Death Penalty News

Mike DeWine spent years quietly opposing thedeath penalty in Ohio without ever saying so out loud – largely by ensuring no one was executed in the seven-plus years he has been governor. Even though most people could see how he felt, he still had a big moment Tuesday when he formally announced his opposition. One reason the announcement had weight, Today in Ohio podcast hosts said on Wednesday, is that he was the author of the state’s death penalty law 45 years ago. But podcast hosts also said the announcement landed with a bit of a thud, because it was so unsurprising and because DeWine did not do the one thing that would have had a big impact: commute all existing death sentences.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia on Friday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

The DOJ computer expert is also charged with obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence. Trial and investigation still ongoing  A U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) IT worker, Justin Anthony Banta, 38, was arrested in Parker/Tarrant County, Texas, and charged with capital murder for allegedly administering an abortion pill, called “Plan C,” to his pregnant girlfriend by secretly mixing it into her coffee.

On February 13, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine postponed the three Ohio executions that were scheduled for 2025. And he predicted that no one would be put to death during the remainder of his time in office which ends in 2026. Columbus’s NBC4 reports that “the reprieves were issued due to ‘ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), pursuant to DRC protocol, without endangering other Ohioans.’”

Trump sat down with DailyMail.com for an interview at his Mar-a-Lago home. He talked about the campaign and his plans for day one in the White House. Donald Trump says he will end the Justice Department moratorium on executions on his first day in office, and use the full force of the law to go after major drug dealers and cop killers. The Trump campaign sees crime, in general, and Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor in California, in particular, as areas where they can inflict damage on her presidential bid.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Amnesty International criticised a leaked draft of Saudi Arabia’s first penal code on Tuesday, saying it would codify practices ranging from flogging to gender discrimination and urging changes to align it with international standards. In a report, Amnesty said the draft penal code “shatters the illusion” that de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman “is pursuing a truly reformist agenda” – a reference to social and economic changes he has introduced to modernise Saudi Arabia, attract investment and open up the country to tourism.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost just couldn’t resist jumping onboard a new way to kill people – or the opportunity to be in front of television cameras. Yost, Ohio’s two-term Republican attorney general, on Tuesday announced his support for legislation to allow nitrogen hypoxia to be used in Ohio executions. The bill is sponsored by state Reps. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, and Phil Plummer, R-Dayton. Yost said Ohio has “broke faith” with crime victims and jurors by not carrying out death sentences for the last five years while capital punishment remains law. Without mentioning Gov. Mike DeWine by name, Yost said not following the law is “an abdication of the sovereignty of the state of Ohio.”

BATON ROUGE, La. — Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor's race, holding off a crowded field of candidates. The win is a major victory for the GOP as they reclaim the governor's mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek reelection due to consecutive term limits. Edwards is the only Democratic governor in the Deep South.

Granting clemency to Death Row inmates would show the nation Louisiana is the staunchly pro-life state many claim it to be, death penalty abolitionists said during an Aug. 15 news conference. The group of faith leaders, activists and relatives of murder victims and inmates gathered on the steps of the state Capitol Aug. 15 to urge the Louisiana Board of Pardons to reconsider its rejection of the 56 clemency petitions forwarded to it by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards last month. “We urge the board to grant mercy over vengeance, and for the governor to continue to use his authority to grant clemency,” said Samantha Kennedy, executive director of the New Orleans-based Promise of Justice Initiative, which organized the event.

The Marshall Project is a nonprofit newsroom covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for our newsletters to receive all of our stories and analysis. Until his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court last year, Stephen Breyer spent 28 years hearing cases that profoundly shaped American life, including landmark decisions on LGBTQ rights , reproductive rights and criminal justice . Perhaps more than any of the other justices, Breyer was known as a pragmatist, guided by a belief that good government will outlast any one person or political fad. In his 2021 book, “ The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics ,” he argued that the court only has power when the public shares his faith in the importance of its role in our democracy.

MEDAN, Indonesia -- Indonesia has been thrown into turmoil following the passage of a controversial new criminal code this week, with critics accusing the government of trying to usher in a new era of authoritarianism. The code is a complete overhaul of the previous version, much of which was based on Dutch law drafted during the colonial period. Indonesia's previous criminal code, known by its Indonesian initials as the KUHP, dates from 1918 and was codified and unified in 1946, following Indonesia's independence the year before. The task of overhauling the law, which included abolishing or rewriting existing articles, as well as adding new ones, was overseen by Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, the deputy law and human rights minister. But it had been in the works for years, as Indonesia sought to establish its own post-colonial rules and regulations. Here are six things to know about the issues surrounding the new criminal code. What does the new criminal code say? The new code ha...

