Death Penalty News

Prosecutors will no longer seek the death penalty for the mother of Anthony Avalos and her boyfriend, who are accused of torturing the 10-year-old Lancaster boy for days before his death in 2018, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s office confirmed Saturday. A grand jury indicted Heather Maxine Barron, 31, and Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 35, in October 2018 on charges that they murdered the boy and abused two other children in the household. Barron and Leiva are being held without bail. Both have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have said the couple poured hot sauce on Anthony’s face and mouth, whipped the boy with a looped cord and belt, and held him upside down and dropped him on his head repeatedly. They also alleged that the couple alternately withheld food and force-fed him, slammed him into furniture and the floor, denied access to the bathroom, and enlisted other children in the home to inflict pain on the boy. Anthony’s wounds stretched from head to toe as bruises, abrasion...

The federal execution of a woman who was mentally ill was the act of a morally bankrupt administration In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Lisa Montgomery became the first woman to be put to death by the United States government for almost seven decades. At the Indiana penitentiary where she was executed by lethal injection, there are no facilities for female prisoners. So during prolonged legal wrangling over her fate, Montgomery was cruelly placed in a holding cell in the execution-chamber building itself. Her crime was horrific. In 2004, Montgomery strangled a young woman, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant. She then cut a baby girl from her womb, and attempted to pass her off as her own. The pain and suffering of Ms Stinnett’s family can barely be imagined. But the political context of this week’s execution, and overwhelming evidence of Montgomery’s longstanding mental illness, suggests a gross miscarriage of justice has taken place. Issuing a stay of execution...

A Cincinnati social justice agency working to end the death penalty in Ohio is out with a new report, calculating its cost and arguing it's randomly applied. The Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) says, "The arbitrary injustice of capital punishment is made increasingly senseless when considering its exorbitant cost to counties and state government." In its latest report , the group looked at eight cases that exhausted all appeals.  After the defendants received a death penalty the sentence was later reduced.  IJPC came to the conclusion that the average cost of a death penalty case in Hamilton County is over $1 million, double the cost of trying a life without parole case. "By trying and failing to secure a death sentence for just these eight cases, Hamilton County wasted over $8 million," the group says. It calculated the following Hamilton County cases: Shawn Hawkins: $1,343,253.66 Richard Nields: $948,690.79 Michael Bies: $981,450.03 Jeffrey Hil...

Scioto County couple indicted in connection with 5-year-old's death The Boston Police Department said a man and woman who were recently charged in the death of a 5-year-old girl have previously faced child abuse charges. Richard Greene, 46, and his wife, Sonya Greene, 38, are charged with aggravated murder in the first degree, felony assault, and endangering a child, according to a press release from police. A New Boston couple arrested in connection with the death of a 5-year-old foster child last month has been indicted by a Scioto County grand jury. According to Scioto County Common Pleas Court records, Sonya l. Greene, 38, was charged with 22 counts, while Richard P. Greene, 46, is facing 20 counts. • 2 counts of aggravated murder, an unclassified felony; • 6 counts of rape, a 1st-degree felony; • 11 counts of endangering children, a 2nd-degree felony; and • 3 counts of felonious assault, a 2nd-degree felony. Richard Greene was charged with:...

Any day now, it's possible that two men will be executed in the only European country where the death penalty still exists - but their family will never find out when they were shot, or where they were buried. Five months ago, Hanna Kostseva was in court when her two brothers, Stanislaw and Ilya, aged 19 and 21, were sentenced to death for murder. "When the judge read out the verdict to 'apply an exceptional measure of punishment in the form of execution', people in the courtroom began to clap," she says. "Initially, just one started, then another followed, then a third, and in the whole hall only applause was heard. For me, at that moment, it was like my own life was cut short." Hanna says she then approached the cage in which her brothers had pleaded guilty to the murder of one of her neighbours. She managed to squeeze close to them and hug them through the bars, and promised she would do everything possible to save their lives. ...

Paramedics arrived to the house to find the eight-year-old boy not breathing. His skull was cracked, three ribs broken and his skin bruised and burned. Two of his teeth were missing, BB pellets punctured his lungs and groin and he was found naked in his bedroom. He died just two days later. All because his mother and her boyfriend suspected him of being gay for playing with dolls. It was a case that ruptured California in 2013, but nearly seven years since the death of Gabriel Fernandez, judges threw out charges against his social workers, the Los Angeles Times reported. Social workers accused of ‘minimising’ had no power to control the boy’s abusers, justices rule.  RELATED |  California: Man Sentenced to Death, Woman to Life in Prison for Boy’s Torture-Murder A panel of three judges ruled that social workers Stefanie Rodriguez, 34, and Patricia Clement, 69, should not face child abuse charges over the killing of the child. The child’s superviso...