Death Penalty News

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A condemned killer from Irving avoided the nation's busiest death chamber Thursday night when the U.S. Supreme Court gave him a reprieve. Attorneys for Carlton Turner Jr., who was convicted of killing his parents, had appealed to the high court hoping the justices' review of lethal injection procedures in Kentucky, announced earlier this week, could keep him from execution. In a brief, one-paragraph order, the court said it had granted his stay of execution. The order came more than four hours after he could have been executed and less than two hours before the death warrant would have expired at midnight. "All I can say is all glory to God," Mr. Turner told prison officials as he was being returned to death row, in another prison about 45 miles east of Huntsville. The Supreme Court order made no mention of its reasons for stopping the punishment. Mr. Turner would have been the 27th Texas inmate to be executed this year and the second this week. Af...

The United States Supreme Court yesterday agreed to consider whether Kentucky's method of executing prisoners is constitutional. The high court's decision in Kentucky's lethal injection case -- an appeal brought by convicted double murderers Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. -- could have widespread implications across the country. Courts have struggled with whether the three-drug cocktail used in lethal injection violates an inmate's Eighth Amendment right not to suffer cruel and unusual punishment. Baze, 52, had been scheduled to be executed yesterday, but the Kentucky Supreme Court stayed the execution, citing Baze's pending appeals. Bowling, 54, was scheduled to be executed in November 2004, but the execution was halted in part because of the pending legal challenge to how the state executes prisoners. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear the Kentucky case could temporarily stay executions across the country until a decision is reached, many ex...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A U.S. Supreme Court decision to review whether lethal injection procedures are unconstitutionally cruel failed to stop the execution of a Texas man as the high court allowed his punishment to be carried out. Michael Richard, 49, was put to death Tuesday evening by Texas corrections officials with a toxic combination of drugs that justices hours earlier decided they would examine after a challenge from two condemned inmates in Kentucky. Lawyers for Richard had gone to the court asking the lethal injection in Texas be halted and cited the Kentucky case in their appeal. The justices, however, rejected the appeal. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office had challenged Richard's appeals while Gov. Rick Perry's office insisted the execution — the 26th this year in Texas, by far the highest number in the nation among states with the death penalty — would go forward as planned. About two hours after he was scheduled to die, Richard was taken to the Texas de...

The length of time prisoners spend on death row in the United States before their executions has recently emerged as a topic of interest in the debate about the death penalty. The discussion increased around the execution of Michael Ross, a Connecticut inmate who had been on death row for 17 years, and has been spurred by the writings of two Supreme Court Justices who have urged the Court to consider this issue.

MATTHEW Norman (left) was 18 when he decided to become a heroin smuggler.Today he turned 21, locked up on death row in Bali, aware that this birthday could be his last. There was nothing resembling a celebration for the youngest member of the Bali Nine heroin ring. Norman's twin sister Cheryl is in Bali to support him. But because Kerobokan jail does not allow visitors on Mondays, he spent the day alone. There was no cake and no special privileges and he was allowed out of his cell for just one hour. As far as birthdays go, it's hard to imagine a bleaker scene. Friends say Norman will get to see his sister and mother Robyn Davies tomorrow when they will go to the jail for a small celebration, marking the third birthday he has spent behind bars. "Robyn had hoped to be able to bring a cake and some gifts, just something simple, but it will have to wait until tomorrow," said Ed Trotter, a Pentecostal minister from Australia who regularly visits Norman. It has been a t...

Supporters of former Texas death row inmate Kenneth Foster, Jr. learned today that he will remain in solitary confinement indefinitely at the McConnell Unit in Beeville. He has been placed at the lowest security level, meaning he has the highest amount of restrictions on his daily activities. He will only be allowed two visits per month and will not have contact visits. Family and supporters of Foster had expected that his commutation would result in looser restrictions on his visitations. Specifically, they had hoped he would be able to have contact visits with his wife, Tasha Narez-Foster, and his daughter, Nydesha Foster. Foster has never had physical contact with his wife and has not touched his daughter since she was an infant.

THE parents of Bali Nine drug mule Scott Rush are doggedly maintaining the belief their son will ultimately beat the death penalty. "I'm not rolling up my swag yet. I'm still optimistic - I've got to be,'' Scott's father Lee Rush said yesterday. Mr Rush was responding to reports from Indonesia that the Denpasar District Court had rejected all legal arguments to downgrade the death penalty for three of the Bali Nine - Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen. "We're not sure how Scott will be travelling after he gets wind of it but we are trying to speak positively about it,'' Mr Rush said. Mr Rush said the family - which had established the Australians Against Capital Punishment lobby group - was still awaiting the outcome of a constitutional challenge mounted by their lawyers. The Indonesian Constitutional Court has been asked to rule on whether the imposition of the death penalty for a drug crime offends the country's ...

