death penalty

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

Supreme Court Throws Out a High-Profile Death Sentence

Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip had been served a last meal 3 times

(Newser) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the murder conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man who has steadfastly maintained his innocence and averted multiple attempts by the state to execute him. The justices found that Glossip's trial violated his constitutional rights, reports the AP . The...

Longtime Death-Row Inmate Dies Ahead of March Execution

'Justice should have been delivered long ago,' Louisiana AG says of death of 81-year-old inmate

(Newser) - The oldest inmate on Louisiana's death row, a terminally ill man convicted of killing his young stepson in the early '90s, has died, just weeks before he was set to be executed. The state's Department of Public Safety and Corrections announced that 81-year-old Christopher Sepulvado died Saturday...

2 Men Executed an Hour Apart
2 Men Executed,
One Hour Apart
Feb 14, 2025 1:00 AM CST

2 Men Executed, One Hour Apart

Richard Lee Tabler executed in Texas after James Dennis Ford put to death in Florida

(Newser) - Texas and Florida both carried out executions Thursday night, about an hour apart:
  • In Florida, James Dennis Ford was put to death via lethal injection, USA Today reports. In 1997, Ford invited his co-worker Gregory Malnory and Malnory's wife, Kimberly, on a fishing trip to a sod farm. They
...

He Hates the Death Penalty, Advocates for Firing Squads

Texas doctor views them as the most humane method of execution

(Newser) - James Williams, an ER doctor in Texas, occupies what for him is an uncomfortable place in the conversation about the death penalty. He tells the Marshall Project that he is "mostly opposed to capital punishment," and yet he has emerged as perhaps the nation's foremost expert on...

Alabama Carries Out Nation's 4th Nitrogen Gas Execution

Man was also convicted of a murder in Michigan

(Newser) - An Alabama man convicted of murdering a woman after breaking into her apartment as she slept was put to death Thursday evening in the nation's fourth execution using nitrogen gas, the AP reports. Demetrius Frazier, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:36pm at a south Alabama prison for his...

Texas Executes Man Who Robbed, Killed Pastor

Steven Lawayne Nelson died by lethal injection

(Newser) - A Texas man convicted of beating and suffocating a Dallas-area pastor in his church during a robbery was put to death Wednesday evening, the second execution in the US this year and the first of four scheduled in Texas over the next three months, the AP reports. Steven Lawayne Nelson,...

South Carolina Readies for Third Execution in 4 Months

State is clearing a backlog of Death Row prisoners since it got its hands on pentobarbital again

(Newser) - South Carolina is preparing to execute the third inmate since September as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn't find lethal injection drugs. Marion Bowman Jr.'s execution is scheduled for 6pm Friday at a Columbia prison, reports the...

Trump Signs Death Penalty Order
Trump Signs
Death Penalty Order
Jan 21, 2025 1:00 AM CST

Trump Signs Death Penalty Order

He directs attorney general to help states get lethal injection drugs

(Newser) - President Trump signed a sweeping execution order Monday on the death penalty that directs the attorney general to "take all necessary and lawful action" to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions, the AP reports. Trump's order, coming just hours after he returned...

Tennessee Muddies Up Its Execution Manual

State releases a shorter, redacted version of guidelines for carrying out death penalty

(Newser) - Tennessee on Thursday released a redacted version of its new execution manual, blacking out sporadic titles and team names throughout the trimmed-down document that now provides vague guidelines and omits previously detailed steps on carrying out the death penalty. The Department of Correction initially would not hand over the manual...

Leader Once Sentenced to Die Abolishes Death Penalty

Zimbabwe hasn't executed anybody in almost 20 years

(Newser) - Zimbabwe has abolished the death penalty, a widely expected move in a country that last carried out the punishment nearly two decades ago. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was sentenced to death during the country's war of independence from white minority rule, approved the law this week after a bill...

Trump Vows to 'Vigorously' Pursue Death Penalty

He blasts Biden's decision to commute sentences of almost all federal death row inmates

(Newser) - President-elect Trump won't be able to undo President Biden's decision to commute the sentences of most of the inmates on federal death row, but he plans to expand the use of the death penalty when he takes office. "As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct...

The Three Inmates Left on Federal Death Row

Another four remain on military death row

(Newser) - President Biden commuted the sentence s of 37 of the 40 prisoners on federal death row to life without parole Monday. The three men whose lives he declined to spare were all sentenced to death within the past 10 years. All three were convicted of mass killings motivated by hate...

Biden Commutes 37 of 40 Federal Death Row Sentences

President converts them to life terms

(Newser) - President Biden announced Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment mere weeks before President-elect Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings,...

Man Who Killed 5 Women in Bank Sentenced to Death

'May God have mercy on your soul,' Florida judge tells Zephen Xaver

(Newser) - A former prison guard trainee who executed five women inside a Florida bank almost six years ago was sentenced to death on Monday as a judge called the slayings calculated, heinous, and cruel. Zephen Xaver, 27, appeared to gulp but otherwise showed no emotion as Circuit Judge Angela Cowden pronounced...

Missouri Is Running Out of Inmates to Execute

There are now just 8 condemned inmates in state, down from nearly 100 in 1997

(Newser) - Missouri's status as one of the most active death penalty states is about to change for one simple reason: The state is running out of inmates to execute. The lethal injection of Christopher Collings on Dec. 3 left just eight men on death row—a figurative term since condemned...

Indiana Preps for an Execution After 15-Year Pause

Joseph Corcoran's execution is scheduled for Wednesday

(Newser) - Indiana officials are preparing to execute the state's first death row inmate in 15 years, a man who was convicted a quarter-century ago of killing his brother and three other men, the AP reports. Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on Indiana's death row since 1999. If he is...

Pressure on Biden to Commute All Federal Death Sentences

Some fear the 40 inmates on federal death row risk hanging under Trump

(Newser) - No president has ever issued a mass commutation of federal death sentences, but that's exactly what advocates are asking of President Biden in his final days in office. Several letters asking Biden to commute the sentences of all 40 people on federal death row to life in prison without...

To Escape Execution, She'll Need to Find $9B

Vietnamese tycoon Truong My Lan loses initial appeal of death sentence, but hope remains

(Newser) - One of Vietnam's richest women, sentenced to death over what the BBC calls "the world's biggest bank fraud," has lost her appeal. But real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, found to have embezzled $12.5 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank, could still avoid execution—if she...

After 2-Year Pause, Executions Will Resume in Arizona

State plans to seek execution warrant for Aaron Brian Gunches

(Newser) - Executions will resume in Arizona following a two-year pause, the state's top prosecutor says. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement sent to the Associated Press on Wednesday that she will soon seek an execution warrant for Aaron Brian Gunches, who is on death row after being...

Alabama Prisoner Curses, Gives Middle Finger Before Execution

Carey Dale Grayson became the 3rd person put to death in the US using nitrogen gas

(Newser) - An Alabama man convicted in the 1994 killing of a hitchhiker cursed at the prison warden and made obscene gestures with his hands shortly before he was put to death Thursday evening in the nation's third execution using nitrogen gas, the AP reports. Carey Dale Grayson, 50, was executed...

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>