Texas | Supreme Court declines to grant a stay of execution to ex-Missouri City cop Robert Fratta

Fratta, who paid a teenage hitman to murder his estranged wife in 1994, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday.

The Supreme Court declined to grant a stay of execution for Robert Fratta, who is scheduled to be executed in Texas Tuesday.

The court denied 2 applications in which Fratta sought a stay. There are no recorded dissents. The Supreme Court declined to grant a stay of execution to Fratta, who paid a teenage hitman to murder his estranged wife in 1994.

During 2 capital murder trials, prosecutors said Robert Fratta paid the 18-year-old triggerman $1,000 to kill Farah Fratta, the mother of his 3 children.

Prosecutors painted Robert Fratta as a sexual deviant who was motivated by a messy divorce, a bitter custody battle and money from an insurance policy.

In 1996, it took jurors less than an hour to convict Fratta and they sentenced him to death. He showed no emotion but family members from both sides wept.

Farah's father, Lex Baquer said it had been especially hard on the couple's children.

"The young girl, she still asks for her mother. 'Mommy, I love you, Mommy. I miss you, Mommy,'" Lex said. "'I know you're in heaven, and someday when I die, I will meet you in heaven.'"

"I cannot wait for the day when I see him laying on that table, waiting to get the injection. That will be justice for me," Farah's mom, Betty Baquer, said after the 1st trial.

Justice would be a long time coming for Farah Fratta's loved ones. 13 years after she was killed, her husband's conviction was overturned because of inadmissible evidence.

During a 2009 retrial, the couple's children – who were then young adults – testified against their father, and Fratta was convicted and sentenced to death again.

Now 65, after 26 years on death row, a judge finally scheduled his execution date. It came too late for Farah Fratta's father, who died in 2018.

Source: KHOU news, Staff, January 10, 2023

Final Words from Bobby Fratta - Set to be Executed This Evening in Huntsville, Texas

Texas death row prisoner Robert Fratta is set to be executed at 6pm CT today, January 10, 2023 in Huntsville, Texas for his alleged participation in the murder of his wife, Farah Fratta. Details and facts of urgent concern are at bit.ly/BobbyFratta.

In a final conversation with Robert Fratta on Sunday evening, Death Penalty Action executive director Abraham Bonowitz gave Fratta an opportunity to share his thoughts with the world.

This was just after most of Fratta's final appeals were dismissed in court after court on procedural grounds rather than the merit of his arguments, which have substance to them. (Fratta's final appeal to the US Supreme Court was denied on Monday.)

This discussion was recorded at approximately 9pm on January 8, 2023, about 45 hours before killing time. Watch/listen to the conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tel_gZsB6Hc

(Bonowitz met Fratta while visiting another inmate on Texas death row in 1998. He wrote to Bobby upon learning an execution date had been set, and the two men have been exchanging emails for several weeks. Prisoners on death watch in Texas receive one hour of phone time each evening for the final week prior to the execution. In the past week, Bonowitz and Fratta spoke on the phone four times. The two had not communicated between the time they met in 1998 and December, 2022.)

Death Penalty Action representatives will join the protest vigil starting at 5pm CT outside of the Huntsville Unit where the execution is set to take place. Bonowitz and a number of colleagues from Texas, Ohio and Florida will be present. They will be participating along with individuals from around the world in a live virtual vigil via Zoom and broadcast on the Death Penalty Action Facebook Page. Registration is at bit.ly/RobertFrattaVV.

Unless the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends clemency in this case, Texas Governor Abbot is precluded from granting clemency, but he may reprieve the execution for 30 days.

Of note, normally the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles issues its determination on Monday, the week of the execution. As of 8am, no notice of a decision is found on the TX BPP web page.

The public is urged to learn more at bit.ly/BobbyFratta and call Governor Abbott at 512-463-2000.

Source: Death Penalty Action, Staff, January 10, 2023

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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

Florida executes Dominick Occhicone

Florida executes 2 men in a day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida's death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term. STARKE, Fla. — Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, the last an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of killing a young girl.

Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

Florida executes James Duckett

Double execution: 1st of 2 inmates is put to death in Florida Florida has executed James Duckett, a 68-year-old former cop convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987. The state is set to execute an 80-year-old man 6 hours later for a 1986 murder. Florida carried out the 1st double execution in more than 60 years, executing former police officer James Duckett and later scheduling the execution of 80‑year‑old Dominick Occhicone, amid Governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive push to increase death penalties in the state. Florida has put to death the 1st of 2 inmates in the state's 1st double execution in more than 60 years amid an aggressive death penalty push by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits. An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

Idaho | How Bryan Kohberger’s Guilty Plea Move Could Be His Death Sentence

If Bryan Kohberger successfully withdraws his guilty plea and goes to trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, it could lead to him being sentenced to death, experts told Newsweek . Kohberger, 31, filed a handwritten petition on Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, where he is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbings just over a year ago, a month before jury selection was set to start.

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.

Two Executions In Six Hours: Florida Set For Historical Double Execution Tuesday

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

Saudi Arabia | New Executions of Ethiopian Migrants

At Least 17 Executed for Non-Lethal Drug-Related Offenses in 2026 (Beirut) – Saudi authorities executed five Ethiopian migrants for nonlethal drug-related offenses on July 27, 2026, without due process, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities have executed at least 17 Ethiopian nationals since the beginning of 2026 on drug-related charges. At least 79 more remain at imminent risk of execution on similar charges. Saudi authorities have executed at least 116 people in 2026 as of July 27, according to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

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