FEATURED POST

U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

Published
Image
Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 

U.S. | Conservative plan calls for Trump to kill everyone on federal death row in second term

Published
A conservative plan for Donald Trump’s potential second term calls for the swift execution of everyone on federal death row, continuing the historic federal execution spree that took place during the Trump administration.

Buried in a 2023 plan from the Heritage Foundation, dubbed Project 2025, former Trump Department of Justice official Gene Hamilton urges a second-term Trump to “do everything possible” to execute the remaining 40 people on federal death row, arguing the White House should push for these killings “until Congress says otherwise through legislation.”

The plan for such a step is necessary because current crime data “makes deterrence vital.” (Studies consistently show there is no relationship between the death penalty and deterring violent crime.)

If Mr Trump implemented such a plan, it would continue his legacy from his first term in office, where he executed 13 people in his final six months, the largest federal execution spree since the 1800s, ending a de facto federal moratorium on capital punishment that had lasted two decades.

Advocates warned against embracing such a policy.

On the campaign trail, Mr Trump has appeared sympathetic about expanding the death penalty.

Despite his much-touted efforts at criminal justice reform, Mr Trump has called for the death penalty to be applied to drug crimes, including those who’ve seen their sentences reduced under other Trump administration policies like the First Step Act.

He’s also suggested executing human traffickers caught at the US-Mexico border.

“I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty immediately,” he announced last summer.

Privately, in 2020, Mr Trump reportedly suggested executing the individuals who leaked an embarrassing story about him sheltering in a secure bunker during the 2020 George Floyd protests in Washington.

The former president has suggested his second term will see him embracing even more unprecedented right-wing policies than his first.

Mr Trump has promised the mass deportation of millions of migrants and has suggested sending American special forces into Mexico to assassinate the heads of drug cartels.

Source: The Independent, Josh Marcus, May 10, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________








"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: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

Published
Image
Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 
Read more

Texas Plans To Execute Ramiro Gonzales, Despite Reversal From Doctor Who Helped Send Him To Death Row

Published
Image
Ramiro Gonzales is due to be executed by Texas on June 26 In 2006, Ramiro Gonzales was sentenced to death in Texas as punishment for kidnapping, raping and killing Bridget Townsend when they were both 18 years old. There were indications that Gonzales did not represent the “worst of the worst” kind of criminal that the death penalty is supposedly reserved for. Like many on death row, he endured horrific abuse and neglect as a child. He turned to drugs and alcohol as a teen to cope; he killed Townsend, his drug dealer’s girlfriend, while trying to steal drugs. 
Read more

Alabama lethal injection survivor Alan Eugene Miller seeks to stop ‘horrific’ nitrogen gas execution

Published
Image
Alabama lethal injection survivor Alan Eugene Miller seeks to stop ‘horrific’ nitrogen gas execution The Associated Press - Lawyers for an Alabama inmate on Friday asked a judge to block the nation’s second scheduled execution using nitrogen gas, arguing the first was a “horrific scene” that violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Read more

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Finds Kerry Max Cook ​“Actually Innocent” 46 Years After His Original Conviction

Published
Image
On June 19, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals set aside 68-year-old Kerry Max Cook’s conviction, finding him to be “actually innocent.” Describing Mr. Cook’s case as “one of the most notable murder cases of the last half-century,” the majority opinion explains that “when it comes to solid support for actual innocence, this case contains it all—uncontroverted Brady violations, proof of false testimony, admissions of perjury, and new scientific evidence.”
Read more

Arizona’s Embarrassing Death Penalty Mess Takes a New Turn

Published
Image
An ambitious prosecutor seeking re-election, a governor trying to figure out what is wrong with her state’s death penalty system, a victim’s family pushing to see a killer executed, an attorney general seeking to guard her authority in the death penalty system, a death row inmate whose fate is in the balance—these elements are a familiar part of the story of capital punishment across the country. But all of them are now vividly on display in Arizona, where the political motives of an ambitious county attorney are driving a contest over the rules governing who gets to say when it is time to issue a death warrant.
Read more

Florida | After a flurry of executions during his presidential campaign, DeSantis now pauses

Published
Image
When Gov. Ron DeSantis was seeking the Republican presidential nomination last year, he ratcheted up the pace of executions, overseeing six – the most in Florida in almost a decade.  But by the time DeSantis’ presidential bid ended in January, his fervor for executions had abated, continuing into a layoff that is now prompting questions about just what powered last year’s surge. 
Read more

Iranian rapper's death sentence overturned

Published
Image
A jailed Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-government protests has had his sentence overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court, his lawyer has said. Toomaj Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after making public statements in support of protests that had exploded across Iran. His lawyer, Amir Raesian, said the Supreme Court has now ordered a retrial, and that the judges decided that Salehi's previous prison sentence of six years and three months went against Iran's multiple-offences rules, and was in excess of the legal punishment.
Read more