Category Archives: Capital punishment

US halts all federal executions amid review of capital punishment

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Attorney general orders temporary pause following historic use of death penalty under Trump administration

The US attorney general has imposed a moratorium on all federal executions while the justice department reviews its policies and procedures on capital punishment. Civil rights and criminal justice advocates have been pushing for a halt following a wave of controversial executions under the Trump administration.

Citing the disproportionate impact of capital punishment on people of color, and deep controversy over the drugs used to put people to death, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, ordered a temporary pause on scheduling executions.

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South Carolina court blocks executions, saying inmates must have choice of firing squad

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New law says death row prisoners must choose between electric chair and firing squad if lethal drugs aren’t available

South Carolina’s supreme court has blocked the planned executions of two inmates by electrocution, saying they cannot be put to death until they truly have the choice of the firing squad option set out in the state’s newly revised capital punishment law.

The high court on Wednesday halted this month’s scheduled executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, writing that corrections officials need to put together a firing squad so that inmates can really choose between that or the electric chair.

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Outcry as Saudi Arabia executes young Shia man for ‘rebellion’

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Rights groups say Mustafa bin Hashim bin Isa al-Darwish was a minor when alleged offences committed

Saudi Arabia has executed a young man who was convicted on charges stemming from his participation in an anti-government rebellion by minority Shia Muslims. A leading rights group said his trial was “deeply flawed”.

It was unclear whether Mustafa bin Hashim bin Isa al-Darwish, 26, was executed for crimes committed as a minor, according to Amnesty International. The rights group said he was detained in 2015 for alleged participation in riots between 2011 and 2012.

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Texas executes Quintin Jones by lethal injection without media witnesses

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Prison agency officials didn’t notify reporters, marking first time in at least 40 years that press wasn’t present at an execution

Texas inmate Quintin Jones was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday without media witnesses present.

The press could not witness the death of the 41-year-old because prison agency officials neglected to notify reporters it was time to carry out the punishment, according to the Associated Press. It was the first time in at least 40 years that media was not present at an execution.

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North Carolina jury awards $75m to brothers wrongly convicted of 1983 murder

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Henry McCollum and Leon Brown spent decades in jail before DNA evidence cleared them of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl

A jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case has awarded $75m to two, intellectually disabled half-brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

The eight-person jury on Friday decided Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who are both Black, should received $31m each in compensatory damages, $1m for every year spent in prison, the News & Observer reported. The jury also awarded them $13m in punitive damages.

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Virginia becomes the first southern state to end the death penalty

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Ban comes after a yearslong battle by Democrats in the state, which previously had US’s second-highest number of executions

Virginia has become the 23rd US state and the first in the south to abolish the death penalty, a dramatic shift for the commonwealth which previously had the nation’s second-highest number of executions.

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Reprieve for Alabama death row inmate requesting pastor

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Willie B Smith III’s lethal injection was called off after the US supreme court says state cannot proceed without pastor present

An Alabama inmate won a reprieve from a planned lethal injection after the US supreme court said the state must allow his personal pastor in the death chamber.

Thursday’s scheduled execution of Willie B Smith III was called off by Alabama officials after the justices maintained an injunction issued by the 11th US circuit court of appeals, saying he could not be executed without his pastor present in chamber.

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Pakistan ends death penalty for prisoners with severe mental health problems

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Supreme court ruling welcomed by rights activists who say it opens the way to broader prison reforms

In a landmark decision, Pakistan’s supreme court ruled this week that prisoners with serious mental health problems cannot be executed for their crimes.

The verdict was hailed by rights activists, who said it laid the groundwork for broader prison reforms in the country.

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Civil and human rights groups urge Biden to end federal death penalty

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Coalition is calling on president to commute sentences of all 49 federal death row inmates

A coalition of leading US civil and human rights groups is calling on Joe Biden immediately to commute the sentences of all 49 federal death row inmates and reinstate a moratorium on executions carried out by the US government.

Related: Virginia all but certain to become first southern state to abolish death penalty

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Joe Biden urged to commute sentences of all 49 federal death row prisoners

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Led by two prominent African American congresswomen, 35 Democrats have urged Joe Biden to commute the sentences of all 49 federal prisoners left on death row – days after the Trump administration finished its rush to kill 13 such prisoners.

Related: 'This is not justice': supreme court liberals slam Trump's federal executions

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‘This is not justice’: supreme court liberals slam Trump’s federal executions

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The supreme court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer have excoriated the Trump administration for carrying out its 13th and final federal execution days before the president leaves office.

Related: Dustin Higgs becomes 13th and final federal prisoner executed under Trump

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Lisa Montgomery: US carries out first federal execution of a woman in nearly seven decades

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Lisa Montgomery pronounced dead on Wednesday morning after supreme court cleared path for her death

A Kansas woman was executed early on Wednesday, the first time in nearly seven decades that the US government has put to death a female inmate.

Lisa Montgomery, 52, was pronounced dead at 1.31am after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. She was the 11th prisoner to receive a lethal injection there since July when Donald Trump, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus.

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Lisa Montgomery: US judge grants another stay of execution

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First federal execution of woman in 67 years halted as judge cites need to determine her mental competence

A judge has granted another stay in what was slated to be the US government’s first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades.

Judge Patrick Hanlon granted the stay late on Monday, citing the need to determine Lisa Montgomery’s mental competence, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

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‘A lifetime of torture’: the story of the woman Trump is rushing to execute

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Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on death row, was found guilty of an ‘especially heinous’ crime – but those who have looked deeply into her agonized life see it differently

Lisa Montgomery’s first experiences of sexual abuse occurred indirectly when she was three years old. She would lie in bed at night beside her beloved half-sister Diane, close enough to touch, while Diane, then eight, was being raped by their male babysitter.

At the age of 11, Montgomery learnt what it was like to be attacked herself. Her stepfather Jack, a “mean drunk” who regularly beat her and her mother, began raping her once or twice a week.

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Execution of only woman on US federal death row can go ahead, court rules

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Lisa Montgomery, who strangled a pregnant woman and cut her baby out of her belly, is set to be executed by lethal injection on 12 January

A US appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before president-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The ruling, handed down on Friday by a three-judge panel on the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, concluded that a lower court judge erred when he vacated Lisa Montgomery’s execution date in an order last week.

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Death row inmate who survived execution attempt dies in prison

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  • Romell Broom, 64, dies of probable Covid in Ohio
  • Lethal injection called off in 2009 when no vein could be found

An Ohio death row inmate who survived an attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2009 has died of possible complications of Covid-19, the state prisons system said.

Related: US judge again delays execution of woman on federal death row

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US death row prisoner Dustin Higgs petitions Trump for clemency

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In a last-ditch effort to stay alive, Dustin Higgs, a federal death row prisoner set to be put to death next month as part of the Trump administration’s flurry of executions in its final days in office, has petitioned the president for clemency.

Related: Trump administration has executed more Americans than all states combined, report finds

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Japan’s ‘Twitter killer’ sentenced to death

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Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, admitted killing nine people he befriended online after they expressed suicidal thoughts

A court in Japan has sentenced to death a man dubbed the “Twitter killer” for the murders in 2017 of nine people whom he befriended online after they had expressed suicidal thoughts.

Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, admitted strangling and dismembering his victims, eight of whom were women, over the course of three months. The youngest was 15 and the oldest 26.

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Trump administration puts second man to death in two days

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Alfred Bourgeois’s IQ put him in the intellectually disabled category, which should have barred execution, lawyers say

The Trump administration continued its unprecedented series of post-election federal executions Friday by putting to death a Louisiana truck driver who abused and killed his two-year-old daughter.

Alfred Bourgeois, 56, was pronounced dead at 8.21pm eastern time after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

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‘Abolish the death penalty’: Brandon Bernard execution prompts wave of anger

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Elected officials and human rights groups in renewed plea for end to federal executions after Bernard, 40, put to death in Indiana

A wave of outrage from human rights group, activists, elected officials, and others over the execution Thursday night of federal prisoner Brandon Bernard continued to grow on Friday behind a coordinated call for the abolition of the death penalty.

Related: First US Covid vaccinations expected next week as FDA emergency approval appears close – live

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