DEFENCE lawyer says Indonesia's Supreme Court could still save three members of the Bali Nine heroin ring, despite a panel of judges recommending that their death penalties be upheld. Three judges from the Denpasar District Court have advised the Supreme Court to reject a last-ditch appeal by Australian drug smugglers Matthew Norman, 20, Si Yi Chen, 22, and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, 23. But the men's lawyer Farhat Abbas says the Supreme Court is under no obligation to follow the lower court's opinion.

PRIME Minister John Howard said he did not use talks today with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to seek clemency for six Australians on death row in Bali. Six members of the Bali Nine drug ring are fighting to escape the death sentences they received over a failed attempt to smuggle heroin into Australia in April 2005.

La fusillade ou le peloton d'exécution C'est la méthode d'exécution la plus répandue en Chine. On y fusille chaque année des milliers de personnes pour des raisons qui peuvent être le meurtre, l'évasion fiscale, les jeux de hasard, la bigamie, la vente de peaux de panda géant, le vol de vache, la piraterie informatique et beaucoup d'autres. A l'occasion, on sort également les fusils dans quelques autres pays asiatiques, notamment en Libye, Syrie, Indonésie, Corée du Nord, au Tadjikistan et à Barheïn. En Indonésie, le condamné reçoit la nouvelle de son exécution 72h à l'avance. Le jour J, il s'avance face au peloton d'exécution cagoulé et habillé de vêtements blancs. Sur son torse est peinte une croix rouge indiquant l'emplacement du coeur. Sur les quatorze fusils utilisés, deux sont chargés à blanc. Quand le vacarme cesse, un médecin contrôle que le corps criblé de balles ne donne plus signe de vie. S'il n'est pas tout à fait mort une ...

In Florida, doctors hired to monitor and participate in lethal injection executions wear purple "moon suits" and goggles to conceal their identities from witnesses and circumvent an American Medical Association (AMA) code that forbids participation in executions, according to the Associated Press. Though Florida and other states say the participation of medical personnel ensures "a dignified and humane death" for those facing execution, the AMA, the American Nurses Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and the Florida Medical Association all disagree. "We are a profession dedicated to healing. Participation in an execution is an image of a physician with a dark hood. . . . It is part of the role of a physician, helping people, preserving life and maintaining the trust and respect of the people we serve. We do not feel killing people is appropriate in that context," said Dr. Mark Levine, chairman of the AMA's Council of Ethical and Jud...

AUSTIN -- Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday commuted death row inmate Kenneth Foster’s sentence to life, following a 6-1 recommendation by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. “After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendations from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster’s sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment,” Gov. Perry said. “I am concerned about Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the legislature should examine.”

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A former high school honors student convicted of killing one of four people gunned down at an East Texas bar 13 years ago was executed late Tuesday night. DaRoyce Mosley, 32, was the 22nd inmate executed in Texas this year. Mr. Mosley didn't deny walking into the Kilgore bar intending to rob the place, but insisted his uncle who accompanied him was responsible for the slayings 13 years ago. The uncle, Ray Don Mosley, 44, took a plea bargain and is serving life in prison. Mr. Mosley's execution was delayed for several hours while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed his request for a stay. The court rejected the request about 10:30 p.m. Source: The Associated Press

In order to stop the killing at Texas death row, the European Union on Tuesday, through the office of its Presidency, asked the Governor of Texas to declare a death-penalty moratorium. But the Governor's reply was quick and flippant. He did nothing to stop the 400th killing Wednesday evening, and it is becoming horribly apparent that he will do nothing to intervene in the 3 executions scheduled for next week -- not even for Kenneth Foster who never killed anyone. "We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights," argued the EU. "We further consider this punishment to be cruel and inhumane. There is no evidence to suggest that the use of the death penalty serves as a deterrent against violent crime and the irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice - which are inevitable in all legal systems - cannot be redressed. Consequently, the death ...

His face covered by a balaclava, an official brandishing a cane repeatedly lashes the back of a man found guilty of breaking Iran's morality laws. Two police officers hold the legs of 25-year-old Saeed Ghanbari and another his arms to ensure there is no escape from the punishment of 80 lashes handed down by a religious court.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Convicted killer Johnny Ray Conner was executed Wednesday evening for the slaying of a Houston convenience store clerk during a failed robbery nine years ago. The execution was the 400th in the nation's most active death penalty state since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. Texas resumed executions six years later. Mr. Conner asked for forgiveness repeatedly and expressed love to his family and his victim's family, who watched him through windows in the death chamber.