Death Penalty News

The official cause of death for Oklahoma death row inmate John Grant was ruled as "judicial execution by lethal injection", but an autopsy report released Monday from the Medical Examiner's office reveals more about Grant's time on the execution chamber gurney. On October 28th, the state resumed executions in Oklahoma after a years-long pause due to a series of mishaps.  John Grant, the 1st inmate set to be put to death in the new era of executions in Oklahoma, didn't know his fate until a few hours before his scheduled execution. Dan Snyder, FOX 25's evening anchor, was chosen as a media witness to watch the execution. Shortly after Midazolam, the first drug used in a 3-drug cocktail, was administered, Grant began to convulse. "Almost immediately after the drug was administered, Grant began convulsing, so much so that his entire upper back repeatedly lifted off the gurney," Snyder recalled. Midazolam is the most controversial drug in the state's...

(NBC News)-- Nikolas Cruz, the teen who confessed to having killed 17 people at a Florida high school, told investigators that he heard voices in his head telling him to "burn, kill, destroy" and that he tried but failed to kill himself two months before the massacre, according to a just-released transcript of his first formal interview with authorities. Cruz, 19, is charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the assault on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Valentine's Day. His attorneys have said he would be willing to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty, an offer prosecutors have rejected. Under Florida law, statements that are considered to be the "substance" of a confession must be withheld from the public until trial. As a result, long parts of the transcript of his interview with a Broward County sheriff's detective are blacked out. It does, however, reveal a deeply troubled young man who,...