Tag Archives: death penalty

SC Supreme Court Approves Death By Firing Squad

Charleston’s ABC affiliate reports: Gov. Henry McMaster has weighed in on the South Carolina Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the state’s three methods of execution. The state’s highest court, in a nearly 100-page opinion, upheld the firing quad, electric chair and lethal injection, along with the state’s death penalty itself, are legal. “The Supreme Court has rightfully upheld the rule of …

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Texas Executes Man Despite Doubts About His Guilt

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas executed Ivan Cantu Wednesday for the murder of his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée, James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchen. Prior to the state’s first execution of the year, post-trial evidence raising questions about Cantu’s guilt had persuaded jurors from his original trial to ask Texas courts to reconsider his case. A public campaign pushing to …

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Alabama Plans Second Execution By Nitrogen Gas

The Associated Press reports: Alabama is seeking to put a second inmate to death using nitrogen gas, a move that comes a month after the state carried out the first execution using the controversial new method. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office asked the Alabama Supreme Court on Wednesday to set an execution date for Alan Eugene Miller. The state …

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Louisiana Bill Would Allow Executions By Nitrogen

NBC News reports: A Louisiana lawmaker is proposing a bill that would allow for nitrogen gas to be used in executions in the event lethal injection is unavailable, making it the latest state to consider adopting the practice after Alabama put a man to death last month through the first-of-its-kind method. Rep. Nicholas Muscarello, a Republican who chairs the House’s …

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Ohio GOP Intros Bill Allowing Execution By Nitrogen

ABC News reports: Ohio lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow execution by nitrogen gas, a controversial practice critics call untested and lacking in evidence that it’s more humane than lethal injection, after Alabama became the first state to execute someone with nitrogen gas. Ohio state Reps. Phil Plummer and Brian Stewart, both Republicans, introduced legislation during a press …

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Ohio AG To Consider Adopting Execution By Nitrogen

The Associated Press reports: Republican state Attorney General Dave Yost scheduled a news conference Tuesday to discuss “next steps to kickstart” Ohio’s capital punishment system. He has expressed support for the nitrogen gas method used for the first time in Alabama last week, when convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was put to death with nitrogen gas administered through a …

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Alabama Carries Out Nation’s First Nitrogen Execution, Witnesses Say Prisoner Writhed In Agony For Minutes

The Birmingham News reports: Alabama Death Row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith on Thursday night became the first prisoner to die using a new untested method of execution in the United States—suffocation by nitrogen gas. The 58-year-old was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. In announcing the execution had been carried out, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey stated: “I …

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SCOTUS Allows Alabama To Use Nitrogen Execution

Courthouse News reports: The Supreme Court refused to pause an experimental execution in Alabama on Wednesday, allowing the state to move forward with the U.S.’s first oxygen deprivation execution. Kenneth Eugene Smith asked the Supreme Court to block Alabama’s second shot at carrying out his death sentence. In 2022, Alabama spent nearly two hours poking and prodding Smith while he …

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DeSantis Backs Death Penalty In Florida Child Sex Case

The Messenger reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Thursday voiced his support for prosecutors in the state’ decision to seek the death penalty for a man indicted for the sexual battery of a child. He noted it’s the first case to challenge Supreme Court decisions concerning rape since DeSantis signed legislation to “make pedophiles eligible for the death penalty.” The top …

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Alabama Supreme Court Approves Death By Nitrogen

The Associated Press reports: A divided Alabama Supreme Court said the state can execute an inmate with nitrogen gas, a method that has not previously been used carry out a death sentence. The all-Republican court in a 6-2 decision Wednesday granted the state attorney general’s request for an execution warrant for Kenneth Eugene Smith. The order did not specify the …

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Alabama Seeks To Execute Man Via “Nitrogen Hypoxia”

The Associated Press reports: Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen …

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Supreme Court Declines To Halt Execution By Alabama

The Birmingham News reports: Alabama has executed James Barber for the 2001 beating death of a 75-year-old Madison County woman. The execution early Friday morning at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore came after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Barber, 64, to stop the lethal injection execution because he claimed the previous two attempts on other inmates in …

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DeSantis Makes Child Rapists Eligible For Death Penalty

USA Today reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law a measure making child rape subject to the death penalty, defying a United States Supreme Court ruling. “In Florida, we stand for the protection of children,” DeSantis said at a Monday press conference in Brevard County. “We think that in the worst of the worst cases the only appropriate …

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DeSantis Gets Bill To Lower Threshold For Death Penalty

The Washington Post reports: Florida House lawmakers have approved a bill that would lower the state’s threshold for the death penalty and make it one of the few states to allow the death penalty without a unanimous jury recommendation. The bill, which passed the state House on Thursday in an 80-30 vote and passed the Senate last month, allows capital …

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FL Advances Death Penalty Bill For Child Sexual Abuse

Slate reports: Despite long-standing Supreme Court precedent directing that the proposal is unconstitutional, Florida legislators this month are seeking to broaden the death penalty to non-homicide crimes. The proposal has Gov. Ron DeSantis’ full support. On Tuesday, the Florida Senate Rules Committee approved the bill. Specifically, the bill seeks to broaden the death penalty to sexual battery crimes against children. …

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ID Gov Signs Bill Allowing Executions By Firing Squad

The Associated Press reports: Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a bill allowing execution by firing squad, making Idaho the latest state to turn to older methods of capital punishment amid a nationwide shortage of lethal-injection drugs. The Legislature passed the measure March 20 with a veto-proof majority. Under it, firing squads will be used only if the state cannot obtain …

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DeSantis Calls For “Supermajority” Death Penalty Law

Florida Politics reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis started out his week with the Florida Sheriff’s Association (FSA), where he discussed his desire to allow juries to administer the death penalty via a supermajority vote, rather than requiring unanimity. “Fine, have a supermajority. But you can’t just say one person (can decide against the death penalty). So maybe eight out of 12 …

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Outgoing Oregon Gov Commutes All Death Sentences

The Oregonian reports: Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday that she would commute the sentences of all 17 individuals on Oregon’s death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the latest in her end-of-term string of clemency decisions. “I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in …

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SCOTUS Rejects Death Penalty Appeal By Dylann Roof

ABC News reports: The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Dylann Roof, who challenged his death sentence and conviction in the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. Roof had asked the court to decide how to handle disputes over mental illness-related evidence between capital defendants and their attorneys. The justices did not comment …

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SC Judge: Firing Squad, Electric Chair Unconstitutional

USA Today reports: A South Carolina judge has found that the firing squad and electric chair are prohibited by the state’s constitution, a decision sure to be swiftly appealed as the state struggles to implement its new execution protocols. In an order filed Tuesday evening, Judge Jocelyn Newman ruled that the South Carolina Department of Corrections is permanently barred from …

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