death sentence

Stories 101 - 120 | << Prev   Next >>

An Infamous Death-Row Teen Goes Free

Paula Cooper, sentenced at 16, saw death sentence commuted

(Newser) - In 1985 at age 15, Paula Cooper was arrested for the murder of a 78-year-old Indiana Bible study teacher. The following year she was sentenced to death, making the then-16-year-old the youngest person on Death Row. Controversy followed, over her age and the purported racism in the criminal justice system...

Jodi Arias Stuck in Limbo: Jury Split on Sentence

Now a new jury must be selected

(Newser) - First Jodi Arias said she wanted the death penalty; then, she made a long case against it . Now, it seems, the jury can't make up its mind either: It split 8-4 in favor of the death penalty. That left the judge to declare a mistrial, with another effort set...

Jodi Arias: Give Me Death Penalty

'Death is the ultimate freedom'

(Newser) - Now that she's been convicted of murder , Jodi Arias would prefer the death penalty to life in prison, she told Fox 10 Phoenix immediately after the verdict was given. "The worst outcome for me would be natural life ... Longevity runs in my family, and I don't want...

Bali Sentences Brit Granny to Death Over Cocaine

She says gang forced her to smuggle the drug

(Newser) - An Indonesian court sentenced a British grandmother to death today for smuggling cocaine worth $2.5 million in her suitcase onto the resort island of Bali—even though prosecutors had sought only a 15-year sentence. Lindsay Sandiford, 56, wept when judges handed down the sentence and declined to speak to...

Iraq Sentences Fugitive VP to Death ... Again

Tariq al-Hashemi is tried in absentia

(Newser) - Apparently one death sentence wasn't enough for Tariq al-Hashemi. An Iraqi court today convicted the country's Sunni vice president on charges of ordering bodyguards to assassinate a senior government official and sentenced him to death—the second death sentence for al-Hashemi in less than two months. Both sentences...

Man Who Set Deadly Wildfire May Get Death Sentence

Jury recommends it in 2003 California fire

(Newser) - A jury has recommended death for an arsonist convicted of murdering five men who died of heart attacks during a wildfire that ripped through Southern California nearly a decade ago. The murder charges against Rickie Lee Fowler, 31, signaled a tough new standard for such cases. The Old Fire scorched...

Iraq Court Sentences Sunni VP to Death

Tariq al-Hashemi found guilty of running death squads

(Newser) - An Iraqi court today found the nation's Sunni vice president guilty of running death squads against security forces and Shiites, and sentenced him to death in absentia. Tariq al-Hashemi, who has denied the charges, was not in court to hear the verdict. He fled the country after the terror...

Scott Peterson Appeals Death Sentence

Lawyer alleges juror misconduct, bias, evidence problems

(Newser) - Scott Peterson is still protesting his innocence in the murder of pregnant wife Laci in 2002, and has filed an automatic appeal of his death sentence with the California Supreme Court. Peterson was sentenced in 2004 after a highly publicized trial, and his lawyer argues in the 423-page document that...

600 Miles and 25 Years Apart, Brothers Sentenced to Die

Rodney, Roger Berget led troubled lives

(Newser) - Twelve years after his older brother Roger Berget was executed for killing a man, Rodney Berget sits on South Dakota's death row awaiting his own death sentence. Roger was convicted in 1987 of murdering a man for his car and was put to death in Oklahoma at age 39;...

Iran Lifts Death Sentence for American 'Spy'

Amir Mirzai Hekmati's case wasn't 'complete': high court

(Newser) - Iran's Supreme Court judges have overturned an American's death sentence for alleged spying , saying that his case was "not complete." The high court has handed Amir Mirzai Hekmati's case to an affiliate court, the BBC reports. Hekmati was convicted of "co-operating with a hostile...

New Death Sentences Hit 35-Year Low

Just 78 sentenced this year: new report

(Newser) - The number of death sentences handed down this year dropped 30% compared to last, hitting the lowest level in 35 years, according to a new report. Just 78 people were sentenced to death this year—marking "the first time we've had fewer than 100 new death sentences in...

Saddam Crony Tariq Aziz Will Hang

Death sentence for Iraq's elderly former foreign minister

(Newser) - Saddam Hussein's foreign minister Tariq Aziz was sentenced to death by hanging today for persecuting members of Shiite religious parties under the former regime. Iraq's high criminal court spokesman Mohammed Abdul Sahib did not say when the 74-year-old would be put to death. The death sentence was for a conviction...

Mumbai Gunman Sentenced to Death

Crowds celebrate

(Newser) - Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, was sentenced to death today by an Indian court, three days after the Pakistani was found guilty of murder and waging war against India. "Such a person can't be given an opportunity to reform himself,...

Supreme Court Rules Against Ex-Panther on Death Sentence

Abu-Jamal case goes back to appeals court

(Newser) - The Supreme Court has reversed a ruling that would have nullified the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The former Black Panther, convicted in the shooting of a Philadelphia police officer back in 1981, has argued that racism pervaded his trial and sentencing, and that there weren’t enough blacks on...

'Chemical Ali' Gets a Fourth Death Sentence

Saddam's notorious cousin sentenced for Halabja attack that killed 5600

(Newser) - Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was convicted today of crimes against humanity, receiving a fourth death sentence for his involvement in one of the worst poison gas attacks ever against civilians. Families of victims cheered when the judge handed down the guilty verdict against Ali Hassan al-Majid in...

Iran Sentences 5 to Death for Election Protests

Brings total condemned in turmoil to eight

(Newser) - Five people have been sentenced to death over the unrest that followed Iran's disputed June presidential election, according to state television reports. The report quotes a statement by the Justice Department saying the five sentenced were members of terrorist and armed opposition groups.

Lifer Seeks Better Life on Death Row

Killer eyes amenities that come with capital punishment

(Newser) - Living on death row looks like a better deal than dying as a lifer, convicted killer Billy Joe Johnson told a California jury yesterday. "You get out of your confined cell a little more," said Johnson, whose trial has moved to the penalty phase after he was found...

Chinese Court Sentences 6 to Death for Ethnic Riots

All the condemned appear to be Uighurs

(Newser) - A court in China's far western Xinjiang region sentenced six men to death today over riots between Muslim Uighurs and members of the Han Chinese majority that killed nearly 200 people in July. The sentences—the first for any of the scores of suspects arrested in the rioting—appeared aimed...

Iranian Election Protester Sentenced to Death

Capital sentence is first since June crackdown

(Newser) - An Iranian political dissident has become the first person arrested during June's post-election protests to be sentenced to death. Muhammad-Reza Ali-Zamani is a member of the Kingom Assembly of Iran, which seeks to undo the Islamic revolution and restore the shah to power. News of the sentence, which was handed...

Gitmo Trial Could Pose a Big Dilemma for Obama
Gitmo Trial Could Pose a Big Dilemma
for Obama
OPINION
Dec 9, 2008 1:49 PM CST

Gitmo Trial Could Pose a Big Dilemma for Obama

Death penalty or move case to US courts?

(Newser) - If the trial of alleged 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed carries over into Barack Obama’s presidency, it would mean a “messy” moral decision for the president-elect: Follow through with a Mohammed death sentence, or overturn it and move the Guantanamo case to US courts, writes Bronwen Maddox in...

Stories 101 - 120 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser