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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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U.S. Supreme Court rejects appeal of woman on Texas death row for Arlington boy's starvation

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HOUSTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review an appeal from an Arlington woman on Texas death row for the starvation of a 9-year-old boy a decade ago.

A Tarrant County jury in 2006 convicted Lisa Ann Coleman of capital murder and decided she should die for the death of Davontae Williams.

Her appeal to the high court was rejected by the justices Monday with no comment.

Coleman shared an apartment with the boy’s mother, Marcella Williams, who took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty and is serving a life prison term. Evidence showed Coleman beat, bound, neglected and starved the boy, who weighed 35 pounds. An autopsy showed he had more than 250 scars.

Coleman does not yet have an execution date.

Source: AP, Feb. 24, 2014
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