Category Archives: Capital punishment

First Thing: Jeffrey Epstein advised Steve Bannon during 2018 pro-Trump media campaign

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Text messages released by US House show convicted sex offender coaching Maga influencer on political messaging. Plus, readers’ favourite photo booth moments 100 years after its invention

Good morning.

The convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein apparently served as a behind-the-scenes adviser to the former Trump official and Maga influencer Steve Bannon during an August 2018 media campaign to defend Trump and his agenda, and to promote Bannon’s media ventures.

What else has been released in the flood of recent Epstein emails? Among many, many other things, one email shows an exchange between him and an associate in which they discuss “girls” and travel. The justice department continues to downplay the possibility that other men were involved in Epstein’s abuse of teen girls.

What’s happening with rest of the Epstein files? Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote to release the files, after attempts to press two members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed.

What exactly is climate finance? Who pays it? And who gets it? Sixteen years ago, at the climate summit in Copenhagen, rich and polluting countries pledged to provide $100bn (£76bn) each year by 2020 so that poorer countries could cut their emissions and adapt to a hotter world. Last year, they set a new target of $300bn (£227bn) a year by 2035.

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Florida kills man on death row in state’s 16th execution this year

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Bryan Frederick Jennings, convicted over rape and murder of young girl in 1979, given three-drug lethal injection

A man found guilty in the 1979 rape and murder of a six-year-old girl was executed in Florida on Thursday.

Bryan Frederick Jennings was pronounced dead at 6.20pm local time after being administered a three-drug lethal injection. Jennings was sentenced to death for the killing of Rebecca Kunash, whom he drowned in a canal, according to reports.

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Olympians call on Iran to halt execution of boxing champion

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Sports personalities including Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies sign letter condemning Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani’s death sentence

More than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and other international athletes, including the tennis player Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies, have signed a letter calling for a halt to the execution of a boxing champion and coach, who is on death row in Iran.

Amid growing international outrage over Iran’s escalating use of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the strongly worded letter condemns the Iranian regime’s decision to uphold the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

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Tennessee man’s heart still active nearly two minutes after execution, lawyer says

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Allegation raises further questions about death of Byron Black in execution lawyer says was ‘100% botched’

A man executed on Tennessee death row showed signs of “sustained cardiac activity” for nearly two minutes after he was pronounced dead, his attorney said in court on Friday.

The allegation raises further questions about how the death of Byron Black unfolded and will increase scrutiny on capital punishment in Tennessee.

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Record 12th execution set in Florida this year for man convicted of killing family

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David Pittman to get lethal injection under DeSantis-signed warrant for killing estranged wife’s sister and parents

A Florida man convicted of killing his estranged wife’s sister and parents and setting their house on fire was scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday evening, which would be a record 12th execution in the state in 2025.

David Pittman, 63, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection starting at 6pm at Florida state prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. The Republican governor has signed more death warrants this year than any of his predecessors.

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Utah high court pauses firing squad execution of man with dementia

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Lower court to decide if Ralph Leroy Menzies, who killed Maurine Hunsaker in 1986, is competent to face execution

The impending execution of a man by firing squad in Utah was blocked by the state’s supreme court on Friday after his attorneys argued he should be spared because he has dementia.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed on 5 September for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. He would have become only the sixth US prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.

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Florida to execute man convicted of killing three people in 1992

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The killing of Curtis Windom, 59, by lethal injection will be a record 11th execution in the state this year

A man convicted of killing his girlfriend, her mother and a man he claimed owed him $2,000 is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday in what would be a record 11th execution in the state of Florida this year.

Curtis Windom, 59, would become the 30th person executed this year in the US, with Florida leading the way behind a flurry of death warrants signed by the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. A 12th man, David Joseph Pittman, 63, is scheduled to be put to death in Florida on 17 September.

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Pressure grows on Tanzania to free victim of domestic violence who has been on death row for 13 years

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Lemi Limbu, who was convicted of murdering her daughter, has severe intellectual disabilities and ‘absolutely should not be in prison’, say campaigners

Pressure is mounting on the Tanzanian government to release a woman with severe intellectual disabilities who has been in prison awaiting execution for 13 years.

Lemi Limbu, who is now in her early 30s, was convicted of the murder of her daughter in 2015. A survivor of brutal and repeated sexual and domestic violence, she has the developmental age of a child.

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The Tennessee execution that ‘went horribly wrong’: how Byron Black’s killing unfolded

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Witnesses say disabled death-row man was in distress upon gurney, while lawyer calls execution ‘100% botched’

For attorney Kelley Henry, the visible blood was the first indication that the execution of her client was going wrong.

At 10.15am on Tuesday inside the Riverbend maximum security prison in Nashville, the longtime Tennessee death row lawyer watched as staff attempted to place an IV into the right arm of Byron Black. Black was locked on to a gurney with crisscrossing black straps over his chest, stomach and legs, and Henry saw blood ooze from the injection site.

