FEATURED POST

To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

Published
Image
You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
Post a Comment

Oklahoma DR Inmate Jeffrey David Matthews Set For Execution Tuesday

Published
Jeffrey David Matthews
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- After three stays of execution, an Oklahoma death row inmate is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday for the murder of his 77-year-old great-uncle almost 17 years ago.

Jeffrey David Matthews, 38, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the Jan. 27, 1994, slaying of Otis Earl Short during a robbery in the victim's McClain County home.

Matthews' execution was set three times last year but was stayed each time. Former Gov. Brad Henry twice granted stays to give defense attorneys time to investigate Matthews' claims of innocence. Execution dates of June 17 and July 20 were postponed while fingerprint evidence from the crime scene was re-examined and defense attorneys searched for other possible suspects.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation could not match the fingerprints to any other alleged suspect, according to an Aug. 9 letter to the state Pardon and Parole Board from Assistant Attorney General Seth Branham.

Matthews' next execution date, Aug. 17, was postponed after defense attorneys objected to corrections officials' plans to substitute one of three drugs in the lethal injection protocol because of a nationwide shortage. A federal judge ruled in November that the state could make the substitution.

Matthews' application for a fourth stay of execution was rejected Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for his execution at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester.

Prosecutors contended Matthews was one of two men who stormed into Short's home east of Rosedale. Trial testimony indicated Matthews shot Short once in the head at close range with a .45-caliber pistol and that the second man, Tracy Dyer, cut the throat of his wife, Minnie Short.

The men searched the house for almost two hours, eventually leaving in Otis Short's truck with $500 in cash and a .32-caliber pistol. Minnie Short survived the attack but later died of natural causes.

Matthews was arrested the day after the attacks. His 1995 trial was moved to Cleveland County because of pretrial publicity. He was tried a second time in 1999 after the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his first conviction.

Dyer, 36, was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges at a separate trial and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied Matthews' request for clemency on May 26. Members of the victim's family urged the board to reject Matthews' request to recommend that his life be spared.

"I do not believe in killing people but when someone so close to you is taken away you realize there are some people in this world that deserve justice, and he is one of them," Dawn Randolph, Short's great-grandchild, wrote in a letter to the Pardon and Parole Board.

Matthews requested a deep dish meat lover's pizza, fried shrimp with cocktail sauce and two hush puppies with vinegar for his last meal, said Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

Matthews would be the second Oklahoma death row inmate to be executed in as many weeks.

Billy Dawn Alverson, 39, was executed Thursday for the 1995 killing of a convenience store worker, marking the first execution in the U.S. this year. Crystal Drwenski, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said no other executions are scheduled.


Source: Associated Press, January 11, 2011
Related content:

Comments

Post a Comment

Constructive and informative comments are welcome. Please note that offensive and pro-death penalty comments will not be published.

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

Published
Image
You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
Read more

Indiana | Media unlikely to witness first execution in 15 years

Published
Image
Hoosier prison staffers, the condemned’s friends and family members, and the victims’ family members may soon witness the state of Indiana’s first execution since 2009. But it’s likely that no independent witnesses will be included. Joseph Corcoran, who killed four people in 1997, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 18. In Indiana, the death penalty is only available for the crime of murder. It will also be the state’s first time killing a prisoner with pentobarbital instead of a traditional three-drug cocktail.
Read more

Afghanistan | Taliban Carry Out Sixth Public Execution Since 2021

Published
Image
Taliban authorities in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday executed a convicted murderer by gunfire at a sports stadium, in the sixth public execution since their return to power. The condemned man was shot with three bullets to the chest by a member of the victim's family in front of thousands of spectators in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. The evening before the execution the governor's office called on officials and residents to "attend this event" on social media.
Read more

China | Three child rapists executed after top court approves sentence

Published
Image
Three child rapists were executed on Wednesday after their death sentences were approved by China's top court, showing the country's "zero tolerance" against those harming juveniles. The behaviors of the three criminals, who had sexually assaulted and raped girls for a long time or several times, greatly damaged the physical and mental health of the minors and seriously challenged the legal and moral bottom line, bringing extremely negative effects to society, the Supreme People's Court said.
Read more

Iran hangs man 'for second time' after previous execution halted: NGO

Published
Image
Paris (AFP) – Iran hanged a 26-year-old man for a second time Wednesday months after a previous execution was halted half a minute in, an NGO said. Ahmad Alizadeh was arrested in October 2018 on a murder charge, which he denied, and was sentenced to death, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which tracks executions in Iran, said in a statement. His death sentence was carried out on April 27 in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran. But just 28 seconds into the hanging he was brought down from the gallows when the victim's family suddenly shouted "forgiveness". His "lifeless" body was successfully resuscitated and the execution was halted, IHR said.
Read more

U.S. will appeal judge's ruling that 9/11 defendants can plead guilty and avoid the death penalty

Published
Image
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will appeal a military judge's ruling that plea agreements struck by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and two of his co-defendants are valid, a defense official said Saturday. The ruling this past week voided Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order to throw out the deals and concluded that the plea agreements were valid. The judge granted the three motions to enter guilty pleas and said he would schedule them for a future date to be determined by the military commission.
Read more

Japan rules out ending death penalty despite panel's call for review

Published
Image
The Japanese government on Thursday ruled out abolishing the death penalty, rejecting calls by domestic legal experts for a review amid international pressure to end executions. "The government thinks it is not appropriate to abolish" the death penalty, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference.  "The death penalty is unavoidable for a person who has committed an extremely grave and atrocious crime."
Read more

Burkina Faso aims to reinstate death penalty, government source says

Published
Image
Burkina Faso's military regime wants to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in the country in 2018, a government source told AFP news agency on Saturday.  The latest execution in Burkina Faso was in 1988, according to rights group Amnesty International. It concerned four leaders accused of an attempted coup d’état to depose president Blaise Compaoré – defence minister Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, minister of economic promotion Henri Zongo, and two unidentified men.
Read more