseph Wood last month in Arizona showed that the state Corrections Department was "making it up as it went along,” says Wood's public defender. Now a New York Times investigation suggests the incident may be part of a greater pattern. Wood's lawyer...

Inmate Takes 2 Hours to Die in Arizona Execution

Lawyers for Joseph Wood tried to stop procedure after an hour

(Newser) - Another botched execution? Arizona executed a murderer today, but it took Joseph Rudolph Wood nearly two hours to die, reports the Arizona Republic . It took so long that Wood's lawyers filed an emergency appeal to stop the procedure after an hour because they say their 55-year-old client was still...

Supreme Court OKs Drug Secrecy in Ariz. Execution

Joseph Wood's 1st Amendment case turned down

(Newser) - The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Arizona to execute an inmate whose lawyers argued that he had a right to know more about how he was to be killed. The court sided with the state against Joseph Rudolph Wood, who could be executed as soon as this morning,...

California's Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional

Federal judge says systemic delays amount to cruel and unusual punishment

(Newser) - A potentially huge ruling on the death penalty out of California: A federal judge says the state's system of capital punishment is so inept that California must stop killing inmates, period, reports NBC Bay Area . The decision by US District Judge Cormac J. Carney isn't about the ongoing...

Child Bride in Iran Faces Hanging for Killing Husband

Human Rights Watch trying to stop execution

(Newser) - Human Rights Watch is trying to raise pressure on judges in Iran to call off the execution of a 21-year-old woman who killed her husband four years ago. Razieh Ebrahimi’s father forced her to marry a neighbor at age 14, and she gave birth to a child at...

Florida Executes Killer
 Florida Executes Killer 
Jun 18, 2014 7:35 PM CDT

Florida Executes Killer

John Ruthell Henry is third US execution in 24 hours

(Newser) - Florida has executed a man who fatally stabbed his wife and her young son in 1985—the third US execution in less than 24 hours since Oklahoma's botched procedure in April . The governor's office says John Ruthell Henry was pronounced dead at 7:43pm after a lethal injection....

First Executions Since Botched Injection Go Ahead

Georgia, Missouri carry out lethal injections

(Newser) - The nation's unofficial moratorium on the death penalty is over. Georgia executed 59-year-old murderer Marcus Wellons tonight with a dose of pentobarbital, reports the AP . Wellons is the first inmate put to death since Oklahoma's botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April. Wellons' attorneys had cited Lockett's...

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