FEATURED POST

Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

Published
Image
Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.

Alabama execution back on for Thursday after U.S. Supreme Court ruling

Published
Robert Melson
Robert Melson
The execution of Robert Bryant Melson is back on for Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court tonight lifted a stay that had been granted last week by an appeals court.

The stay of the execution was lifted in an order issued by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Three of the nine Supreme Court associate justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor - said they did not want to vacate the stay of execution, according to the brief order.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Monday had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule the appeals court and reinstate Thursday's planned execution of Melson, the man convicted in the 1994 shooting deaths of three fast food employees at a Popeye's in Etowah County.

The execution is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

The 11th Circuit on Friday had granted a stay of Melson's execution. Melson is challenging his execution on grounds that the three-drug cocktail Alabama uses for lethal injections "has failed to work properly."

The 11th Circuit issued the stay so it can rule on Melson's challenge, which is also being appealed by four other death row inmates.

Melson and the other inmates argue that the first drug administered in the cocktail, the sedative midazolam, doesn't work well enough prevent the inmates from experiencing the pain caused by the other two drugs that stop breathing and the heart.

The Alabama Attorney General on Monday, however, filed a motion to the U.S. Supreme Court that argues in part that the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that midazolam can be used in drug protocols.

Also, the Attorney General argues, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the stay requests of four Arkansas inmates who were executed using the same drug protocol as Alabama. And Alabama has already carried out three executions using the protocol, including the May 25 execution of Tommy Arthur in which the 11th Circuit denied a stay.

The other two Alabama inmates who were executed - Ronald Smith and Christopher Brooks - also were co-plaintiffs in the case with Melson "and their stay requests were denied by the Eleventh Circuit because their nearly identical claims were also time-bared," the Attorney General also argued.

Source: AL.com, Ken Faulk, June 6, 2017

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
Location: Alabama, USA
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

Published
Image
Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.
Read more

Iran sentences popular rapper to death for supporting Mahsa Amini protests

Published
Image
An Iranian court has sentenced to death a popular rapper jailed for more than a year and a half for supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, local media reported Wednesday . "Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth," the singer's lawyer Amir Raisian said, quoted by the reformist Shargh newspaper.
Read more

Malaysia urged to extend moratorium on executions until full abolition of death penalty

Published
Image
PETALING JAYA: Amnesty International Malaysia has commended Malaysia for the abolition of the mandatory death penalty and for imposing a moratorium on the execution of the death sentence, which has led to an overall decrease in the use of the death penalty by the courts. However, the rights group urged the government to extend the moratorium on executions until the death penalty is fully abolished.
Read more

Could Moscow attack suspects face execution in Belarus?

Published
Image
After the deadly terrorist attack at Moscow's Crocus City Hall, some Russian politicians are debating trying the suspects to Belarus, which still has death penalty. But it's not that simple. The terror attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall has ignited debate about the reintroduction of the death sentence in Russia. Given that 140 people died and more than 500 were wounded at the concert hall on March 22, 2024, emotions are running high.
Read more

Iran | 9 prisoners executed in a single day

Published
Image
9 prisoners of drug charges executed in the central prisons of Kerman, Chabahar and GhezelHesar According to the Iranian Human Rights Society website, on Sunday, April 21st, 2024, 9 prisoners including, Baloch and Kurdish drug suspects were executed in the central prisons of Kerman, Chah bahar, and GhezelHesar.  
Read more

Iraq executes 13 on ‘vague’ terrorism charges

Published
Image
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Amnesty International on Wednesday criticized Iraqi authorities for carrying out the death sentences of 13 men on the same day, saying the prisoners were denied fair trial, and expressed concern that many others had been executed in secret. A total of 13 prisoners were executed in Dhi Qars Nasiriyah central prison on Monday, and scores more have been executed since April 10, said the Amnesty report citing activists and lawyers of the death row prisoners.
Read more

Kansas | Judge denies Carr brothers’ request for new sentence in death penalty murder case

Published
Image
Kansas - A judge has denied a request by death-row inmates Jonathan and Reginald Carr to be resentenced in a December 2000 crime spree that included five murders. The Carr brothers filed motions in November requesting a new hearing to determine whether the evidence supports the death penalty. Their lawyers also sought new pre-sentencing reports and journal entries in the case.
Read more