Barack Obama commuted death sentence of former Ft. Hood soldier before leaving the Oval Office

FORT HOOD, Texas (KWTX) President Barack Obama has commuted the death sentence of a former Ft. Hood soldier who was convicted in 1989 of the shooting deaths of two Killeen taxi drivers.

Then Army Pfc. Class Dwight Jeffrey Loving was sentenced to death in a 1989 court martial for robbing and killing Pvt. Christopher Fay, who was moonlighting as a cab driver to earn extra pay, and Master Sgt. Bobby Sharbino, also a cabbie.

Fay, 20, was assigned to the 13th Corps Support Command and Sharbino was retired.

Testimony at court martial showed Loving asked Fay to drive him to a remote location on post where he shot and robbed him.

Loving then used the same tactic to rob and kill Sharbino.

Both men’s bodies were found on Dec. 12 and Dec. 13, 1988 in their cabs.

Unhappy with the amount of money he took in the first two robberies, Loving tried the tactic again when cab driver Howard Harrison, of Kempner, encountered Loving.

Harrison, however, was injured in a struggle with Loving but eventually was able to disarm the bandit and escape without further injury.

FBI Texas Rangers and U.S. Army CID agents arrested Loving the next day after he and his girlfriend spent the previous evening socializing with friends at Killeen night clubs.

In all the robberies netted Loving less than $100.

Loving, 48, a native of Rochester, N.Y., has been on death row at the Ft. Leavenworth since his conviction.

Loving undisputed video confession was presented during the court martial, during which he explained how he enjoyed shooting one of the men so much he re-cocked his handgun and shot the cabbie in the head again.

On June 3, 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Loving’s conviction and sentence, then again in 2001.

In 2008 the high court refused a re-hearing on the issue.

The court set a Dec.10, 2008 execution date for Loving, which would have marked the first military execution since 1961.

Source: kwtx.com, Paul J. Gately, January 21, 2017

President Barack Obama commutes sentences of 2 of high-profile military prisoners

Chelsea Manning

President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of a pair of high-profile military prisoners and pardoned a controversial former Marine Corps general on Tuesday as one of his last acts before leaving the Oval Office.

Among the 209 commutations and 64 pardons announced by the White House were Chelsea Manning, serving 35 years for leaked sensitive Army documents related to the Iraq War; Dwight Loving, a soldier on death row convicted of murder in 1988, and James Cartwright, convicted of lying to the FBI about the release of sensitive intelligence information to reporters five years ago.

Cartwright received a pardon, effectively erasing the crime from his record. Manning, who has served seven years of a 35-year sentence, will be released in May.

Loving had his sentence reassigned to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

All of the 273 decisions were announced without further explanation from the White House. The majority of the decisions were for lower-level drug offenses, an issue that has been among Obama’s top executive actions in recent years.

Manning’s case had been among the most closely watched as Obama’s time in office grew shorter, with advocates pushing for her release. She has attempted suicide several times in the last year, and her imprisonment has raised problematic questions about the military’s responsibilities to deal with her requests for gender reassignment surgery.

Manning, an Army intelligence analyst known as Bradley Manning at the time of her 2010 arrest, made public hundreds of thousands of military documents, including military reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from American embassies around the world.

She admitted to the crime and was sentenced without a plea deal. In the intervening years, she and her advocates have pressed Obama for leniency, noting that investigators found no evidence the leaks put lives in danger.

Cartwright was similarly accused of mishandling classified information to reporters about covert cyberattacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. He admitted to the leak and to lying to FBI investigators, and was due to be sentenced later this month. He could have faced up to five years in prison.

Instead, the presidential pardon will remove the threat of jail time for him.

Loving was a soldier stationed at Texas’ Fort Hood Army base in 1988 when he robbed two convenience stores and murdered two taxi drivers during a crime spree.

Only six men are on military’s death row, including Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. The military has not executed any prisoners since 1961.

Source: Military Times, Leo Shane III, January 17, 2017

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Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

Florida executes William Frances Silvia

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up. He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

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Alabama is trying a death penalty bait-and-switch

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

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Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group. No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

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