Rival hits Perry on death penalty

Former New Mexico governor and current Republican presidential hopeful Gary E. Johnson said he saw the dangers of the death penalty up close during his 2 terms in office - and says he is convinced Texas has executed innocent people.

In a wide-ranging interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times this week, Mr. Johnson, who is mounting a long-shot bid for GOP nomination, said his current opposition to the death penalty stems from having once pushed a bill to curtail appeals that he modeled on Texas law, but which, he now says, would have led in at least one case to the execution of innocent persons in a gang-murder case.

“If my legislation would have passed, they would have been put to death, and they would have been innocent. And I believe Texas has done the same,” he said, pointing to the neighboring state run by Gov. Rick Perry, who is also running for the presidential nomination.

He said he does not know for certain Texas has executed innocent people, but is convinced it has happened “just because of how many people have been put to death.”

Mr. Perry’s campaign referred calls to his official governor’s office, which said he is confident in the systems and safeguards the state has in place.

“Like the vast majority of Texans, Gov. Perry supports the death penalty as a fitting and constitutional punishment for the most heinous crimes,” said spokeswoman Lucy Nashed. “We are confident that Texas’ criminal justice system has the appropriate due process, thorough appeals and necessary protections to ensure that only those who are guilty receive the ultimate punishment.”

During one GOP presidential debate, the audience applauded Mr. Perry’s record of overseeing executions - something Mr. Johnson told The Times caused him to recoil.

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh, gosh, I bet there were a few of them that were innocent,’ ” he said.

Mr. Johnson, a 58-year-old former businessman who calls himself the “No. 9 candidate” in what most press accounts portray as an eight-candidate field, is fighting to win a regular place on the debate stages and higher visibility in opinion polls.

Source: The Washington Post, October 27, 2011

Comments

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Florida Supreme Court halts execution of police officer convicted of raping, murdering girl

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — The execution of a former Florida police officer convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl was temporarily halted Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court. The court issued a stay in execution for 68-year-old James Aren Duckett, who was scheduled to receive a three-drug injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. Duckett was sentenced to death in 1988 after being convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery.

Arizona | Death Row Inmate Challenges Execution Warrant, Citing 2025 Cyberattack and Protocol Failures

Leroy Dean McGill was sentenced to death for a 2002 gasoline attack in North Phoenix against a couple, Charles Perez and Nova Banta. PHOENIX — Attorneys for Arizona death row inmate Leroy Dean McGill have formally challenged the state’s attempt to secure an execution warrant, citing a catastrophic 2025 cyberattack and a long history of troubled lethal injection protocols. The challenge comes as Arizona seeks to resume capital punishment following a year-long hiatus. If the Arizona Supreme Court grants the state’s request, McGill would become the first person executed in the state since 2024.

Faith Leaders, Advocates Plan Protests Against Firms Tied to Idaho Execution Chamber Project

BOISE, Idaho — Faith leaders, community advocates and relatives of a person executed by firing squad are joining national advocacy groups to protest firms involved in constructing Idaho’s execution chamber, as states increasingly turn to alternative methods amid lethal injection drug shortages. Due to the refusal of pharmaceutical companies, especially in the past decade, many states have had to find alternative methods because of extensive shortages of lethal injection drugs. Further, this has led the state of Idaho to pass legislation authorizing execution by firing squad, which is one of the most aggressive among alternative methods.

Pentobarbital Sodium Is Used to End Suffering — and Also to Execute People. The Debate Is Getting Louder.

In a prison in Arizona, a tiny vial is kept in a refrigerator. Or there was—the precise state of what’s inside is still up for debate. The contents may have expired, according to a retired judge looking into the state’s execution procedures. They would not expire, according to prison officials. This could not be independently verified by anyone outside the prison. Pentobarbital sodium is the drug in question, and the fact that its storage conditions in a correctional facility are now the focus of legal investigation indicates how far this specific compound has deviated from its intended use.

Iranian Gay Activist: "They Forced Me to Watch Executions So I Would Know How Mine Would Be"

Iranian LGBT activist now living as a refugee in Spain. He was sentenced to death by the ayatollah regime for being homosexual and for his support campaign for the community. "The enemy was already at home," he says about the current war In 11 countries around the world, homosexuality is punishable by death - it is criminalized in almost 70 countries. One of them is the Islamic Republic of Iran, from where Ramtin Zigorat (Tabriz, 1988) managed to escape after avoiding a death sentence and enduring the worst tortures. He has been living as a refugee in Spain for six and a half years. Question . His life, his testimony, can help us better understand what the Iranian Islamist regime is. I believe that until adolescence, you did not fully understand that you were homosexual.

Israel passes death penalty law for terrorists convicted of deadly attacks

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, a measure that has been harshly condemned by the international community and rights groups as discriminatory and inhumane. The passage of the bill marked the culmination of a years-long drive by the far-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offenses against Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Knesset to vote for the bill in person. The law makes the death penalty — by hanging — the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of nationalistic killings. It also gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges — language that legal experts say effectively confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.

Once Nevada’s youngest on death row, double murderer paroled as victims’ family claims silence from state

LAS VEGAS — A man who once stood as the youngest person on Nevada’s death row has officially transitioned from a life behind bars to a life under supervision, following his release from High Desert State Prison last month. Edward Michael Domingues, 49, was released on parole on Feb. 13, 2026. His freedom marks the end of 32 consecutive years of incarceration for the 1993 murders of Arjin Chanel Pechpho and her 4-year-old son, Jonathan Smith. Since his release, the case has ignited a renewed debate over Nevada’s victim notification systems. Tawin Eshelman, the mother and grandmother of the victims, confirmed that the family was never formally notified of the parole hearing that led to Domingues' freedom.

Sonia Sotomayor Warns That Texas May Execute an Innocent Man

Law is, as legal scholars and commentators have long recognized , both a refuge for those seeking to escape abuses of power and a trap in which their claims of justice get lost in a maze of statutory intricacies. Nowhere has this been more clearly on display than in the world of capital punishment. Over the span of half a century, the Supreme Court has gone from championing the rights of capital defendants and death row inmates to deflecting and denying their pursuit of justice. Where once the court carefully scrutinized procedures used in death cases, insisting that they had to conform to the dictates of so-called super due process , today it has made the due process accorded in those cases not super at all .

Texas: Dexter Darnell Johnson to die on August 15; Larry Ray Swearingen on August 21

Dexter Darnell Johnson's execution is scheduled to occur at 6 pm CDT, on Thursday, August 15, 2019, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 31-year-old Dexter is convicted of the murder of 23-year-old Maria Aparece and 17-year-old Huy Ngo on June 18, 2006, in Houston, Texas. Dexter has spent the last 11 years of his life on Texas’ death row. Dexter was born and raised in Texas. He dropped out of school following the 9th grade. During the early morning hours of June 18, 2006, Dexter Johnson and 4 of his friends, Ashley Ervin, Louis Ervin, Keithron Fields, and Timothy Randle, were driving around in Ashley’s car, looking for someone to rob. The group discovered Maria Aparece and Huy Ngo siting in Maria’s vehicle on the street. Johnson took a shot gun and stood outside the driver’s side door, threatening to shoot Maria if she did not cooperate. Johnson demanded she open the door, and when she did, he threw her into the ...

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog