U.S. Supreme Court agrees to fast-track briefs in federal death penalty case

The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to fast-track filings in a case involving the Trump administration’s plans to resume federal executions this summer, which death-row inmates challenging their scheduled lethal injections hope the justices will agree to take up.

The court ordered the death-row inmates and federal officials to submit briefs in the coming days, before the justices determine whether to hear the case.

This order came three days after the Justice Department announced that officials had again scheduled executions as they seek to carry out federal death sentences for the first time since 2003.

Under the timeline laid out Monday, the Justice Department said it plans to carry out three lethal injections next month and a fourth in August. The department described the inmates involved as all convicted of murdering children.

This marked the second time in the past 12 months that the Justice Department has attempted to schedule executions. When Attorney General William P. Barr announced last summer that the Justice Department had adopted a new lethal-injection protocol, officials laid out a timetable for resuming executions that wound up blocked by court challenges.

Last year, a federal judge blocked four scheduled executions, saying the Trump administration’s execution protocol did not abide by the Federal Death Penalty Act because the 1994 law required federal executions be carried out “in the manner prescribed by the law of the State in which the sentence is imposed.” (A fifth execution was separately blocked.)

A divided federal appeals court panel split 2 to 1 earlier this year in siding with the Trump administration, issuing three opinions that took different perspectives on what the law required for federal executions.

Attorneys for some of the death-row inmates have since asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, saying the justices had to resolve whether the execution protocol adopted by the Justice Department is lawful. That protocol relies on a single drug, pentobarbital.

The Justice Department responded that the death-row inmates were saying the federal government could carry out executions only following “granular procedural details” used by states and urged the justices to reject their stay requests.

In its order Thursday, the court granted the motion filed by the death-row inmates seeking to expedite consideration of their petition. It ordered the Justice Department to file a response by Friday — which the department had already said it planned to do, acknowledging that the case could be fast-tracked.

A spokesman for the Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, while an attorney for the death-row inmates declined to comment.

Barr has said the department has an obligation to carry out the executions of people who “have received full and fair proceedings.”

“We owe it to the victims of these horrific crimes, and to the families left behind, to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system,” Barr said in a statement Monday when the executions were rescheduled.

Attorneys for the four death-row inmates, meanwhile, decried the plans to schedule their executions. Ruth Friedman, an attorney for Daniel Lewis Lee, whose execution is scheduled first, called it “unconscionable” for the government to execute him. She also noted that among those opposing Lee’s execution were some relatives of the victims in his case, who said they believe he should be sentenced to life in prison rather than death.

Source: washingtonpost.com, Mark Berman, June 18, 2020. Mark Berman is a national reporter for The Washington Post who often focuses on law enforcement and criminal justice issues. He has been at The Post since 2007 and previously covered transportation and local news.

⚑ | 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

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

China | Former Chinese senior banker Bai Tianhui executed for taking US$155 million in bribes

Bai is the second senior figure from Huarong to be put to death for corruption following the execution of Lai Xiaomin in 2021 China has executed a former senior banker who was found guilty of taking more than 1.1 billion yuan (US$155 million) in bribes. Bai Tianhui, the former general manager of the asset management firm China Huarong International Holdings, was executed on Tuesday after the Supreme People’s Court approved the sentence, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Who Gets Hanged in Singapore?

Singapore’s death penalty has been in the news again. Enshrined in law in 1975, a decade after the island split from Malaysia and became an independent state, the penalty can see people sentenced to hang for drug trafficking, murder or firearms offenses, among other crimes. Executions have often involved trafficking under the Misuse of Drugs Act, with offenses measured in grams. Those executed have included people from low-income backgrounds and foreign nationals who are sometimes not fluent in English, according to human rights advocates such as Amnesty International and the International Drug Policy Consortium.

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

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.

Florida executes Mark Allen Geralds

Mark Allen Geralds was convicted of killing a mother of two in Panama City Beach The state of Florida executed 58-year-old Mark Allen Geralds at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday at Florida State Prison, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. He was convicted of the 1989 murder of a Bay County mother. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 7 signed a death warrant for Geralds. Geralds' last words were “I’m sorry that I missed you [unintelligible]. I love you everyday,” according to witness and journalist John Koch. Geralds was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, burglary and grand theft auto in 1990. Shortly after his death warrant was signed, he waived his right to make any further appeals in court.

Vietnam | Woman sentenced to death for poisoning 4 family members with cyanide

A woman in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam was sentenced to death on Thursday for killing family members including two young children in a series of cyanide poisonings that shocked her community. The Dong Nai People's Court found 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Bich guilty of murder and of illegally possessing and using toxic chemicals. Judges described her actions as "cold-blooded, inhumane and calculated," saying Bich exploited the trust of her victims and "destroyed every ethical bond within her family."

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog