FEATURED POST

Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

Published
Image
On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Push to ban death penalty expected to fail in Nevada

Published

Nevada's death chamber
One Nevada lawmaker who backed a bill (AB149) to end capital punishment said Wednesday that the measure is not expected to cross the finish line this legislative session. 

Assemblyman Ozzie Fumo said the bill is likely to die in committee because it will not receive a hearing within the next two days, failing to meet a legislative deadline. 

Fumo, a Las Vegas defense attorney who has represented death row inmates, said he is baffled the committee did not consider the legislation. The Democrat said he thought the measure had a good chance of moving forward due to strong Democratic majorities in each chamber. 

Legislators who supported ending capital punishment cited costly appeals. 

"We spend millions of dollars defending these people and the state pays for it," Fumo said, arguing that some Republicans as well see banning the death penalty as fiscally responsible. 

State Sen. James Ohrenschall sponsored a similar bill in the Senate, but he expressed doubt on Wednesday that the measure would receive a hearing in the next two days and continue on in the legislative process. The state has not carried out an execution since 2006. 

Ohrenshall said that fact has taken some of the urgency out of moving forward with a ban on capital punishment in Nevada. 

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada both expressed disappointment that the push to ban capital punishment did not go further this session. 

Holly Welborn, policy director for the ACLU of Nevada, said there are issues of racial disparities in the way a person receives a sentence for capital punishment. 

"Governmental sanctioned death is one of the biggest intrusions on liberty that a person could experience," she said. "And death at the hands of the state is something that we have argued as being contrary to the Eight Amendment -- prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment." 

Source: Associated Press, Staff, April 11, 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: Nevada, USA
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

Published
Image
On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 
Read more

Utah requests execution of death row inmate

Published
Image
SALT LAKE CITY — The state of Utah requested on Tuesday that a man who’s been on death row for almost 25 years be executed. Taberon Honie was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother in 1999. In the death warrant application, the state’s lawyers said Honie used up his appeals and there is no longer any legal reason to stop Honie’s execution.
Read more

Alabama SC approves second nitrogen gas execution

Published
Image
The Alabama Supreme Court has authorized the execution of a second inmate by nitrogen gas, months after the state became the first state to put a person to death with the previously untested method. Justices granted Attorney General Steve Marshall’s request for an execution date for Alan Eugene Miller, who survived a 2022 lethal injection attempt.
Read more

Cuba Maintains Capital Punishment to "Deter and Intimidate"

Published
Image
Aware that only the use of terror and force keeps it in power, the Cuban regime makes it clear that if necessary, it will not hesitate to kill. HAVANA TIMES – Inflation, misery, the lack of medicine, and power outages, which were the triggers for previous demonstrations, are worsening daily in Cuba. Given the possibility that these protests may occur again, the regime has threatened the death penalty for those who participate in demonstrations considered “illegal.”
Read more

North Texas jury sentences killer to death penalty for shooting Burleson woman, cop

Published
Image
A jury of 12 Johnson County residents voted Thursday to send 31-year-old Jerry Elders to death row for the murder of Robin Waddell, agreeing with prosecutors who requested the death penalty. The defense argued for life in prison without parole, saying Thursday morning that Elders’ actions came after a lifetime of drug addiction and going in and out of jails and prisons, being kicked out of his family home as a teenager and not receiving support from family members.
Read more