Death Penalty News

A 71-year-old man who died last week while serving time on San Quentin’s Death Row tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first known death of a coronavirus patient inside California’s oldest state prison. Richard Stitely’s test results, announced by Marin County officials late Monday morning, come as a monstrous outbreak continues to overwhelm San Quentin State Prison, now infecting more than 1,000 incarcerated people and 89 employees at the facility. As of Monday evening, more than one out of every four people incarcerated at San Quentin were infected. Stitely, who had refused to be tested, was found dead Wednesday night. His official cause, mode and manner of death are still pending additional investigation, and as of Monday afternoon no San Quentin deaths were counted on the prison health care system’s official COVID-19 tracking website. Roger Fielding, Marin County’s chief deputy coroner, said Stitely’s forensic postmortem examination and toxicology t...

Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin has again stirred an outcry over his fiery political rhetoric — this time for saying certain Democratic governors should be executed for treason. Griffin, who founded the group Cowboys for Trump, also told the Daily Beast on Tuesday that anti-lockdown protesters might be justified in using violence. During the interview, published Wednesday, Griffin said top Democrats, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, are traitors who deserve the death penalty. Both governors have imposed restrictions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. “You get to pick your poison: You either go before a firing squad, or you get the end of the rope,” Griffin told the Daily Beast. He was asked if people protesting pandemic-related shutdowns are increasingly considering violence. “I’ll tell you what, partner, as far as I’m concerned, there’s not an option that’s not on the table,” Griffin replied. Griffin ag...