Death Penalty News

It's been 33 years since Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan stood in his office next to his priest, warring with himself over the execution of convicted serial killer Mark Hopkinson. The state hasn't executed anyone since that day — but it's tried. In the final few moments of convicted killer Mark Hopkinson’s life, protesters converged on the Wyoming State Capitol while the governor stood in his office, with a priest by his side. The state of Wyoming executed Hopkinson by lethal injection Jan. 22, 1992, at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins — 13 years after he was convicted.

Russell Henderson is serving consecutive life sentences in Wyoming after being convicted of homicide and hate crime One of the men who murdered gay college student Matthew Shepard in 1998 was denied a commutation of his sentence this week, the Wyoming Board of Parole has confirmed. Russell Henderson, who along with Aaron McKinney was convicted of homicide and hate crime charges for murdering Shepard 25 years ago, is currently serving two consecutive life sentences in Wyoming prison. Henderson applied for a reduction in his sentence earlier this year per the Board’s regulations, which allow prisoners who have served at least 10 years of a life sentence to submit a commutation petition once every five years. But the board ruled against sending Henderson’s petition to the governor, Executive Director Margaret White confirmed in statements to The Advocate this week.

Since reaching historic highs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, use of the death penalty in America has steadily declined, with a dwindling number of jurisdictions responsible for a growing portion of executions. While capital punishment remains legal in 27 states and for the federal government – and a majority of US adults say they’re in favor it for convicted murderers – the number of jurisdictions that keep the death penalty on the books versus those that actually use it to punish the so-called “worst of the worst” illustrates critics’ complaints of how arbitrarily it is administered.

A prisoner scheduled to be executed in three weeks in what would be Arizona's first use of the death penalty in nearly eight years will die by lethal injection and not in the gas chamber - a method that hasn't been used in the United States in more than two decades. Clarence Dixon declined to pick a method of execution when officials asked him if he wanted to die by lethal injection or the gas chamber, leaving him to be put to death by lethal injection - the default method for condemned prisoners who don't make a decision, Dixon's defense team said Wednesday. Dixon is scheduled to be executed on May 11 with an injection of pentobarbital for his conviction in the 1977 murder of Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin. Prosecutors believe the execution will likely be delayed if a judge goes forward with a hearing to determine whether Dixon is mentally fit to be put to death. The last lethal gas execution in the United States was carried out in 1999 in Arizona. The ...

Prosecutors will not say if they will seek the death penalty for a Wyoming man accused of setting his girlfriend's toddler on fire with a butane torch and killing him, according to the Associated Press. Wyatt Dean Lamb, 27, faces a first-degree murder charge and 10 counts of child abuse after Athian Rivera, 2, was found dead in a dumpster on February 19 near the apartment where Lamb lived with Rivera's mother, Kassandra Orona, and her two other children. Lamb is also accused of dumping the boy's body. Orona told investigators the butane torch found in her apartment was used for smoking marijuana with Lamb. The shape and size of the torch's burners "appeared very similar to the shape and size of the burns on Athian," the coroner's findings said in a police affidavit filed in court. The toddler's body had numerous injuries, such as abrasions and bruises, and he also suffered blunt force trauma and a lack of oxygen to his brain. Lamb made his first court ...

An American state is planning to execute prisoners with a lethal gas the Nazis used at Auschwitz, a British newspaper has revealed. Hydrogen cyanide, also known as Zyklon B, was the lethal gas used by the Nazis at Auschwitz and other extermination camps. Arizona state has already renovated a gas chamber that has not been used since 1991, according to an investigation by The Guardian. Critics say the deadly gas is inappropriate for executions. “You have to wonder what Arizona was thinking in believing that in 2021 it is acceptable to execute people in a gas chamber with cyanide gas. Did they have anybody study the history of the Holocaust?” Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, told the daily newspaper. Arizona is one of 27 American states where the death penalty is still legal but it has not carried one out since 2014. There are currently 11 people on death row in Arizona. Poisoned gas is also legal for use in six other states: Alabama, California, ...

CHEYENNE — Lawmakers voted to defeat a bill to repeal Wyoming’s death penalty on Thursday evening, following a passionate debate on the Senate floor. Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, sponsored Senate File 150 primarily on fiscal grounds. Maintaining the option to sentence convicted defendants to death costs the state about $750,000 annually. But the state has not executed a person for nearly three decades. No individuals currently sit on death row in Wyoming, and the state has conducted only a single execution in the past 40 years. “Once again, let’s focus on the facts not feelings,” Boner told his colleagues. “The fact is once again, this does not do a service to the victims’ families ... Let’s go ahead and repeal it.” Other supporters of the repeal bill called for eliminating the death penalty in the name of criminal justice reform. Nationally, 185 people who received wrongful convictions have been exonerated from death row since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. “...

A bill that would repeal Wyoming's death penalty has been filed in the 2021 session of the Wyoming Legislature. You can read Senate File 150 at: https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2021/SF0150 It's being sponsored by Senator(s) Boner, Baldwin, Kost, Landen, Pappas, Rothfuss, and Schuler and Representative(s) Barlow, Burkhart, Connolly, Nicholas, Olsen, Western, and Wilson. A bill to repeal the death penalty in the 2020 session of the legislature received majority support for introduction by a 37-23 margin in the state House. But even though it got a majority voting in favor, that margin fell three votes short of the 2/3 majority needed for the introduction of a non-budget bill during a budget session. But because the 2021 session of the legislature is a general session, it will need only a simple majority vote to be introduced. Wyoming has only executed one person since 1965. Mark Hopkinson was put to death in 1992 for ordering the murder of Jeff Green of Mountain View. Green wa...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - In the state of Wyoming there’s only been one person executed dating back to 1976. Wyoming Conservatives concerned about the Death Penalty along with the American Constitution Society, held an online conversation about the death penalty in the Cowboy State. “We have some good statistics on whether its 1 or 2 counties out of Wyoming, who actually seek the death penalty, but it cost money every year.  Right now we have no active death penalty cases,” Wyoming State Public Defender, Diane Lozano said. On Friday evening, Wyoming State Public Defenders and other state representatives discussed the statistics surrounding the death penalty and who is impacted by the death penalty. The group discusses a range of issues involving the state’s death penalty, including why it costs taxpayers so much money even when there is no one on death row. Colorado State Public Defender, Tamara Brady who handled the Aurora movie theater mass shooting case in which jurors...

Calling capital punishment a “luxury” that the state can no longer afford, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon told legislators that he is “very seriously” considering imposing a moratorium on the state’s rarely-used death penalty. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that the state is facing a $1.5 billion budget deficit from shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic and declining revenues in the state’s energy sector.  Gordon told members of the state legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee on July 13, 2020 that he was exploring potential budget cuts to help address the deficit.“I’m looking very seriously at a moratorium on the death penalty,” he said. “It costs us around a million dollars every time that is brought up. These are just luxuries — luxuries, that we will no longer be able to afford.” Wyoming death-penalty opponents welcomed the governor’s remarks. “We are encouraged by Governor Gordon’s thoughtful comments on the death penalty today,” Kylie Taylor, coord...

When I accepted the job as the national manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty , I encountered a mixture of concern and trepidation from friends and colleagues. Many thought I would be the target of extreme backlash, or at best become frustrated trying to achieve what they saw as impossible. It didn’t work out that way. Over the past two years, I’ve assisted in successfully ending the death penalty in four states—two legislatively and two through moratoria. My work has been featured in thousands of media outlets, and our coalitions have broadened. And the backlash? It never really happened. Instead, I’ve been joined by dozens of fellow Republicans, including state lawmakers who have sponsored repeal efforts across our country each year. As anyone working in advocacy will tell you, state legislatures tend to act about 10 years behind public consensus. If dozens of Republicans are not only voting for—but also sponsoring—death penalty repeal ...

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of what was Wyoming's lone inmate on death row, possibly clearing the way for his execution. Prosecutors plan to ask Dale Wayne Eaton, 75, be put to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell in 1988. Kimmell's body was found in the North Platte River soon after her death but the case remained unsolved until investigators linked Eaton's DNA to the case. In 2002, they dug up Kimmell's car on his property in remote central Wyoming. Jurors convicted Eaton in 2004 of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and first-degree sexual assault. Eaton was Wyoming's only person on death row until a federal appeals court ruled in 2014 Eaton hadn't received appropriate representation and threw out his death sentence, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. Prosecutors in 2019 announced they would again seek Eaton...

An Iowa man suspected of murdering three women, inducing two who were pregnant, in the 1990s has been arrested. Clark Perry Baldwin, 58, was taken into custody Wednesday at his Waterloo home after investigators linked his DNA with semen and other materials recovered from the victims.  A former truck driver, Baldwin has been charged in the 1991 killings of Pamela "Rose" Aldridge McCall, 33, and her unborn child in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and the murders of two unidentified women in Wyoming a year later.  Investigators told the Associated Press they were looking into whether Baldwin could be responsible for other unsolved slayings. "I’m sure he thought it had been forgotten about," said Brent Cooper, attorney general of the 22nd Judicial District in Tennessee. "He certainly hoped it had." Cooper's office helped relaunch the investigation last April that led to Wednesday's arrest.  McCall was found strangled to death on Marc...