Indonesia’s parliament is expected to pass a new criminal code this month that will penalize sex outside marriage with a punishment of up to one year in jail, officials have confirmed to Reuters. The legislative overhaul will also ban insulting the president or state institutions and expressing any views counter to Indonesia’s state ideology. Cohabitation before marriage is also banned. Decades in the making, the new criminal code is expected to be passed on December 15, Indonesia’s deputy justice minister, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, told Reuters. “We’re proud to have a criminal code that’s in line with Indonesian values,” he told Reuters in an interview. Bambang Wuryanto, a lawmaker involved in the draft, said the new code could be passed as early as next week. The code, if passed, would apply to Indonesian citizens and foreigners alike, with business groups expressing concern about what damage the rules might have on Indonesia’s image as a holiday and investment destination. The dra...

On the heels of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade , Governor Mike Parson wasted no time signing the Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act. And Attorney General Eric Schmitt signed a proclamation banning abortion in the state. This is according to a story from Ozarks First . Yet, I'd like to know if life is so precious, is he willing to abolish Missouri's death penalty? The Ozarks First story quotes Governor Parson as saying: With Roe v. Wade overturned and statutory triggers provided in HB 126, we are issuing this proclamation to restore our state authority to regulate abortion and protect life. Thanks to decades of conservative leaders, Missouri has become one of the most pro-life states in the nation, and our administration has always fought for the life of every unborn child. Today, our efforts have produced what generations of Missourians have worked and prayed for: Today, we have won our fight to protect innocent life. And while Governor Parson is quick to protect...

Gov. Doug Ducey said Wednesday his self-proclaimed "pro-life'' position covers only abortions and not executions — even those carried out in the name of the state. Ducey said he believes in the death penalty in "certain rare situations.'' The statements come as Arizona is set to conduct its first execution this coming week since 2014, before Ducey was elected. That, however, is contingent on whether the Arizona Supreme Court concludes Clarence Dixon is mentally fit to be executed. A warrant has also been issued for a second man, Frank Atwood, to be put to death on June 8. "When I talk about pro-life, I talk about the innocence of life at birth,'' the governor told Capitol Media Services. "What you are talking about is justice that is coming 40 years delayed to families that suffered enormous grief at the hands of murderers,'' he said. "And the state is going to see that justice is done.'' The governor's comments on th...

The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s death penalty against 2 death-row prisoners’ challenges that capital punishment violates the “inalienable” right to life enshrined in the Kansas state constitution. In separate decisions rendered in the cases of brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr on January 21, 2022, the court held that the right to life guaranteed in Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights “is not absolute or nonforfeitable” and is forfeited “once a defendant has been convicted of capital murder beyond reasonable doubt.”  The court found that numerous constitutional violations had occurred in the brothers’ joint trial in 2002 but affirmed their convictions and death sentences nonetheless, ruling that each of the violations constituted “harmless error” and cumulatively did not affect “the jury’s ultimate conclusion regarding the weight of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, i.e., the death sentence verdict.” The court had previously overturned...

Press Release: UN News | A new Iranian law that raises the prospect of the death penalty for abortion has been condemned by independent human rights experts, who have declared that is in “clear contravention of international law”. In a statement released on Tuesday, the experts called on the Iranian authorities to repeal the ‘Youthful Population and Protection of the Family’ law, which was ratified by Iran’s Guardian Council on the first of November. The law, said the experts, severely restricts access to abortion, contraception, voluntary sterilization services and related information, in direct violation of women’s human rights under international law, and contains a provision stating that if carried out on a large scale, abortion would fall under the crime of “corruption on earth” and carry the death penalty. “The Iranian Government is taking further steps to use criminal law to restrict the rights of women, for the sake of increasing the number of births, which will effectively for...

Beginning this Thursday, the state of Oklahoma plans to kill 7 people over the next 5 months. The last few times Oklahoma attempted to execute death row inmates, it botched the procedures so badly — using the wrong drug and an improper IV setup, in separate cases — that the state stayed executions while a grand jury investigated the process. But it doesn’t actually matter how competent the killing process is — it’s wrong, even if it doesn’t suspend someone’s death for 43 minutes while they suffer on the gurney, as Clayton Lockett did in 2014. It’s time, for a number of reasons, for Oklahoma to change its stance on the death penalty. First, there’s the issue of the sanctity of human life, a topic Oklahoma talks about constantly in the context of abortion. In a story about incoming abortion restrictions published late last month, Gov. Kevin Stitt told The Frontier he would sign restrictive abortion bills that passed his desk, because he considers every pregnancy to be a life. The followi...