Death Penalty News

Donald Trump signs presidential memorandum implementing the death penalty in Washington, D.C. The presidential memorandum calls for his administration to reinstate the death penalty for crimes in Washington, D.C. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that the administration is working toward implementing the death penalty nationwide. September 25, 2025 Memorandum for the Attorney General and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Subject: Enforcing the Death Penalty Laws in the District of Columbia to Deter and Punish the Most Heinous Crimes By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct: Section 1. Background. Federal law provides for the death penalty for criminals found guilty of especially aggravated crimes (18 U.S.C. 3591(a)). Capital punishment is an essential part of how our justice system deters and punishes the most reprehensible crimes that often involve grotesque and lethal violence ag...

Prosecutors said Elias Rodriguez, accused of killing two Israeli Embassy staff in Washington, had bought a body camera online and used it to record the attacks.    A man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington was wearing a body camera that captured video of the killings from his close-range perspective, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing on Friday. Elias Rodriguez purchased the body-worn camera online and arranged for it to be delivered to the hotel where he was staying in Washington before the May 21 shootings, according to the filing. Prosecutors said the transaction demonstrates the premeditated nature of the crime.

US President Donald Trump has said he plans to seek the death penalty for suspected murderers in Washington DC. Speaking during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump said that the death penalty would be a "preventative" measure. Hundreds of National Guard and federal law enforcement officers have been deployed to the US capital to combat what Trump has previously described as "complete and total lawlessness" in the city - a strategy he has hinted could be repeated in Chicago and other cities.

George Floyd riots spiralled out of control Saturday night as cop cars were torched, stores were looted and at least 11 states activated the National Guard on a fifth night of protests that show no signs of stopping.  Scenes of destruction continued to spread across America as the death of the black man at the hands of white cop Derek Chauvin ignited outrage over what many feel is a systemic problem with police brutality against African-American men. In Minneapolis, protesters were seen fleeing after cops hurled tear gas into the crowds while some responded by launching fireworks back at officers.   The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government. The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.  A man was left ...

✔   Click here to Google translate this story into your own language Disturbios en una treintena de ciudades, de Los Ángeles a las puertas de la Casa Blanca, donde Trump advirtió a los manifestantes de que serían recibidos con "los perros más feroces y las armas más amenazantes” De Seattle a Houston, de Los Ángeles a las puertas mismas de la Casa Blanca, donde el presidente Trump advirtió vía Twitter de que, si los centenares de manifestantes hubieran osado atravesar la valla, ”habrían sido recibidos por los perros más feroces y las armas más amenazantes”. Un joven de 19 años muerto en Detroit, según la policía de la ciudad, después de que alguien abriera fuego desde una furgoneta contra un grupo de manifestantes. Un guardia de seguridad abatido en Oakland. Saqueos en Portland y declaración del estado de emergencia. Cortes de autopistas en Milwaukee. El cuartel general de la CNN en Atlanta, atacado. Centenares de detenidos y coches de policía ardiendo en Nueva York. Uno...

The state Senate has passed a bill to eliminate the death penalty in Washington, renewing the battle in Olympia. The bill that passed in the Senate last week is the same bill that passed last session. It’s an ongoing request from Attorney General Bob Ferguson, sponsored by Democratic Senator Reuven Carlyle, who said a 2018 state Supreme Court ruling on Washington’s death penalty has led to confusion. In the 2018 ruling, the court found Washington state’s death penalty unconstitutional as applied. RELATED | State Supreme Court ends death penalty in Washington “The death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner,” the justices wrote in their unanimous decision. That left three possibilities: Leave it on the books as is — entirely unenforceable after the court’s decision — take legislative action to fix it, or take action to abolish it. Carlyle says it’s time to abolish. “It simply does not work effectively,” Carlyle...

Not this year. The death penalty will live on in Washington after the latest effort to abolish the practice came to a screeching halt in the final week of the 2018 legislative session. Senate bill 6052 marked the most successful attempt in the past five years — and possibly ever — to erase the state’s death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole. But it wasn’t enough in the end. The contentious effort fissured party lines with enough opposition from Democrat and Republican lawmakers to sink the bill’s chance of a vote in the House, according to state Rep. Laurie Jinkins, a Democrat from Tacoma. “I’m really disappointed, but I’m also excited that we talked with more members than ever before,” Jinkins, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. “I expect that this will be a priority for me to work on should we be in the majority next year.” Some lawmakers were surprised the effort made it as far as did in a short legislative ...

