Death Penalty News

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday that Clarence Jordan’s punishment was unconstitutional  A death sentence handed down by a Harris County jury in 1978 was overturned Thursday by the Court of Criminal Appeals.  Clarence Jordan, 70, has been on Texas Death Row for almost 50 years, serving out one of the longest death sentences in the nation while suffering from intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia, his attorney told the Houston Press. 

NARA, Japan — More than three years after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stunned Japan and reverberated around the world, the man who killed the country’s longest-serving leader was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. The ruling brings formal closure to one of the most shocking crimes in Japan’s postwar history, while leaving unresolved questions about political accountability, religious influence, and the rare eruption of gun violence in a nation defined by its absence.

LOS ANGELES — A California judge on Tuesday resentenced Erik and Lyle Menendez, making the siblings eligible for parole in the shotgun killings of their parents more than three decades ago. The ruling from Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic came after months of delays, opposition from Los Angeles County's new top prosecutor and a series of witnesses who testified during a sometimes emotional hearing Tuesday that Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, had changed for the better and are now "different men," as a cousin, Anamaria Baralt, put it.

More than three decades after Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murders of their parents and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the brothers now see a path to their potential release. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón on Friday will recommend that a judge resentence the siblings – a decision that was the culmination of a review that came after defense attorneys said in 2023 they had new evidence pointing to abuse by their father.

SINGAPORE: Yong Vui Kong is alive and well, though still incarcerated, as he sees the 15th year since a last-minute appeal saved his life from the gallows. Vui Kong’s story was well publicized after he was arrested for possession of 47.27 grams of heroin. This occurred in 2007 when the Malaysian was only 19 years old.

The governor also signed bills that eliminate parole for adults who commit crimes after Aug. 1 and dramatically cut the availability of good behavior credits in prison NEW ORLEANS — Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law Tuesday a bill allowing executions by nitrogen gas and electrocution, opening the door for Louisiana to revive capital punishment 14 years after it last used its death chamber.

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee who became a global star competing at his sport’s highest level while running on carbon-fiber blades, was released from prison on Friday after serving nearly nine years for killing his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, 37, quietly left the Atteridgeville Correctional Center in Pretoria and was processed at a parole office before being released to his family, Department of Corrections spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo told The Associated Press. Nxumalo, who referred to Pistorius’ release as an “operation” designed to avoid a media scramble, declined to give further details.

Oscar Pistorius, the South African-born Paralympic sprinter convicted in his girlfriend’s murder, has been granted parole after nearly a decade behind bars. The 37-year-old, who fatally shot Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013, meets the requirements for parole in South Africa and will be released from prison on Jan. 5, 2024, according to the Department of Correctional Services.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Oscar Pistorius could be granted parole on Friday after spending nearly 10 years in prison for murder. It’s the latest turn in the story of the double-amputee Olympic runner who was one of the world’s most admired athletes before he killed his girlfriend by shooting her multiple times through a toilet door at his home.

On August 30, 2023, the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that formerly death-sentenced prisoner Pervis Payne can serve his two life sentences concurrently, making him eligible to apply for parole in less than four years.  Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan resentenced Mr. Payne in 2022 to two life sentences with the possibility of parole after prosecutors conceded that they could not disprove Mr. Payne’s claim that he is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. 

The New Year's Day edition of The Korea Herald in 1998 depicted the somber image of a nation grappling with a financial crisis, teetering on the edge of uncertainty and reliant on a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund. While delivering the dim outlook for the year ahead, the paper also published a 74-word article at the bottom of page 3 with the headline, “23 death-row inmates executed.” The story told of how, two days earlier on Dec. 30, 1997, the government had hanged the nearly two dozen death-row inmates in order to “show a resolute stand against crime." It was the first time they had executed anyone on death row since November 1995.

A former death row inmate in Mississippi will be resentenced again because of a determination that he has intellectual disabilities — and the new sentence will make him eligible for the possibility of parole. The state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday in the case of Howard M. Neal, 69, who sent a handwritten letter to justices in June to seek a change to his current sentence of life without parole. Neal wrote that he is in poor health. In a response Aug. 9, the state attorney general's office agreed that Neal “is entitled to be resentenced to life imprisonment" with the possibility of parole.

OSLO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik is suing the state for allegedly violating his human rights due to his being held in "extreme" isolation, and has filed another application for parole, his lawyer said on Friday. The right-wing militant killed 77 people, most of them teenagers, in shootings and a bombing in Norway's worst peacetime atrocity in July 2011 . Breivik, now 44, is serving Norway's longest sentence, 21 years, which can be extended if he is still considered a threat.

March 1 (Reuters) - A California review board on Wednesday denied parole to Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian refugee serving a life sentence for assassinating U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Sirhan was denied parole for another three years by a panel of California parole board members, who said he was not suitable for release. The decision marks a change from a different panel's conclusion two years ago that the 78-year-old should be paroled. That decision was overruled by California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and Sirhan sued, saying the governor's action was illegal. It was not immediately clear what impact Wednesday's ruling would have on the lawsuit.

In a 5-4 decision in Cruz v. Arizona on February 22, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court held that John Cruz should have been able to inform his sentencing jury that if he were spared a death sentence, he never would have been eligible for parole.  The Court said that its holding was in direct line with its previous decisions in Simmons v. South Carolina and Lynch v. Arizona , which established this right and its specific applicability to Arizona.  This ruling not only allows Cruz to renew his appeal for a new penalty trial, but it could affect nearly 30 other capital defendants in Arizona who were also sentenced to death under the state’s unconstitutional process.

An Ohio prison inmate who has spent nearly four decades on death row in the murder of a convenience store clerk has been resentenced to a term that could allow his release on parole. TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio prison inmate who has spent nearly four decades on death row in the murder of a convenience store clerk has been resentenced to a term that could allow his release on parole.

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case of John Montenegro Cruz, a man sentenced to death for the 2003 fatal shooting of Patrick Hardesty, a Tucson police officer. Cruz, who was attempting to evade arrest, shot the officer five times at close range. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005. Cruz's attorneys argued he was not able to tell the jury that he would not be eligible for parole if given a life sentence, which he believes could have persuaded them from issuing a death sentence. During arguments that lasted just over an hour, the state asked the Court to uphold the death penalty for Cruz, arguing the ruling was consistent with other Arizona cases addressing the same issue. “Identifying and supporting the true victims of crime is essential to the administration of justice,” said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. “In this case, a police officer was murdered, and his family and community should not have to endure endless attempts by...

COPENHAGEN (AP) — A Norwegian court ruled Tuesday that far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik , who killed 77 people in 2011, must remain in prison, saying there remains “an obvious risk” he could return to behavior that led up to the massacre. Last month, Breivik faced a parole hearing before the three-judge Telemark District Court where he professed white supremacist views and flashed Nazi salutes on the hearing’s opening day, while claiming to have renounced violence. But the court said he remains a potential threat. “Because his psychiatric condition is unchanged, there is an obvious risk that he will fall back on the behavior that led up to the terrorist acts on July 22, 2011,” the court said in its ruling. The ruling said he “used extreme violence as a tool to achieve his own political goals” and the court “has no doubt that (Breivik) still today has the ability to commit new serious crimes that may expose others to danger.” Breivik is serving Norway’s maximum 21-year sentenc...

Justice minister says state lacks ability to humanely execute those convicted, while PM says PNG is a ‘Christian nation’ Papua New Guinea has repealed the death penalty 30 years after reintroducing it, with prime minister James Marape saying it was “not an effective deterrent to serious crime”. Offences such as treason, piracy, murder – including sorcery related violence – and aggravated rape will now be punishable by life imprisonment without parole or parole after 30 years. The last execution in Papua New Guinea took place in November 1954 in Port Moresby. The country abolished capital punishment in 1970 but reintroduced it in 1991, though there have been no executions since then. In 2013, Papua New Guinea took steps to revive capital punishment, broadening the number of crimes to which it could be applied and also amending legislation to include harsher punishment for other crimes. Presenting the bill to parliament, justice minister Bryan Kramer said there were 40 prisoners on death...

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik goes to court, Tuesday, after 10 years behind bars, claiming he is no longer a danger to society and attempting to get an early release from his 21-year sentence. The far right terrorist has shown no remorse since slaying 77 people in a bomb and gun massacre in 2011, and families of victims and survivors fear he will grandstand his extreme views during the hearing, which experts say is unlikely to deliver him an early release. Randi Rosenqvist, the psychiatrist who has followed up Breivik since his 2012 jailing, says “I can say that I do not detect great changes in Breivik’s functioning,” since his criminal trial when he bragged about the scale of his slaughter, or his 2016 human rights case, when he raised his hand in a Nazi salute. “In principle and practice someone seeking parole would have to show remorse, and to show that they understand why such acts cannot be repeated,” she said. She will give evidence at his...