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Tennessee execution of man with heart device ‘result of pure cowardice’

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Byron Black, 69, put to death after legal battle in which lawyers said defibrillator would shock heart repeatedly

Tennessee has executed a man without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, despite uncertainty about whether the device would shock his heart when a lethal drug took effect.

Byron Black died at 10.43am, prison officials said. Shortly after the lethal injection started, witnesses said Black told a spiritual adviser in the room that he was hurting badly.

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Man convicted in 1994 rape and murder of Michelle McGrath put to death in Florida

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Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, died Tuesday by lethal injection at Florida state prison in state’s seventh execution this year

A man convicted of raping and killing a woman near a central Florida bar was executed Tuesday evening.

Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, was pronounced dead at 6.13pm after receiving a lethal injection at Florida state prison near Starke, said Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for the governor, Ron DeSantis.

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Mikal Mahdi killed by firing squad as South Carolina pushes execution spree

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Mahdi, who killed an officer in 2004, endured torture in his childhood and argued he was denied a fair trial

A prison firing squad in South Carolina executed Mikal Mahdi on Friday, the second recent death row killing in the state by authorized gunfire.

Mahdi, 42, was shot dead by corrections employees inside the execution chamber, where authorities have carried out a rapid spree of killings as South Carolina aggressively revives capital punishment.

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Exonerated prisoner awarded $1.4m after 46 years spent on death row in Japan

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Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest serving death row prisoner, had been wrongly convicted of a quadruple murder

A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded $1.4m in compensation, an official has said.

The payout represents 12,500 yen ($83) for each day of the 46 years that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last.

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Florida man executed for killing eight-year-old girl and her grandmother

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Edward James received three-drug lethal injection under death warrant signed in February by governor Ron DeSantis

A Florida man who killed an eight-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs was executed on Thursday.

Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8.15pm after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida state prison outside Starke under a death warrant signed in February by Governor Ron DeSantis. The execution was the second this year in Florida, which is planning a third in April.

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Oklahoma executes man by lethal injection amid spate of judicial killings

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Wendell Grissom, executed for fatally shooting a woman, will be one of four people put to death in US this week

Oklahoma executed a man on Thursday for fatally shooting a woman during a home invasion and robbery 20 years ago.

Wendell Grissom, 56, was declared dead by lethal injection at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester at 10.13am, a prison official told the Associated Press. It was Oklahoma’s first execution of 2025.

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Foreign minister ‘strongly condemns’ China’s executions of four Canadians

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Mélanie Joly says Ottawa would ask for leniency for other Canadians facing the same fate

Canada has strongly condemned the execution of four of its citizens who were put to death in China on drug-smuggling charges, amid lingering diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

The minister of foreign affairs, Mélanie Joly, said on Wednesday that all four were dual citizens and were executed earlier this year. She added that Ottawa would ask for leniency for other Canadians facing the same fate.

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‘Etched in my mind’: reporter describes South Carolina firing squad execution

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Jeffrey Collins of the Associated Press recalls experience of watching Brad Sigmon die for 2001 murders

A reporter for the Associated Press who watched as South Carolina executed a convicted murderer by firing squad has described the experience, saying that the killing was now “etched” in his mind.

Jeffrey Collins, who has witnessed executions in South Carolina for the news agency for 21 years and has seen 11 people killed using three methods, wrote a short essay about the experience.

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Firing squad could become Idaho’s main execution method if governor signs bill

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State senate passes bill as its sponsor suggests shooting someone is more effective and humane than other methods

Firing squads could become Idaho’s primary execution method under a bill headed to the governor’s desk this week.

The Idaho senate passed the bill on Wednesday, and if signed by governor Brad Little, it will take effect next year.

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Alabama governor commutes death sentence of man convicted for 1991 murder

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Kay Ivey says Robin ‘Rocky’ Myers, who maintains he was innocent, will serve life in prison without parole

The Alabama governor, Kay Ivey, on Friday commuted the death sentence of Robin “Rocky” Myers to life in prison after noting questions about his case.

Ivey said Myers, who was facing execution this spring, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. She noted that was the sentence jurors at his 1994 trial had recommended. A judge overruled that recommendation and imposed a death sentence, a maneuver that has since been outlawed in Alabama, according to the human rights advocacy organization Amnesty International.

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French man on death row in Indonesia expected to return home in two weeks, minister says

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Serge Atlaoui is expected to be transferred after an agreement was reached with the government in Paris, Yusril Ihza Mahendra says

A French man who has been on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for alleged drug offences is expected to return home in weeks after an Indonesian minister said an agreement would be signed on Friday to allow his transfer.

Serge Atlaoui is expected to return to France on 5 or 6 February, the senior minister for law and human rights affairs, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, told Reuters on Friday.

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