Death Penalty News

South Carolina executes killer who left bloody message, marking third firing-squad execution this year  A South Carolina man convicted of killing 3 people over 5 days more than 20 years ago was executed by a firing squad on Friday evening.  Stephen Bryant, 44, was executed for killing a man in his home and writing "catch me if u can" on the wall with the victim's blood. He was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. following a firing squad. Three prison employees, all with live ammunition, volunteered to carry out the execution. Bryant is the 3rd man this year to die by South Carolina's newest execution method. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee officials must deactivate a death-row inmate 's implanted heart-regulating device to avert the risk that it might try to shock him during his lethal injection, a judge ruled Friday. The order by Nashville Chancellor Russell Perkins comes ahead of the Aug. 5 execution of Byron Black. Black's attorneys have said that the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator could shock him in an attempt to restore his heart's normal rhythm after the single dose of pentobarbital, with the potential for multiple rounds of shocks and extreme pain and suffering.

An Indiana death row inmate set to be executed in less than 2 weeks is asking for the nation's highest court to intervene.  Lawyers for Benjamin Ritchie wrote that their client was "sentenced to death based on inaccurate information" in a May 7 filing to the U.S. Supreme Court. They are asking for the execution to be paused so that Ritchie can pursue appeals related to ineffective assistance of counsel at the time of his trial.

This article was first published by The Marshall Project , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. Nikolas Cruz was the rare mass killer in America to have his fate decided at trial; many die during the shooting. It’s a bedrock principle of American justice that every defendant, no matter how serious the crime, is owed a robust defense.

Georgia carries out first execution in more than 4 years A Georgia man convicted of killing his former girlfriend 3 decades ago has been put to death in the state's first execution in more than 4 years. Authorities say 59-year-old Willie James Pye was pronounced dead at 11:03 p.m. Wednesday evening following an injection of the sedative pentobarbital. Pye was convicted of murder and other crimes in the November 1993 abduction, rape and shooting death of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough.

Pye was convicted of murder and other crimes in the November 1993 killing of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough. ATLANTA — A Georgia man should not be executed because he is intellectually disabled and feels remorse for killing his former girlfriend three decades ago, his lawyers wrote in seeking clemency for him.

NEW YORK – In a final statement before his execution Tuesday night, Florida death row inmate Michael Zack III said he made no excuses for the crimes he committed, but said he wished he could have had “a second chance, to live out my days in prison and continue to do all I can to make a difference in this world.” Zack’s request for a stay of his execution in favor of a life in prison is precisely what the state’s Catholic bishops asked Governor Ron DeSantis to consider last month, to no avail.  Zack died by lethal injection, a cocktail administered by the execution team that includes a sedative, paralytic, and a drug to stop his heart.  The drugs were administered at 6:02 and he was pronounced dead by 6:14 p.m., although there were no visible signs of breathing after the first minute. The family of Ravonne Smith witnessed the execution but chose not to speak with the media following the execution. When asked if he had any last words, Zack replied, “Yes sir,” lifting his head to...

Michael Zack, III, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, at the Florida State Prison near Raiford, Florida. 54-year-old Michael is convicted of murdering 23-year-old Ravonne Smith on June 13, 1996, near Pensacola, Florida. Michael has spent the last 25 years on death row in Florida. As a child, Michael Zack allegedly saw his sister murder his mother. It has also been claimed that Michael suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder, which adversely affected his impulse control and causes him constant emotional and mental stress.

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously refused to block the scheduled Oct. 3 execution of Michael Duane Zack, rejecting arguments that he should be spared the death penalty because of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Justices upheld an Escambia County circuit judge’s ruling last month against Zack, who was sent to Death Row in the 1996 murder of a woman during a crime spree in Northwest Florida. Attorneys for Zack also are asking a federal appeals court to halt the execution, after a U.S. district judge turned down their arguments.

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge Friday refused to block the scheduled Oct. 3 execution of Florida inmate Michael Duane Zack, rejecting arguments that the convicted murderer’s due-process rights were violated because of a flawed clemency process. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a six-page order denying a stay of execution for Zack, who was sentenced to death in the 1996 murder of a woman in Escambia County. Zack’s attorneys also are asking the Florida Supreme Court to halt the execution on different legal grounds.

Virginia killed more than 1,300 people who were convicted of serious crimes before deciding, in 2021, that it would join 22 other states that abolished the death penalty. Before that time, prisoners on death row met with spiritual counselors like minister Russ Ford. “These people did some horrible things," he says, "but there was such a pattern of poverty and abuse, mental illness, organic brain damage – like alcohol fetal syndrome. Drug addiction certainly played a part in many of their lives.” Ford grew up in a family that did not believe in capital punishment. “Dad saw it as a racial issue. Black people were getting it pretty hard and poor people, so that had influenced me. After I witnessed the first execution I was adamantly opposed.” He knew electrocution was not an exact science. “We saw a man who was hit with it, and then 15 minutes later he was still alive! You know they say they don’t feel any pain, but that’s just not true!”

Dr. Joseph Thornton, a psychiatrist who formerly treated death row prisoners as the medical director of a Florida maximum security prison, called for an end to the death penalty for those with severe mental illness: “We should not be executing anyone, let alone the sick and the broken,” he said.  “As someone with over 40 years’ experience seeing patients with serious mental illness who are stigmatized, ostracized and blamed for their symptoms, I believe that recovery care, not ostracization, respects life and saves lives.” In an op-ed in the Florida Times Union, Thornton used the case of Donald Dillbeck , who suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, mental health issues, and brain abnormalities, to illustrate the failures of the current system. 

And it might not matter how mentally ill they are It's been many years since Texas attempted two executions in the span of three days but the state will attempt to do just that next week. Without court intervention, Gary Green will die March 7 and Arthur Brown two days later, on March 9. The attorneys representing the inmates have been reluctant to discuss the arguments they'll make in court to try to save their clients' lives. But, as is true for almost everyone on death row, there was little mitigating evidence presented at their trials to demonstrate the hardships these men endured. Such evidence could have persuaded their juries to sentence them to life.

  Donald Dillbeck didn’t mince words in the minutes before the state executed him Thursday night. “I know I hurt people when I was young. I really messed up,” Dillbeck, 59, said, strapped to a gurney in the Florida State Prison death chamber. “But I know (Florida Gov.) Ron DeSantis has done a lot worse. He’s taken a lot from a lot of people. I speak for all men, women and children. He’s put his foot on our necks.”

The cases of two defendants facing imminent execution raise concerns about the appropriateness of death sentences for those with severe mental illness or sharply-limiting mental disabilities.  Andre Thomas is scheduled for execution on April 5, 2023 in Texas, despite suffering from mental illness so acute that he cut out both of his eyes and ate one, claiming that it was necessary to prevent the government from hearing his thoughts.  Donald Dillbeck is scheduled for execution in Florida on February 23, even though he is inflicted with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder accompanied by disabilities similar to those the U.S. Supreme Court has found disqualifying for the death penalty ( Atkins v. Virginia ).

The State of Florida is scheduled to execute Donald Dillbeck on 23 February 2023. Now aged 60, he was sentenced to death in 1991 after only eight jurors voted for the death penalty under a law since found unconstitutional. His lawyers are seeking recognition that his neurobehavioral disorder is akin to intellectual disability and should exempt him from execution under constitutional law. They also maintain that the prosecution’s use of his prior conviction for murder to support the death penalty is undermined by new evidence that reveals more mitigating than aggravating factors than the original jury heard in this regard. 

(CNN) — Missouri carried out the first known US execution of an openly transgender person Tuesday when Amber McLaughlin, who was convicted of a 2003 murder and unsuccessfully sought clemency from the governor, was put to death by lethal injection. “McLaughlin was pronounced dead at 6:51 p.m.,” the Missouri Department of Corrections said in a written statement. “I am sorry for what I did,” wrote McLaughlin in her final statement, which was released by the department of corrections. “I am a loving & caring person.”

Amber Laughlin committed a brutal crime, but what brought her to that moment was a life marked from her earliest years by brain damage, physical and psychological abuse and mental illness. On Tuesday , Missouri plans to carry out the first execution of 2023 when it puts Amber McLaughlin to death. If it does, McLaughlin would be the first transgendered person ever executed in the United States. But beyond this historical first, a look at McLaughlin’s case reveals that she is not all that different from many people on death row in this country.

On January 3, 2023, Missouri is set to execute Amber McLaughlin (pictured), the first transgender person scheduled to be put to death in the United States. Tried as Scott McLaughlin, her jury rejected three of the four aggravating circumstances advanced by St. Louis County prosecutors but split on its sentencing verdict. The vast majority of death-penalty states require a unanimous jury vote for death before the death penalty may be imposed. But under Missouri law, a nonunanimous jury vote is deemed a hung jury, triggering a statutory provision that allowed McLaughlin’s trial judge to independently impose sentence. McLaughlin’s trial judge then relied upon the aggravating circumstances rejected by the jury to sentence McLaughlin to death.

Three jurors, including one 'hard no' who could not be swayed, voted to save the life of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz  Three jurors spared the life of convicted Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz as they recommended life imprisonment without parole over the death penalty. Cruz shot dead 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018. In 2021, Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty to the murders.  Since the trial ended, multiple jurors came forward to speak about their experiences. The day before the verdict was delivered, one member of the jury explained how pro-death penalty panelists showed graphic photos to the holdouts and even brought the actual AR-15 assault rifle that was used by Cruz into the deliberation room.  The foreman said in an interview that there was one 'hard no' who could not be swayed among the jury. In the end, two others voted with that person to save Cruz's life.  The three-month trial included graphic videos and photos from th...