Jarratt, Virginia (CNN) -- Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad was executed Tuesday by lethal injection, a Virginia prisons spokesman said. The mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002 that terrorized the nation's capital was declared dead at 9:11 p.m. ET, said Larry Traylor, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections. "There were no complications; Mr. Mohammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement," Traylor told reporters outside the the Greenville Correctional Center. "He did not acknowledge this or make a last statement whatsoever." In fact, Mohammad, 48, said nothing from the time he entered the death chamber accompanied by guards at 8:58 p.m., Traylor said. "After he was placed on the gurney and strapped down, he was very emotionless," Traylor said. A curtain was drawn and a volunteer team of executioners inserted two catheters -- one in each arm -- through which the drugs that caused...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- John Allen Muhammad (pictured), the mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that terrorized the suburbs of the nation's capital, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening at a state prison near Jarratt, Virginia. Muhammad continued to profess his innocence during two lengthy trials -- including one featuring testimony from young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo -- and in several years of legal appeals. He repeated his assertion that he was an innocent victim of racial bias in a letter to the federal court released last week by his attorneys. Muhammad charged that police and prosecutors "lied to the American people" about his case and withheld evidence that could clear him. The Supreme Court denied Muhammad's appeal on Monday, meaning he is likely to be executed at Greensville Correctional Center at 9 p.m.. If Muhammad enters the death chamber without acknowledging his crimes, he will be known as the leader of one of the most enigmatic mass mu...

The Supreme Court declined on Monday to block the execution of John A. Muhammad, the sniper who terrorized the region around Washington, D.C., 7 years ago. The step cleared the way for Mr. Muhammad to be put to death on Tuesday unless Gov. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia intervenes. The courts majority did not comment in refusing to hear Mr. Muhammad's appeal, but three justices objected to the relative haste accompanying the execution. Justice John Paul Stevens complained that "under our normal practice," Mr. Muhammad's petition for the high court to take his case would have been discussed at the justices' conference scheduled for Nov. 24. But because Virginia scheduled the execution for Nov. 10, the judicial process has been rushed, Justice Stevens said in a statement joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. Justice Stevens wrote that, having reviewed the claims offered on Mr. Muhammad's behalf, he did not disagree with the majority's de...

Muhammad is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 10 for the October 2002 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a string of shootings that left 10 people dead and three wounded in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. WASHINGTON - With sniper John Allen Muhammad's scheduled execution six days away, one of jurors who sentenced him to death says she wouldn't have made that decision if she knew about the elder sniper's history of mental illness and abuse. In an undated audio interview posted on the Web page of Muhammad's lawyers, juror Elizabeth Young says she's "absolutely convinced the death penalty is not the right punishment in this case." In Tuesday's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Muhammad's lawyer Jonathan Sheldon of Devine, Connell, Sheldon & Flood argues jurors were never allowed to hear Muhammad has brain damage, brain dysfunction and neurological deficits, as well as psychotic and delusional behavior. In Muham...

With November 10th set as the execution date for John Allen Muhammad (pictured), the man dubbed the DC Sniper, new interest in his case is growing, with people on both sides speaking out. Muhammad was tried in Virginia Beach for the murder of Dean Meyers in Prince William County on October 9, 2002. Convicted, the jury recommended death, and a Virginia judge issued the death sentence in March 2004. Marion Lewis’ 25-year old daughter, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was killed by Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, during a three week shooting spree in October 2002 that crossed two states and the nation’s capital and saw ten people killed by the snipers. Malvo was sentenced to life for his role in the shootings. Lewis says that he wishes he could dispatch Muhammad himself, but will settle for just being present at the execution. Other victims’ family members also wish to be present. The director of the Victim/Witness Program in Prince William County, Patricia D. Allue, say...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An attorney for convicted Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad, who is scheduled to be executed November 10, will seek clemency from Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on October 22. Jonathan Sheldon said he will also file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on November 2. He posted the dates Tuesday on his law firm's Web site. During a three-week period in October 2002, police say, Muhammad and young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo shot 13 people, killing 10. Malvo, who was 17 at the time, was convicted in one shooting and was sentenced to life in prison. Muhammad is to be executed for the murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas, Virginia, gas station. Meyers was killed by a single bullet, which became the signature of the two-person sniper team. Kaine told CNN affiliate WTOP Radio during its "Ask the Governor" program last month that he couldn't imagine a circumstance under which he would grant clemency. "I know of nothing in this case that would su...

When a Virginia judge set November 10 as the execution date for John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the sniper attacks that left 10 dead and and terrorised the Washington, DC region in October 2002, the blogosphere was filled with the expected rants about capital punishment. “He is as guilty as they come and if the state is going to have a death penalty, then he is as deserving of the punishment as can be possibly imagined,” wrote one reader on the website of The Washington Post. “Osama bin Laden wishes he could have terrorised as many Americans as this little animal did in 2002. I still remember being nervous about walking out to my car in Bethesda,” a Maryland suburb, wrote another. “Good riddance. They should have done it seven years ago,” a third wrote. Their comments are indicative of the emotions that still run high about a time when Sari Horwitz, a Post reporter, said she “never felt so scared about a story” she was covering. It is because of such feelings that Eric Friedman, an ...