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USA | Democratic Legislators Introduce Death Penalty Repeal Bills, Urge President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences

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Democratic members of the U.S. House and Senate have called on incoming President Joe Biden to take quick action on his campaign pledge to end the federal death penalty. Legislators introduced three bills to abolish the federal death penalty and urged the President to issue executive orders to halt federal executions and commute the death sentences of those on federal death row. Citing the more than 170 people exonerated from U.S. death rows since capital punishment resumed in the U.S. in the 1970s, Biden’s official campaign platform on criminal justice advocated repealing the federal death penalty. With his inauguration, he became the first president to have been elected after supporting doing away with capital punishment. “Because we cannot ensure we get death penalty cases right every time,” the joebiden.com website said, “Biden will work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” Senat

Nebraska: Republican Governor Debate

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On the campaign trail gubernatorial candidates have touched on the state's biggest issues like prison reform and Medicaid expansion, but Sunday at their 1st debate they went far beyond that.

All 6 republican candidates came together in Broken Bow Sunday for their 1st debate. There they were faced with some difficult questions.

It's been 16 years since Nebraska has carried out an execution. In 2010 the United States stopped producing Nebraska's drug of choice for lethal injection. Prison officials have still not found an alternative. These candidates say that solving this problem is one of their top priorities.

"We should be able to carry out the death penalty to make sure that it serves as that deterrent to the worst of the worst offenders. There's a recent article I believe it was in the Houston chronicle talking about what Texas is doing to change their drug protocol," said Bart McClay.

"When I was in the legislature I actually carried a bill to change the method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection for exactly the reason I thought would happen, it did happen, that the court would find it unconstitutional, electrocution, and so we're gonna have to change the protocols again there is no doubt, but we'll find a way to do it," said Jon Bruning.

The candidates will go head to head again on April 23rd. The debate will be held at the Jonny Carson theater in Norfolk.

Source: KHAS TV news, March 24, 2014
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Georgia executes Andrew Cook

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Andrew Cook A 38-year-old inmate convicted of killing 2 college students in 1995 was executed in Georgia on Thursday, apologizing to the families of both before being injected at a state prison. Andrew Allen Cook was pronounced dead at 11:22 p.m., about 14 minutes after he was injected with the sedative pentobarbital. He was the 1st inmate to be executed since the state changed its procedure in July from a 3-drug combination to a single dose. With his last words, he apologized to the families of Mercer University students Grant Patrick Hendrickson, 22, and Michele Lee Cartagena, 19, who were shot several times as they sat in a car at Lake Juliette. He said what he did was senseless. "I'm sorry," Cook said as he was strapped to a gurney. "I'm not going to ask you to forgive me. I can't even do it myself." He also thanked his family for "their support, for being with me and I'm sorry I took so much from you all." The Georgi
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Texas | Edward Lee Busby, Jr. set to be executed on February 10

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Edward Lee Busby, Jr., has been given a new execution date of Wednesday, February 10 Edward Lee Busby, Jr., is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm local time on Wednesday, February 10, 2021, inside the Walls Unit at the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 48-year-old Edward is convicted of the kidnapping and murder of 77-year-old Laura Lee Crane on January 30, 2004, in Fort Worth, Texas. Edward has spent the last 15 years of his life on Texas’s death row. Edward was born in Texas and raised by a single mother. He attended school through the 10th grade, however, he was in special education classes before dropping out. Edward was previously arrested and served time for robbery and drug possession. On January 30, 2004, 77-year-old retired professor from Texas Christian University, Laura Lee Crane was kidnapped from a store parking lot in southwest Fort Worth by Edward Busby and Kathleen “Kitty” Latimer. Busby forced his way into the driver’s seat, while Latimer sat in the bac
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Alabama | Willie B. Smith, III set to be executed on February 11

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Willie B. Smith, III, is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm local time on Thursday, February 11, 2021, at the Holeman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. 51-year-old Willie is convicted of the robbery, kidnapping, and murder of 22-year-old Sharma Ruth Johnson in October 1991. Willie has been on death row in Alabama for the last 28 years. Willie grew up with an allegedly abusive father and with no economical advantages. Willie did not excel in school. Willie did not have a previous history of criminal activity. In October 1991, 17-year-old Angelica Willis was living with Willie Smith. The 2 left the apartment around midnight on October 26, 1991, looking for Smith’s brother, who was going to Pizza Hut. As they were walking, Willis and Smith saw Sharma Ruth Johnson sitting in car at an automatic teller machine. Smith told Willis to go up to the woman ask for directions to a nearby restaurant. While Sharma was saying she did not know the location of the restaurant, Smith approached wit
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Saudi Arabia | Execution caught on video

