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

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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. 

Pennsylvania | Notice of execution signed for death row inmate convicted of 2015 double murder

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Pennsylvania's death chamber
A notice of execution was signed for a death row inmate convicted of a 2015 double murder in Lancaster County

Leeton Thomas was convicted of killing Lisa and Hailey Scheetz and severely injuring Lisa Scheetz's other daughter in their East Drumore Township home in June 2015.

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel signed a Notice of Execution Thursday for a Lancaster County man on Death Row for stabbing 2 women to death in 2015.

Leeton Jahwanza Thomas was convicted of murdering Lisa Scheetz and her 16-year-old daughter, Hailey, in their East Drumonre Township, Lancaster County home on June 11, 2015.

Thomas also stabbed Scheetz's 15-year-old daughter, severely injuring her. 

He was convicted of attempted murder for that offense.

Thomas' execution date is July 28, 2020.

Governor Tom Wolf declared a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania in February 2015, saying the system can sometimes claim innocent lives, does not always work as a deterrent to crime, can be racially biased, costs a lot of money, and disregards mental illness in the US.

That moratorium remains in effect today, though capital crimes are still prosecuted and death warrants still signed.

Pennsylvania has not executed an inmate since 1999.

Pennsylvania law provides that when the governor does not sign a warrant of execution within the specified time period, the secretary of corrections has 30 days within which to issue a notice of execution.

Wolf issues temporary reprieves if a warrant reaches his desk without further appeals. 

Thomas has not yet exhausted the appeals process, Wetzel said.

Source: Fox News, Staff, June 19, 2020


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"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: Pennsylvania, USA
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