Death Penalty News

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Wednesday set aside the judgment of a Barabanki court which had sentenced a youth seven years ago with death penalty for allegedly outraging modesty of a minor girl and thereafter strangulating her to death.  The court said that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Rejecting the death reference forwarded by the trial court seeking confirmation of the sentence it had awarded on August 29, 2014, a division bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Rajeev Singh said, “The court is conscious of the fact that in the present case a 12-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and done to death by throttling. But the fact remains as to whether it was the accused-appellant who committed the alleged crime appears to be doubtful.” Allowing the appeal filed by the accused against the trial court verdict, Justice Rajeev Singh, who wrote the judgment for the division bench, said “The incident does not appear to have happen...

With trials approaching, death sentences are hanging over the heads of 2 suspects accused in the 2015 death of a Bonita Springs doctor. The victim’s husband Mark Sievers, 51, and Jimmy Ray Rodgers, 29, are co-defendants in the case. Both are charged with 1st-degree murder and will face the death penalty if convicted. Teresa Sievers, 46, was found dead, face down on the kitchen floor with the back of her head bashed in inside her family’s home at 27034 Jarvis Road on June 29, 2015. There are several differences between a death penalty trial and other criminal trials in Florida, including the size of the jury. The jury doubles from six people to 12 people during capital cases, according to the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C., said other differences can be found in the structure of the trial and qualifications of the jury. The jury selection process usually takes mo...

The Arkansas House of Representatives chamber at the State Capitol Less than a month before the state of Arkansas is to begin executing eight men over an 11-day period , legislators Tuesday rejected bills that would prevent executions of mentally ill defendants and raise the standard for sentencing executions to “beyond any doubt,” while the sponsor agreed to amend a bill outlawing all executions that had little chance of passing. The House Judiciary Committee voted against House Bill 2170, which would end death penalties for persons with a serious mental illness and also would vacate the death penalty for those already convicted who have a serious mental illness. It failed on a voice vote. Tom Sullivan, a professor at the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law, said existing law puts medical practitioners in the uncomfortable position of medicating inmates so they can be deemed competent to be executed. But Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith said the bill is...