Latest Death penalty controversy News
3 years after Pittsburgh synagogue attack, trial still ahead
PITTSBURGH (AP) — As the three-year mark since the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue approaches, survivors are planning now-familiar annual rituals of remembrance, the criminal case involving the suspect plods on, and the site is in line for restoration. The...
EXPLAINER: How mental illness law is changing Ohio death row
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A new Ohio law prohibiting the execution of people who had severe mental illness at the time of their crime has begun seeing its first implementations. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in January signed the bill into law covering killers diagnosed with...
Justices seem set to revive marathon bomber's death sentence
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sounded ready Wednesday to reinstate the death penalty for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. In more than 90 minutes of arguments, the court's six conservative justices seemed likely to embrace the Biden...
Man sues Oklahoma for records as state resumes executions
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A retired New York attorney is suing the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, saying its claim to have no records pertaining to the drugs it plans to use in upcoming executions “defies belief.” Fred Hodara, who filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in...
Texas executions face delays over religious rights claims
HOUSTON (AP) — Executions in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state face delays amid legal questions over Texas’ refusal to allow spiritual advisers to touch inmates and pray aloud as condemned individuals are being put to death. It’s unclear when Texas may...
Sister of slain Utah woman powerful anti-death penalty voice
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Sharon Wright Weeks’ face darkened and her eyes brimmed with tears when she began to describe a bone-chilling sound that haunts her every time she hears the name Ron Lafferty. “I’ve never heard anything like it before, and I haven’t heard...
Marathon bomber faces revived death sentence in high court
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will try to persuade the Supreme Court this week to reinstate the death penalty for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by arguing that a jury had no need to examine evidence that the government itself relied on at an earlier phase...
Oregon court ruling could eliminate death penalty for many
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Supreme Court struck down the death sentence of an inmate in a ruling Thursday that found lawmakers had fundamentally altered “prevailing societal standards” for executions with a 2019 law change. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports ...
Divided court upholds death sentence for man who killed 4
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The brutal killing of four people, including an 8-year-old child, justified the death sentence for an Ohio man and outweighed evidence presented on his behalf including a variety of mental health diagnoses, a divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday. ...
Catholic bishops urge Missouri leaders to end executions
Leaders of the four Roman Catholic dioceses in Missouri are urging state leaders to end the use of the death penalty, after a convicted killer of three was executed despite a request for clemency from the pope. Ernest Johnson was executed Tuesday evening, the first...