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Public execution in Saudi Arabia (file photo) A Saudi newspaper has carried a film showing the beheading of a man convicted of raping a teenaged boy before murdering him in the heart of the desert. The rare and shocking 51-second film showed the executioner bringing down his sword on the defendant’s head, which was severed in just a split of second. The executioner, a tall man wearing traditional Saudi dishdasha (gown) and ghutra (head cover), then wiped blood off his sword with a piece of cloth after the beheading before walking away from the rapist’s headless body. Sharq newspaper, which published the film, did not say how it was shot as filming of executions in the conservative Gulf kingdom is banned. Newspapers said the unnamed defendant had been convicted of abducting the Saudi boy to a desolate desert area and raping him. He then forced him to lie on the sand and crushed him with his four-wheel car. Warning: Graphic Content ✔ RELATED VIDEO
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Supreme Court's liberal justices lash out at unprecedented 'rush' of executions as Trump leaves office

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USA | Wesley Purkey Executed For 1998 Murder

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Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death this morning for the murder of a Kansas City teenager in 1998 after the Supreme Court lifted two stays blocking his execution. Purkey was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 8:19 a.m. EDT. His execution came after a flurry of legal moves seeking to halt the procedure.  On Wednesday morning, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., granted Purkey a preliminary injunction after his lawyers said he was incompetent to be executed, citing his dementia, mental illness and a history of being abused as a child. A federal appeals court later in the day upheld the injunction, but the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, lifted it, clearing the way for his execution. Purkey admitted to abducting 16-year-old Jennifer Long as she was walking home from high school, raping and murdering her in his Lansing, Kansas, home and then dismembering her body.  A federal jury convicted him in 2003 of kidnapping resulting in a child’s death, and he was sente
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USA | Dustin Higgs becomes 13th and final federal prisoner executed under Trump

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“The Court has allowed the US to execute 13 people in 6 months...without resolving the serious claims the condemned individuals raised. Those whom the Government executed during this endeavor deserved more from this Court. I respectfully dissent.”  - J. Sotomayor, US v Higgs "Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent tonight in U.S. v. Dustin Higgs will be remembered long into the future as one of the most thorough, resounding indictments of this administration’s reckless, immoral, illegal effort to execute as many people as possible, as quickly as possible." - Sister Helen Prejean The 13th and last execution of a federal inmate under Donald Trump’s presidency has taken place in Terre Haute, Indiana. Dustin Higgs, 48, had been sentenced to death for the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge. His lawyers argued it was “arbitrary and inequitable” to execute him while Willis Haynes, the man who shot the women in 1996, was spared a death sentence. The federal judge who pr
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USA | Democratic Legislators Introduce Death Penalty Repeal Bills, Urge President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences

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Democratic members of the U.S. House and Senate have called on incoming President Joe Biden to take quick action on his campaign pledge to end the federal death penalty. Legislators introduced three bills to abolish the federal death penalty and urged the President to issue executive orders to halt federal executions and commute the death sentences of those on federal death row. Citing the more than 170 people exonerated from U.S. death rows since capital punishment resumed in the U.S. in the 1970s, Biden’s official campaign platform on criminal justice advocated repealing the federal death penalty. With his inauguration, he became the first president to have been elected after supporting doing away with capital punishment. “Because we cannot ensure we get death penalty cases right every time,” the joebiden.com website said, “Biden will work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” Senat
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Appeals court stays Texas’ first scheduled 2021 execution

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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday granted the stay for Blaine Milam, 31, to review intellectual disability claims. He had been set for lethal injection on Thursday for killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter during what the couple had said was part of an “exorcism.”  He was convicted of capital murder for the December 2008 slaying of Amora Carson at his trailer in Rusk County in East Texas. Milam’s girlfriend, Jesseca Carson, was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors say Milam savagely beat, bit, strangled, and sexually mutilated the girl over a period of 30 hours. Milam’s attorneys say 3 of 4 experts who examined him determined Milam is intellectually disabled.  In its ruling, the appeals court ordered Milam’s claims of intellectual disability be reviewed by his trial court. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 barred the execution of intellectually disabled people, but it has given states some discretion to decide ho
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California | Scott Peterson makes remote court appearance to discuss penalty phase retrial for 2004 murder conviction

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REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- A judge on Thursday continued until April a status hearing in the renewed penalty phase of the 2004 murder trial of Scott Lee Peterson. Appearing by Zoom from San Quentin State Prison, where he has been imprisoned for 16 years, Peterson waived his right to proceed at this time with a new trial of his sentence. Peterson was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death in 2005 for the murder of his wife, Laci Peterson. The trial attracted worldwide attention. Peterson has maintained his innocence through the years he has been confined at San Quentin and has mounted several legal challenges to his conviction and sentence. In 2020, Peterson received a pair of favorable rulings in the California Supreme Court. The first ruling came in Peterson's appeal of his conviction and sentence. The high court found that the trial judge excluded jurors from the jury pool when they said that they were personally opposed to the death penalty, without first determining whether the
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