Texas: Dad who drowned sons gets death penalty; woman on death row for boy’s starvation loses appeal

Naim Rasool Muhammad was sentenced to death for drowning his two sons in a creek.

The Texas jury that convicted Naim Rasoon Muhammad, 34, of abducting his two sons and drowning them in a creek, sentenced him to death, NBC News Dallas-Fort Worth reported Thursday.

"I apologize for bringing any pain and hurt on anybody for the actions that I have caused to you all," Muhammad said after the sentencing.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Muhammad drowned 5-year-old Naim and 3-year-old Elijah to get back at their mother for leaving him.

In 2011, he abducted the boys and their mother, Kametra Sampson, as they walked Naim to his first day of kindergarten. Sampson escaped and called for help, but Muhammad asked the boys to pretend they were swimming and held them under creek water until they drowned.

"You've shown that you have no boundaries, that nothing is sacred to you -- not even the bond between a father and son," Sampson said.

In an attempt to garner Muhammad a life sentence without parole, his attorney argued that he was "not evil but he has committed an evil act.” He said Muhammad had grown up in a violent and sexually abusive home with a mother who was a crack-addicted prostitute.

"It was the ultimate textbook family violence power and control play -- 'If I can't get you to do what I want you to do through violence, I will go to your very heartstrings,'" a prosecutor said of Muhammad's actions.

It took the jury less than 10 minutes to convict him, but three and a half hours to sentence Muhammad to death.

Source: UPI, May 23, 2013

Texas woman on death row for boy’s starvation loses appeal

HOUSTON (AP) — An Arlington woman on Texas death row for the starvation death of a 9-year-old boy has lost a federal court appeal, moving her a step closer to execution.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday refused arguments from 37-year-old Lisa Ann Coleman, condemned for the 2004 death of her partner’s son, Davontae Williams. Coleman contended unsuccessfully her attorneys at her 2006 trial in Tarrant County were deficient in their investigations and she actually was innocent of the child’s death.

Jurors heard testimony Coleman beat, bound, neglected and starved the boy who was found with more than 250 wounds on his body.

His mother, Marcella, pleaded guilty to avoid a death sentence and is serving a life prison term.

Coleman is one of 10 condemned women in Texas.

Source: AP, May 24, 2013

Tennessee | Death row inmate refuses to choose between electric chair and lethal injection

Harold Nichols is scheduled to die in December for raping and murdering a student Harold Wayne Nichols, a death row inmate in Tennessee, has declined to select his preferred execution method for his scheduled December 11 death. That means that the state will proceed with lethal injection. Nichols received his death sentence in 1990 after being found guilty of the rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 21-year-old student at Chattanooga State University, which occurred two years prior.

‘I’ll be executed on Tuesday’: families reveal panicked last calls from foreigners on Saudi’s death row

Relatives share with the Guardian final words of those killed amid ‘horrifying’ surge in capital punishment under Mohammed bin Salman’s rule In the city of Tabuk in the far north of Saudi Arabia, neon lights flicker on in an overcrowded ward of a prison marking the start of a new day. The prisoners are waiting. When the guards enter, they know someone is about to be taken away. An execution squad of about 20 guards will approach an inmate quietly, whisper something in their ear and escort them out. Some break down in tears, others simply ask for forgiveness.

Oklahoma governor spares life of death row inmate just before scheduled lethal injection

Republican Kevin Stitt commuted Tremane Wood’s death sentence to life in prison for 2002 murder of Ronnie Wipf Tremane Wood, the 46-year-old death row inmate who faced execution today in Oklahoma, has had his life spared just minutes before he was set to receive a lethal injection. Kevin Stitt, the state’s Republican governor, accepted the Oklahoma pardon and parole board’s recommendation that Wood’s sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. It is just the second time during Stitt’s nearly seven years as governor that he has granted clemency.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

South Carolina executes Stephen Bryant

South Carolina executes killer who left bloody message, marking third firing-squad execution this year A South Carolina man convicted of killing 3 people over 5 days more than 20 years ago was executed by a firing squad on Friday evening. Stephen Bryant, 44, was executed for killing a man in his home and writing "catch me if u can" on the wall with the victim's blood. He was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. following a firing squad. Three prison employees, all with live ammunition, volunteered to carry out the execution. Bryant is the 3rd man this year to die by South Carolina's newest execution method.

UK | Lindsay Sandiford back in London

Two British drug convicts, including a grandmother who had been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade, arrived back in the UK on Friday. Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws, but has moved to release more than half a dozen high-profile detainees in the last year. Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was sentenced to death on the tourist island of Bali in 2013 for smuggling $2.14 million worth of cocaine into Indonesia. She was released on humanitarian grounds along with Shahab Shahabadi, 36, who had been serving a life sentence for drug offences after his arrest in 2014.

Florida | Military vets are third of inmates executed in Florida this year, report finds

A new report finds that five of the 15 people executed in Florida this year were military veterans. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is defending his modern-era record for executions this year, saying he is bringing justice to the families of victims. But a new report reveals some troubling data: Five of the 15 convicted murderers executed this year in Florida were military veterans.

Woman who watched nearly 300 executions explained moment she had to give it up

Michelle Lyons' job wasn't for the fainthearted A woman who watched nearly 300 death row executions take place over 12 years opened up about how her macabre career impacted her life. For more than a decade, it was part of Michelle Lyons' job description to observe the final moments of hundreds of prisoners in the US state of Texas. She says the process never 'become mundane or normal', although she did become acclimatized to it - as she went on to watch so many executions that she 'can't recall' a lot of them.

South Carolina man is scheduled to be executed by firing squad

A man on death row in South Carolina is scheduled to be executed by firing squad COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A man in South Carolina is scheduled to be executed Friday by a firing squad, the third person to die by that method in the state this year. Three prison employees, all with live ammunition, have volunteered to carry out the execution of Stephen Bryant, 44, who killed three people in five days in a rural area of the state in 2004. Bryant has no appeals pending before the 6 p.m. scheduled execution at the death row facility at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.

Syria | Man to be hanged for harrowing murder of eight-year-old girl, in first death sentence since Assad ouster

A court in northeast Syria has sentenced a man to death by hanging after finding him guilty of raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl. Youssef al-Dahham, 25, was convicted of raping and murdering the child in the village of Muhkan in Deir az-Zour governorate. Security forces announced on 13 August the arrest of Dahham, who reportedly confessed to the crime after interrogation. The crime dates back to August, when Dahham snatched the girl outside her home, raped and murdered her.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog