FEATURED POST

Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

Published
Image
The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
Post a Comment

Nebraska has bought new death penalty drugs

Published
LINCOLN, Neb. —Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says state officials have bought all three drugs required to carry out executions.

Ricketts and Department of Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes announced Thursday that the state now possesses one of the three drugs and will receive the other two in the near future.

The department bought two of the drugs, sodium thiopental and pancuronium bromide, from a company called HarrisPharma*.

Ricketts says three of Nebraska's 11 death-row inmates have exhausted all of their appeals.

The announcement comes one day before lawmakers are scheduled to debate a death penalty repeal measure. 

The bill won first-round approval with a veto-proof majority in April, but two more votes are required.

Some opponents have argued that Nebraska should abolish capital punishment because the state hasn't executed anyone since 1997.

Source: The Associated Press, May 14, 2015

*Clarification from Harris Pharmaceutical: "Due to the similarity in company names, Harris Pharmaceutical, Inc. has been receiving a number of inquiries as to our participation in this drug sale. Harris Pharmaceutical, Inc. is a US-based pharmaceutical manufacturer of drugs for treatment of dermatological conditions. Harris Pharmaceutical, Inc. does not manufacture or distribute any of the drugs listed in the Associated Press article. You can find our complete product listing on our website www.harrispharmaceutical.com or via various FDA drug listing websites. We are in no way affiliated with the HarrisPharma, or its owner Chris Harris, that are cited in the recent articles regarding the State of Nebraska. As the articles state, that company is drug distributor based out of West Bengal, India. The similarity in company names is merely a coincidence."

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: Nebraska, USA
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

Published
Image
The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
Read more

The Last 24 Hours on Death Row In America

Published
Image
It’s December 18th, 2024. In the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a guard approaches one of the 200 cells in Death Row and finds a prisoner inside, sitting on the edge of his bed. It’s 3 p.m. Kevin Ray Underwood has 24 hours left to live. Not every state in the US allows – or uses – the death penalty. The ones that do all have different execution protocols. But generally speaking, the timeline features similar events with slight differences in the details.  These protocols can take months of preparation—all so that the day of execution is well… perfectly executed. 
Read more

Arizona | Inmate is asking to be executed sooner than the state wants

Published
Image
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona death row prisoner asked the state’s highest court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than authorities were aiming for, pushing as he had in the past to have his death sentence carried out. Aaron Brian Gunches’ execution would mark a resumption of Arizona’s use of the death penalty after a two-year pause while it reviewed its procedures. In a handwritten court filing this week, Gunches asked the state Supreme Court to schedule his execution for mid-February for his murder conviction in the 2002 killing of Ted Price.
Read more

Congo executes 102 ‘urban bandits’ with 70 more set to be killed, officials say

Published
Image
Some 102 men were executed by the Congolese government in the past week, and 70 more are set to be executed, the country’s minister of justice said Sunday in a statement to the Associated Press. It said the men, aged 18 to 35, were armed robbers and “urban bandits,” locally known as Kulunas, who were executed in northwest Congo at Angenga prison. Forty-five were killed in late December, and the remaining 57 were executed within the last 48 hours. A flight of 70 more people from Kinshasa has arrived at Angenga, but the government hasn’t commented on the status of the prisoners.
Read more

Tennessee refuses to release its new execution manual

Published
Image
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — Just days after Tennessee announced it had a new manual for executing death row inmates, the state's top prison officials said they aren't going to release the document to the public. The Tennessee Department of Correction had told The Associated Press to file a public records request to obtain a copy of the latest execution manual, known as a protocol. However, the agency this week denied the AP's request, saying it needs to keep the entire document secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.
Read more

After holiday pause, South Carolina begins scheduling executions again

Published
Image
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Supreme Court set a Jan. 31 date for the state’s next execution after allowing a pause for the Christmas holidays. The state is working through a backlog of inmates out of appeals but temporarily spared because prison officials couldn’t obtain drugs needed for lethal injection. Marion Bowman Jr., 44, was convicted of murder in the shooting of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County in 2001.
Read more

Iran executes three Afghan nationals on first day of 2025

Published
Image
Iran executed three Afghan nationals on the first day of 2025 at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, according to two human rights watchdog organizations. Halvash reported that Iran executed two individuals from Afghanistan and one Baloch national in Bandar Abbas prison. They were executed without holding a last meeting with their families, the watchdog said. Another human rights watchdog, Henvaw, reported the execution of an Afghan national.
Read more

Syria | New Justice Minister Identified in Video of Women Execution in Idlib in 2015

Published
Image
In two videos circulating on social networks and authenticated by the site Verify.sy, the minister, a former Islamic judge in the Idlib region then under the control of al-Nosra, supervised the killing of women accused of "prostitution." The images are chilling. In one video, a man with a thick beard, wearing a chechia and qami, the traditional Muslim dress, pronounces a death sentence “for corruption and prostitution” next to a woman in  a black niqab  , on her knees. In another, the same man appears next to a woman also in a full veil, on the ground, who implores clemency. A fighter recites  verses from the Quran  and claims that there is “proof” that she committed adultery and prostitution, thus spreading “corruption on earth” . A third man then draws a handgun and shoots her in the head.
Read more

USA | Two federal inmates challenge Biden’s clemency, refuse commutation of death sentences

Published
Image
In an unusual move, two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden in December have refused to sign paperwork accepting his clemency action Two federal inmates, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, are refusing to accept outing US President Joe Biden’s decision to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. Their refusal comes after Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates last month, sparing them from execution.
Read more