Montana | Judge cautious about potential capital punishment in boy’s death

A Gallatin County judge is asking defense attorneys to file with the court their qualifications to argue against the death penalty for a grandmother accused of torturing and beating her 12-year-old grandson to death.

Gallatin County District Judge John Brown asked attorney Ryan Peabody at a hearing on Wednesday to file his qualifications to represent Patricia Batts.

Batts is charged with deliberate homicide, aggravated kidnapping, criminal child endangerment and strangulation of partner or family member, all felonies, in the death of Alex Hurley. Prosecutors said in court documents that because Batts is accused of both kidnapping and torture, they may seek the death penalty if she is convicted of those “aggravating circumstances.”

RELATED | Montana | Boy, 12, abused regularly by relatives, beaten and left to die on living room floor

Batts was scheduled to enter a plea to the charges on Wednesday, but Judge Brown delayed the hearing until March 24. He said he wanted to ensure the court was complying with rules set by the Montana Supreme Court for capital punishment cases. Based on the filings, Brown said, he would officially appoint Peabody and Mariah Eastman as Batts’ attorneys.

Brown said he was erring on the side of caution because there may be a federal court of appeals 10 years from now reviewing the hearing with a “microscope.”

“It’s just that we’re going to be very careful since this is a capital case — potentially a capital case,” he said. “I guess it is a capital case because the death penalty has been noted, at least.”

Batts’ husband, 47-year-old James Sasser Jr., and 14-year-old son, James Sasser III, are also each charged with felony deliberate homicide. Alex’s grandfather, Sasser Jr., also faces a charge of felony criminal child endangerment.

Gage Roush, 18, pleaded not guilty to felony assault on a minor in Gallatin County District Court on Tuesday. Prosecutors say Roush was seen on videos the family took hitting Alex with a wooden paddle in the months leading up to Alex’s death.

Batts, Sasser Jr. and Roush have been held at the Gallatin County jail since February. Sasser III is being held at the Yellowstone Youth Services Center in Billings.

Recent charging documents filed in the case portrayed Batts as the person who beat and punished Alex and taught her children to do the same. Sasser Jr. indicated to detectives he thought Batts’ punishments for Alex were excessive and that he intended to divorce Batts and raise the kids on his own, court documents say.

In February, Gallatin County Sheriff’s deputies investigating Alex’s death found several videos on family members’ phones that showed the family torturing Alex, according to charging documents.

Batts pulled Alex out of school in September for homeschooling because she said he got in trouble for groping a girl, court documents say. Batts said Alex drove her “nuts” after that and she’d make him do “wall sits” or jumping jacks if she caught him not doing schoolwork.

In one instance, Batts forced Alex to stand in front of fans half naked and squirted water at him, court documents say. She told detectives, “That’s what they do with cats, right?”

Batts allowed Sasser III to punish Alex when she wasn’t around, but said she was unaware of the kind of punishment he was doing, court documents say. She said she learned that Sasser III “popped” Alex hard with the paddle, but claimed she told Sasser III that wasn’t OK.

Batts claimed that she had no idea how Alex died and told detectives that she did not feel responsible for his death, court documents say.

West Yellowstone superintendent Kevin Flanagan said Alex had behavioral problems typical of a child with severe ADHD, but that those problems improved throughout the year, according to court documents. Flanagan said he was not aware of any issues that would cause Batts to remove Alex from school and denied that Alex sexually assaulted another student.

Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Staff, March 13, 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

China executes 11 members of gang who ran billion-dollar criminal empire in Myanmar

China has executed 11 members of the notorious Ming family criminal gang, who ran mafia-like scam centers in Myanmar and killed workers who tried to escape, Chinese state media reported on Thursday. The Ming family was one of the so-called 4 families of northern Myanmar — crime syndicates accused of running hundreds of compounds dealing in internet fraud, prostitution and drug production, and whose members held prominent positions in the local government and militia aligned with Myanmar’s ruling junta.

Florida | Man convicted of leaving girl to be eaten by gators avoids death penalty

After about 4 hours of deliberations, jurors on Friday recommended Harrel Braddy should be sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of 5-year-old Quantisha Maycock. A South Florida man who dropped off a 5-year-old child in the Everglades to be eaten alive by gators nearly 3 decades ago was given a second chance at life as jurors recommended he should spend the rest of his life behind bars instead of being sent to death row. After about four hours of deliberations, jurors on Friday recommended Harrel Braddy should be sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of 5-year-old Quantisha Maycock.

Federal Judge Rules Out Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealth CEO Killing

NEW YORK — A federal judge has dismissed two charges against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, effectively removing the possibility of the death penalty in the high-profile case. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett ruled Friday that the murder charge through use of a firearm — the only count that could have carried a capital sentence — was legally incompatible with the remaining interstate stalking charges against Mangione.

Georgia parole board suspends scheduled execution of Cobb County death row prisoner

The execution of a Georgia man scheduled for Wednesday has been suspended as the State Board of Pardons and Paroles considers a clemency application. Stacey Humphreys, 52, would have been the state's first execution in 2025. As of December 16, 2025, Georgia has carried out zero executions in 2025. The state last executed an inmate in January 2020, followed by a pause due to COVID-19. Executions resumed in 2024, but none have occurred this year until now. Humphreys had been sentenced to death for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

California | Convicted killer Scott Peterson keeps swinging in court — but expert says he’s not going anywhere but his cell

More than two decades after Laci Peterson vanished from her Modesto, California, home, the murder case that captivated the nation continues to draw legal challenges, public debate and renewed attention. As the year comes to a close, Scott Peterson, convicted in 2004 of murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son Conner, remains behind bars, serving life without the possibility of parole. His wife disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002, and a few months later, the remains of Laci and Conner were found in the San Francisco Bay.

Death toll in Iran protests could exceed 30,000

In an exclusive report, the American magazine TIME cited two senior officials from the Iranian Ministry of Health, who stated that the scale of the crackdown against protesters on January 18 and 19 was so widespread that 18-wheeler trailers replaced ambulances. In its report, based on testimony from these two high-ranking officials, TIME revealed statistics that differ vastly from the official narrative of the Islamic Republic.

The US reporter who has witnessed 14 executions: ‘People need to know what it looks like’

South Carolina-based journalist Jeffrey Collins observed back-to-back executions in 2025 after the state revived the death penalty following a 13-year pause Jeffrey Collins has watched 14 men draw their final breaths. Over 25 years at the Associated Press, the South Carolina-based journalist has repeatedly served as an observer inside the state’s execution chamber, watching from feet away as prison officials kill men who were sentenced to capital punishment. South Carolina has recently kept him unusually busy, with seven back-to-back executions in 14 months.

Florida's second execution of 2026 scheduled for February

Florida’s second execution of 2026, a man convicted of killing a grocery story owner, will take place in February. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant Jan. 23 for Melvin Trotter, 65, to die by lethal injection Feb. 24. Florida's first execution will take place just a few weeks earlier when Ronald Palmer Heath is set to die Feb. 10. Trotter was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987 for strangling and stabbing Virgie Langford a year earlier in Palmetto.

China executes another four members of powerful Myanmar-based crime family

China has executed another four members of a powerful Myanmar-based crime family that oversaw 41 pig butchering scam* compounds across Southeast Asia. The executed individuals were members of the Bai family, a particularly powerful gang that ruled the Laukkai district and helped transform it into a hub for casinos, trafficking, scam compounds, and prostitution. China’s Supreme People’s Court approved the executions after 21 members were charged with homicide, kidnapping, extortion, operating a fraudulent casino, organizing illegal border crossings, and forced prostitution. The court said the Bai family made over $4 billion across its enterprise and killed six Chinese citizens.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog