FEATURED POST

Women Being Sent to the Gallows in Alarming Numbers in Iran

Published
Image
Many Were Child Brides Hanged for Murder of Abusive Husbands From Whom There Was No Protection  December 18, 2024 — Amidst a huge surge in executions in the Islamic Republic— 862 so far in 2024, the highest per capita execution rate globally—the Iranian authorities are now increasingly including women in those it sends to the gallows. Since the start of 2024, Iran has executed at least 29 women. More executions of women may have taken place that are unknown.
Post a Comment

`Tool Box Killer’ who preyed on teenagers dies in California

Published
Roy Lewis Norris
VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Roy Lewis Norris one of the “Tool Box Killers” who preyed on teenage girls in Southern California more than 40 years ago has died, state corrections officials said Tuesday.

Norris and Lawrence Sigmond Bittaker kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered five girls in 1979. Their nickname came from the tools like a screwdriver, pliers and an ice pick that they used on their victims.

Norris, 72, died Monday at California Medical Facility, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement. He was transferred from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County to the hospital in Northern California last week and died of natural causes, officials said.

The killings began in June 1979, with the death of Lucinda Lynn Schaefer, 16. She was followed by Andrea Joy Hall, 18; Jacqueline Doris Gilliam, 15; Jacqueline Leah Lamp, 13, and Shirley Lynette Ledford, 16.

Norris testified against Bittaker after pleading guilty to all charges in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty against him. He was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison.

A Los Angeles jury convicted Bittaker of five counts of murder, five counts of kidnapping as well as other charges including criminal conspiracy, rape and sodomy.

Bittaker, who was sentenced to death in 1981, died Dec. 13 at San Quentin State Prison of natural causes. He was 79.

Because of various legal challenges and court decisions, California has not executed anyone in years, and last year Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on executions for as long as he is in office.

Source: The Associated Press, Staff, February 25, 2020


⚑ | 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: California, USA
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Women Being Sent to the Gallows in Alarming Numbers in Iran

Published
Image
Many Were Child Brides Hanged for Murder of Abusive Husbands From Whom There Was No Protection  December 18, 2024 — Amidst a huge surge in executions in the Islamic Republic— 862 so far in 2024, the highest per capita execution rate globally—the Iranian authorities are now increasingly including women in those it sends to the gallows. Since the start of 2024, Iran has executed at least 29 women. More executions of women may have taken place that are unknown.
Read more

Indonesia | 14 years on death row: Timeline of Mary Jane Veloso’s ordeal and fight for justice

Published
Image
MANILA, Philippines — The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking, has spanned over a decade and remains one of the most high-profile legal battles involving an overseas Filipino worker. RELATED |  Philippines | Mary Jane Veloso returns to joyous welcome from family after narrowly escaping Indonesian firing squad Veloso was arrested on April 25, 2010, at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was sentenced to death in October – just six months after her arrest. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld the penalty in May 2011.
Read more

Oklahoma executes Kevin Underwood

Published
Image
Oklahoma executes Kevin Underwood by lethal injection for brutal 2006 murder Nearly two decades after Kevin Ray Underwood murdered his 10-year-old neighbor, he died by lethal injection Thursday morning at 10:14 a.m., according to media witnesses. By coincidence, it was his 45th birthday. Underwood was sentenced to death in 2008 for killing Jamie Bolin in Purcell two years earlier. He confessed to police that he lured Bolin into his house, beat her over the head, attempted to decapitate her and stashed her body in a plastic tub with hopes of later eating it.
Read more

Indiana executes Joseph Corcoran

Published
Image
Indiana carries out first execution in 15 years An Indiana man convicted in the 1997 killing of four people including his brother and his sister’s fiancé was put to death on Wednesday in the state’s first execution in 15 years. Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, according to the Indiana Department of Correction, making it the 24th execution in the U.S. this year. He was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, although officials did not mention that drug in their statement.
Read more

China executes former regional official for corruption

Published
Image
China on Tuesday executed a former official for corruption, a court in the northern region of Inner Mongolia said, the latest development in Beijing’s sweeping campaign against graft. Li Jianping, former secretary of the Communist Party working committee of the Hohhot economic and technological development zone, had previously been sentenced to death for crimes including bribery and misappropriation of public funds.
Read more

Philippines | Mary Jane Veloso returns to joyous welcome from family after narrowly escaping Indonesian firing squad

Published
Image
A Filipino woman who spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia arrived in Manila on Wednesday, reuniting with her family after narrowly escaping a firing squad in 2015. Convicted in 2010 of carrying 2.6kg heroin hidden in a suitcase, Mary Jane Veloso claimed she was duped by a recruiter who promised her a job abroad. The single mother’s conviction and death sentence sparked outrage in the Philippines, prompting advocacy and diplomatic efforts to save her from execution. “I am grateful to God who has answered my prayers. I will return to my country and I believe that God has a beautiful plan for my life,” Veloso, now 39, said. “Thank you, Indonesia, I love Indonesia.”
Read more

Indiana | Pastor speaks out against upcoming execution of Joseph Corcoran

Published
Image
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - A local pastor has been arranging protests against the state’s decision to continue with the upcoming execution of Joseph Corcoran for the past couple weekends. Anna Lisa Gross is a co-pastor at Beacon Heights here in Fort Wayne and has been working with multiple churches to protest the execution of Corcoran. “Our community has failed him more than one time, and now to kill him would do nothing,” says Gross.
Read more

Florida | Man sentenced to death for 'executing' five women in a bank

Published
Image
Zephen Xaver text a friend from the bank parking lot, saying: ’Watch for me on the news’ A prison guard trainee who executed five women inside a Florida bank has been sentenced to death. Zephen Xaver, 27, appeared to gulp but otherwise showed no emotion as Judge Angela Cowden pronounced the sentence at the Highlands County Courthouse in Sebring. At gunpoint, Xaver ordered his victims, all women, to lie on the floor and then shot each the head as they begged for mercy.
Read more

Indonesia | Ailing Frenchman on death row pleads to return home as Indonesia to pardon 44,000 prisoners

Published
Image
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An ailing French national on death row for drug offenses has made a last-ditch plea to be returned home, Indonesian authorities said Friday, as the new administration of President Prabowo Subianto planned to give pardon to 44,000 inmates nationwide. Subianto has surprised the nation with the clemency plan, barely two months after he took office. Past Indonesian leaders have rarely used the presidential prerogative of giving amnesty. Serge Atlaoui, who had spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prison, won a last-minute reprieve in 2015 and was excluded from being executed by a 13-member firing squad.
Read more

USA | The Death Penalty in 2024: Report

Published
Image
Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence.  President Biden and North Carolina Governor Consider Commutations of Death Rows to Remedy Systemic Problems. USA | The Death Penalty in 2024: Summary Four States Responsible for 76% of Executions   (Washington, D.C.) This year marked the tenth consecutive year where fewer than 30 people were executed (25) and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death (26). High-profile cases of death-sentenced individuals garnered significant attention and new, unexpected supporters.  
Read more