FEATURED POST

Biden Has 65 Days Left in Office. Here’s What He Can Do on Criminal Justice.

Published
Image
Judicial appointments and the death penalty are among areas where a lame-duck administration can still leave a mark. Donald Trump’s second presidential term will begin on Jan. 20, bringing with it promises to dramatically reshape many aspects of the criminal justice system. The U.S. Senate — with its authority over confirming judicial nominees — will also shift from Democratic to Republican control.
Post a Comment

Texas | Joe Franco Garza, Jr., sentenced to death for 1998 murder, found dead in cell

Published
LIVINGSTON, Texas (KCBD) - An inmate sentenced to death for a 1998 murder was found dead in his cell on Tuesday.

Joe Franco Garza, Jr. was charged in the strangulation death of 71-year-old Silbiano Rangel. 

Police say Garza also stole Rangel’s truck, and then forged checks on his account. Rangel’s body was found in a field in the 7300 block of King Avenue. 

Garza was arrested and charged with the murder less than a month later.

He was convicted of capital murder in 2000 and sentenced to death, but his death sentence was reversed in 2006. 

Garza claimed he was a troubled teen and that his legal team at the time did not do a good enough job using that evidence in his defense.

He lost his appeal in 2008 and was set to die in September of 2015.

This execution date was withdrawn to allow for DNA testing of evidence.

Garza was being held on death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, TX. 

Garza did not comply when a guard ordered him to come to his cell door and was found unresponsive inside.

Additional security and medical staff arrived and began life-saving measures. He was transported to Livingston Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 5:01 a.m. 

The Office of the Inspector General is conducting an investigation into Garza’s death. 

At this time, no foul play or self-harm is suspected.

Garza was 49.

Source: kcbd.com, Staff, December 31, 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: Livingston, TX 77351, USA
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Biden Has 65 Days Left in Office. Here’s What He Can Do on Criminal Justice.

Published
Image
Judicial appointments and the death penalty are among areas where a lame-duck administration can still leave a mark. Donald Trump’s second presidential term will begin on Jan. 20, bringing with it promises to dramatically reshape many aspects of the criminal justice system. The U.S. Senate — with its authority over confirming judicial nominees — will also shift from Democratic to Republican control.
Read more

Saudi Arabia executed more than 100 foreigners in 2024: AFP tally

Published
Image
Saudi Arabia has executed more than 100 foreigners this year, according to an AFP tally indicating a sharp increase which one rights group said was unprecedented. The latest execution, on Saturday in the southwestern region of Najran, was of a Yemeni national convicted of smuggling drugs into the Gulf kingdom, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. That brought to 101 the number of foreigners executed so far in 2024, according to the tally which is compiled from state media reports.
Read more

To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

Published
Image
You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
Read more

Trial Judge Declares Melissa Lucio to be ​“Actually Innocent,” Recommends Texas CCA Overturn Conviction and Death Sentence

Published
Image
Texas death-sentenced prisoner Melissa Lucio is “actually innocent; she did not kill her [two-year-old] daughter,” explained Judge Arturo Nelson in his October 16th decision, which was made public on November 14, 2024.  Judge Nelson’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law now go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA), which will make the final decision about whether to overturn Ms. Lucio’s conviction and 2008 death sentence. 
Read more

Iran | Group Hanging of 10 Including a Woman in Ghezel Hesar Prison; Protest Outside Prison Violently Crushed

Published
Image
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 16, 2024: At least nine people including a woman, an Afghan national and two Kurdish minorities were executed for murder and drug-related charges in Ghezel Hesar Prison on Wednesday.  Ahmad Alizadeh was previously reported to have been executed that day, bringing the total number of people executed that day to ten. At least five others have been transferred for execution.
Read more

Singapore | Imminent unlawful execution for drug trafficking

Published
Image
Ahead of the scheduled execution of a man for drug-related offences, in violation of international law and standards, in Singapore on Friday 22 November, Amnesty International’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said:  “The upcoming execution of Rosman bin Abdullah underlines the chilling determination of the Singapore authorities to continue to implement the death penalty. Singapore is among a handful of countries still executing people for drug-related offences, in violation of international human rights law and standards. This must stop immediately. 
Read more

Mary Jane Veloso to return to Philippines after 14-year imprisonment in Indonesia

Published
Image
BACK IN 2010, overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Mary Jane Veloso was arrested in Indonesia. She was convicted of drug trafficking after being caught carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin in Yogyakarta. She was then given the death penalty despite pleading innocence – saying that she was only a victim of human trafficking.  Initially, she started working as an OFW to give her children a better life. As per her lawyer Agus Salim, she had gone to Dubai to work as a domestic helper, but returned to Manila before the end of her contract because she was allegedly almost raped.
Read more

USA | Pro-Trump prison warden asks Biden to commute all death sentences before leaving

Published
Image
Ron McAndrew is a former Florida State Penitentiary warden A pro-Trump former Florida prison warden who oversaw executions is urging President Biden to commute all federal and military death sentences before leaving office. "I voted for President Trump in all of his campaigns, and I agree with him on most of his positions, but not the death penalty," Ron McAndrew, former warden of the Florida State Penitentiary, wrote in a letter to the outgoing president. "I have written to President Trump personally to ask him to stop calling for more executions."
Read more