Death Penalty News

US President Donald Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses November's election. "Well, we'll have to see what happens," the president told a news conference at the White House. "You know that." Mr Trump also said he believed the election result could end up in the US Supreme Court, as he again cast doubt on postal voting. More states are encouraging mail-in voting, citing the need to keep Americans safe from coronavirus. What did Trump say? Mr Trump was asked by a reporter on Wednesday evening if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power "win, lose or draw" to Democrat Joe Biden. The president currently trails his challenger in national opinion polls with 41 days to go until the election. "I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots," Mr Trump, a Republican, said. "And the ballots are a disaster." When the journalist countered that "people are rioting", Mr Trump in...

(CNN) -- GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah signaled on Tuesday that he is on board with the Senate's taking up a new Supreme Court nominee during the current election year, an announcement that all but ensures a nominee put forward by President Donald Trump will be confirmed barring any potential missteps by the nominee during the confirmation process. In a statement, Romney did not raise any objections to holding a vote on a Trump nominee this year and said, "If the nominee reaches the Senate floor, I intend to vote based upon their qualifications." With momentum from their conference behind a quick vote, GOP leaders are now making clear they are pressing ahead to get the nomination confirmed before Election Day, which would amount to one of the quickest proceedings in modern times. And it comes despite Senate Republicans' refusal to move on then-President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to a seat in 2016 when they said his choice -- eight months before...

Oklahoma State Penitentiary In McAlester, Checotah and other towns in the verdant, rolling landscape of eastern Oklahoma, there is some discomfort about how the execution played out, and many agree that changes should be made to the system. But there is little argument about the final outcome for Lockett. “I think he got what’s coming to him,” said James Barr, who was buying a coffee at the Harbor Mountain Coffee House in McAlester, about two miles from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, the site of the botched execution. Lockett was convicted of murder and other charges, including rape, in 2000 after he and two accomplices attacked two young women, one of whom — Neiman — Lockett shot twice. Lockett then ordered his accomplices to bury her alive , witnesses said. Capital punishment is broadly popular in Oklahoma, where voters chose Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney by a 2 to 1 margin over Obama in 2012 and where Gov. Mary Fallin and other Republicans dominate state gover...

BOSTON – As Massachusetts governor, Republican Mitt Romney set himself a daunting challenge: craft a death penalty law that virtually guaranteed only the guilty could be executed, then push it through an overwhelmingly Democratic state Legislature that was leery of capital punishment. Making the task even more difficult, the push by Romney — who is now running for president — came in 2005 at a time of growing national skepticism about the death penalty. Just two years earlier, Illinois Gov. George Ryan had cleared his state's death row after the death sentences of several inmates had been overturned. Romney decided to tackle that skepticism by coming up with what he said would be a "gold standard for the death penalty in the modern scientific age." In trying to set a new and higher bar, Romney also was chasing two political goals. The first was to fulfill a promise, made during his 2002 run for governor, to try to reinstate the death penalty in Massach...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday asserted that the death penalty prevented "the most heinous crimes." During a town hall event in Grand Junction, Colorado, a man who identified himself as "the local D.A." asked Romney to respond to a recent Supreme Court ruling that banned mandatory life sentences for minors who are convicted of murder. Instead of taking a position on the Supreme Court ruling, the former Massachusetts governor took the opportunity to express his support for capital punishment. "I realize that this wasn't a death penalty case ... but I happen to believe that the death penalty tends to prevent some of the most heinous crimes," Romney said, pausing for the audience to cheer. "And I also believe that the prison terms that are of the nature you describe can also prevent some of the most heinous crimes from occurring," the candidate continued. "I believe in this case, the Su...

“From my perspective, there are two main camps when it comes to the death penalty. On one side, there are some people who believe there are certain crimes that are so offensive… so reprehensible…. so far beyond the bounds of civilized society that they demand the ultimate punishment. In the other camp are well-meaning people who believe that it is immoral for government to ever take a life. In the middle, I believe, are others who could support the death penalty if it is narrowly applied and contains the appropriate safeguards. It is with that group in mind that we have brought forward the death penalty bill before you today… The appropriate response of society to terrorism carried out around the world or within the Commonwealth’s borders is to apply the death penalty. That is why the legislation I filed in April accounts for terrorism, along with a small number of other crimes, including the assassination of a law enforcement officer, judge, juror or prosecutor, for the purpose of obs...