USA | 9/11 families, first responders call for death penalty against attack plotters

NEW YORK - After Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin canceled plea deals for the alleged 9/11 mastermind and two accomplices, there's mounting pressure for new action. The trial has been delayed for years. Victims' families and survivors say they want the feds to set a trial date and seek the death penalty.

Beth Murphy was battling melanoma in 2001. For the past 23 years, she's been fighting for justice for her husband Kevin Murphy, who worked on the 100th floor of the World Trade Center. Their children were 4 and 7. "I was battling melanoma. All my lymph nodes were taken out of my right leg. He was crying at my bedside. A week later, he was murdered," Beth Murphy said.

"My kids writing a letter asking KSM why he killed their dad. That is disgusting." KSM is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, who has been in U.S. custody since 2003.

Last week, the Department of Justice told loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed that, in a plea deal, the terrorists would answer victims' families questions and avoid the death penalty in exchange for life in prison.

Austin revoked the deal sparing the death penalty for Mohammed and associates Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, writing in a memo that "responsibility for such a decision should rest with me."

"I applaud Secretary Austin's decision to put the death penalty back on the table for these murderers," said Andy Ansbro, President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "They should spend every day they have left in fear that their lives will be cut short. It's a fear that many New York City firefighters live with, and the actions of these terrorists have put thousands of others on death row. Each month we lose more, as more New York City firefighters continue to die, while these men would be spared the ultimate justice for their crimes - it's disgraceful."

Survivors want justice immediately. "Since that day, they've murdered thousands - 1,004 members of FDNY responded that. Over a quarter of my members are sick," World Trade Center liaison for Local 2507 EMTs and Paramedics Gary Smiley said.

"These families want their day in court," PBA President Patrick Hendry said. "They were masterminds behind the deadliest attack on our freedom, and there is evil right now around this world seeing what happens with this case."

Terry Strada of 9/11 Families United is part of a lawsuit accusing the Saudi government of involvement. "We need to know who inspired them, who funded them, and who provided the critical support to see their murderous vision through," Strada said.

"These murderous terrorists deserve the death penalty, and anything less is unacceptable to our first responders and the loved ones here today," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said. "That is why we're calling for the trial date to be set. Stop wasting time."

"When do you see a lawsuit go 23 years?" Murphy said.

The group September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows said in a statement the plea reversal was "emotional whiplash," and the agreements "offered a path to finality, and a modicum of justice and accountability for the crimes of 9/11."

Why have the cases taken so long? The cases against Mohammed and the others have been stuck in a legal quagmire since 2008 because the three underwent "enhanced interrogation techniques," or torture, in CIA custody before they moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The legal delays have had to do with whether evidence extracted during their interrogations is admissible in court.

The White House said it played no role in the initial plea deal agreement. The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee said it was launching an investigation into whether the White House was involved.

Source: cbsnews.com, Lisa Rozner, Jesse Zanger, August 5, 2024

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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

The doctor defending Louisiana’s controversial execution method

Dr. Joseph Antognini travels across the nation, being paid over $500 an hour by government officials who rely on him to vouch for their execution protocols. This [article] is part of “ Operating Capital ,” an ongoing Lens discussion about Louisiana’s resumption of executions. Earlier this month, Dr. Joseph Antognini, a California-based retired anesthesiologist, walked into the execution chamber at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. He tried on the air-tight mask that prison staff plan to use to execute Death Row prisoner Jessie Hoffman , using nitrogen hypoxia, a method that Louisiana executioners have never before used.

Louisiana executes Jessie Hoffman Jr.

Louisiana used nitrogen gas Tuesday evening to execute a man convicted of murdering a woman in 1996, the 1st time the state has used the method, a lawyer for the condemned man said. Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was put to death at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, defense lawyer Cecelia Kappel said in a statement. He was the 1st person executed in the state in 15 years, and his death marked the 5th use of the nitrogen gas method in the US, with all the rest in Alabama. Hoffman was convicted of the murder of Mary "Molly" Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive. At the time of the crime, Hoffman was 18.

Indonesia | Lindsay Sandiford convinced she will be released soon

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Texas Death Row chef who cook for hundreds of inmates explained why he refused to serve one last meal

Brian Price would earn the title after 11 years cooking for the condemned In the unlikely scenario that you ever find yourself on Death Row, approaching your final days as a condemned man, what would you request for your final meal? Would you push the boat out and request a full steal dinner or play it safe and opt for a classic dish such as pizza or a burger? For most of us it's something that we'll never have to think about, but for one man who spent over a decade working as a 'Death Row chef' encountering prisoner's final requests wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

Oklahoma executes Wendell Grissom

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South Carolina plans to carry out a firing squad execution. Is it safe for witnesses?

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Louisiana | Execution by nitrogen gas ‘ugly way to die’: MD

What is it like to be executed by nitrogen gas? Dr. Jonathan Groner, a medical ethicist who studies capital punishment, has not witnessed an execution using this method, but he speculates about what happens to an inmate who is given pure nitrogen to inhale through a mask. “They don’t go quietly, I will say that,” Groner, a professor of surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, told “Banfield” on Wednesday. A federal judge this week halted the state of Louisiana’s plans to execute an inmate for the first time through “nitrogen hypoxia.” State officials plan to appeal the judge’s decision, which raised questions about whether using nitrogen gas is a cruel and unusual punishment.

Florida executes Edward James

Edward James received 3-drug lethal injection under death warrant signed in February by governor Ron DeSantis A Florida man who killed an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs was executed on Thursday. Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8.15pm after receiving a 3-drug injection at Florida state prison outside Starke under a death warrant signed in February by Governor Ron DeSantis. The execution was the 2nd this year in Florida, which is planning a 3rd in April.

Louisiana's First Nitrogen Execution Reflects Broader Method Shift

Facing imminent execution by lethal gas earlier this week, Jessie Hoffman Jr. — a Louisiana man convicted of abducting, raping and murdering a 28-year-old woman in 1996 — went to court with a request: Please allow me to be shot instead. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 16 seeking a stay of his execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a protocol that had yet to be tested in the state, Hoffman requested execution by firing squad as an alternative.

Violent and sudden. What a firing squad execution looked like through my eyes

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — I’ve now watched through glass and bars as 11 men were put to death at a South Carolina prison. None of the previous 10 prepared me for watching the firing squad death of Brad Sigmon on Friday night. I might now be unique among U.S. reporters: I’ve witnessed three different methods — nine lethal injections and an electric chair execution. I can still hear the thunk of the breaker falling 21 years later. As a journalist you want to ready yourself for an assignment. You research a case. You read about the subject.

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