FEATURED POST

Photographing the Community on Tennessee’s Death Row

Published
Image
From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the Tennessee prison that houses death row for the men’s system. On one side of a gate, 250 of us lived in a “support staff” unit working maintenance, landscaping, kitchen service or whatever else kept the facility operational. On the other side of the gate were maximum-security prisoners and those in protective custody, and a unit just for the condemned.
Post a Comment

Florida: Mascotte killer cop’s death penalty appeal denied

Published
James Duckett
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court has rejected the resentencing plea of James Duckett, the rookie Mascotte cop who was sentenced to death in the 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee.

Duckett was seeking relief based on recent U.S. and Florida Supreme Court rulings that say that juries — not judges — should impose death sentences, and that they must be unanimous decisions.

The jury recommended death at his 1988 trial in an 8-4 vote. But Florida Supreme rulings say death case resentencing appeals only apply to cases where the conviction and appeals are completed after June 24, 2002.

That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court made its landmark decision about juries making death decisions in an Arizona case.

“After reviewing Duckett’s response to the order to show cause, as well as the state’s arguments in reply, we conclude that Duckett is not entitled to relief,” the justices wrote in their opinion Friday.

The state high court last year rejected Duckett’s appeal attacking the credibility of an FBI hair analyst who testified that a pubic hair found in Teresa’s underpants was consistent with Duckett’s. Her body was discovered in a lake by a fisherman.

A Department of Justice study was critical of some of the hair expert’s work in other cases, saying he overstated the significance of some findings.

″... the hair evidence was by no means the only evidence supporting the conviction in this case,” justices noted in the opinion.

“Significantly, the victim was last seen at the convenience store in Duckett’s patrol car, and the unusual tire tracks at the lake where the victim’s body was found matched those of Duckett’s patrol car. ... In addition, although Duckett had stated that the victim never sat on the hood of his car, both Duckett’s and Teresa’s fingerprints were discovered on the hood of Duckett’s patrol car.”

“In fact, Duckett’s prints were commingled with the victim’s, whose prints indicated that she had been sitting backwards on the hood and had scooted up the car.”

Source: dailycommercial.com, Frank Stanfield, January 1, 2019


⚑ | 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!



"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Florida, USA
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Photographing the Community on Tennessee’s Death Row

Published
Image
From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the Tennessee prison that houses death row for the men’s system. On one side of a gate, 250 of us lived in a “support staff” unit working maintenance, landscaping, kitchen service or whatever else kept the facility operational. On the other side of the gate were maximum-security prisoners and those in protective custody, and a unit just for the condemned.
Read more

U.S. Presidential Election 2024: Death penalty absent from campaign, but not from minds

Published
Image
Kamala Harris, once openly opposed to the death penalty despite political costs, now avoids the topic as a candidate. Meanwhile, Donald Trump advocates tougher criminal policies, though presidential authority in this area is limited. A few blocks from downtown Richmond, Virginia, the intersection of Spring Street and Belvidere Street now presents a completely different view. Where once stood a grim, old brick building, there is now a modern building with a glass facade reflecting the sun shining on Virginia’s capital. Trees along the wide Belvidere Street give the neighborhood a promenade-like feel, with the James River flowing nearby along the memorial for American war dead.
Read more

Georgia | Death row inmate’s last cigarette request 'denied over health concerns'

Published
Image
Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith has represented a number of clients who have been sentenced to death row across the USA and he's recounted some of their final moments A human rights attorney has reminisced about the bitterly ironic moment his executed client was initially denied a last cigarette over health concerns. Clive Stafford Smith shared the poignant tale with LadBible, recounting how Nicholas Lee Ingram skipped his final meal in favor of a smoke.
Read more

South Carolina | Richard Moore is to be Executed Nov. 1: A Former State Supreme Court Justice, Former Corrections Department Chief and Jurors are Among Thousands Advocating for His Clemency

Published
Image
Richard Moore, a 59-year-old father and grandfather, is scheduled to be executed in South Carolina on Nov. 1 for the 1999 killing of a convenience store clerk in a shootout, though Moore  entered the store without a weapon. His attorneys said he never intended to kill anyone and the death penalty is not a fair punishment. Advocates for commutation include a former state supreme court justice, jurors, a former director of the state’s department of corrections and more.
Read more

Singapore | A puff on a joint - then six months of forced rehab in a concrete cell

Published
Image
Kim* is a young professional who started using cannabis when family life became messy. Things improved, but her drug habit stuck - and by then, her social circle was primarily made up of people who also used. With a reliable local supplier of weed, Kim’s friends asked her if she would get some for them. “That’s what I did,” Kim says. “I never marked up the price in any way, because this was friendship... It’s like, I’m helping you to purchase something we both use anyway.”
Read more

US Supreme Court declines to halt South Carolina inmate’s upcoming execution

Published
Image
A federal judge also decided inmates don’t have a right to know more about the drugs they can choose to kill them COLUMBIA — The U.S. Supreme Court will not stop an inmate’s execution scheduled for Friday, according to a Thursday order. Richard Moore, 59, had asked the nation’s highest court to keep him from the death chamber long enough to hear claims that prosecutors struck Black jurors because of their race during his 2001 trial. But in a two-sentence order, the justices declined.
Read more

Iran Executes Finger Amputation Sentences on Two Brothers Convicted of Theft

Published
Image
Authorities at Urmia Prison in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province carried out the sentence of finger amputation on two brothers convicted of alleged theft. Branch 1 of the provincial juvenile court ordered the amputation of four fingers from the right hand of each brother, Shahab and Mehrdad Teimouri.  After the procedure, the brothers were transferred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia for medical treatment.
Read more

Human Rights Crisis in Iran: Amputations and Executions Surge Amid International Alarm

Published
Image
October 30, 2024 – Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have raised urgent alarms over escalating human rights abuses in Iran, where both corporal punishments and executions are being enforced at alarming rates. Amnesty International reports that five men held at Urumieh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan Province – Hadi Rostami, Kasra Karami, Mehdi Shahivand, Mehdi Sharifian, and Morteza Esmaeilian – are at immediate risk of having their fingers amputated by Iranian authorities. This follows the October 29 use of a guillotine machine by prison officials to amputate four fingers from the right hands of two other men, brothers Mehrdad and Shahab Teymouri, who were transferred to solitary confinement just prior to their punishment.
Read more

Iran | Executions in Birjand, Malayer, Dezful, Lorestan

Published
Image
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 28, 2024: Mansour Hadadi and Esmail Shehbakhsh, two men on death row for drug-related offences, were executed in Birjand Central Prison. According to Haal Vsh, a man was executed in Birjand Central Prison on 22nd October. His identity has been reported as Mansour Hadadi from Zabol who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. He was executed without his family being notified and the right to a last visit with them.
Read more