Death Penalty News

A Utah judge signed a death warrant Friday allowing the state to execute Ronnie Lee Gardner (left) using a five-man firing squad, a spokeswoman for the Utah's state court system told CNN. Before signing the death warrant, Third District Judge Robin Reese asked Gardner if he wanted to be executed by the method he had chosen previously, spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said. "I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner replied. It would be the state's first use of the firing squad since 1996, when John Albert Taylor was executed for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. Taylor said he chose the method to embarrass Utah, which at the time was the only state that offered the firing squad as an option. Gardner's execution date was set for June 18, 2010. However, Gardner's lawyer said he planned to file an appeal, which could change the date, Volmer said. Gardner was convicted of murder in the 1985 killing of an attorney during a courthouse escape attempt. A ...

For the 1st time in almost half a century, the state attorney general's office is seeking back-to-back executions. The attorney general's office has asked for Mississippi Supreme Court approval to execute 3 death row inmates next month. The requests for the execution dates come after one of the inmates missed a deadline for filing a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case and the high court's refusal to consider further petitions from the other 2 death row inmates. Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Tuesday his department is ready to carry out the executions. "I already have them scheduled," Epps told The Clarion-Ledger. The inmates the state is seeking to execute in May are Joseph Daniel Burns, Gerald James Holland and Paul Woodward. The latter 2 were in their 40s and 30s when they were sentenced to death. Today, Holland at 72 is the oldest inmate on death row. "I am surprised that the state wants to schedule 3 execu...

The state of Texas has executed a condemned inmate convicted of fatally shooting an El Paso high school senior after robbing and sexually assaulting her. Thirty-one-year-old William Josef Berkley (pictured) received a lethal injection Thursday night for the March 2000 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Sophia Martinez, whose body was found in the El Paso desert after being robbed at a drive-through ATM. She had been shot in the head five times and there was evidence she'd been raped. Berkley is the sixth prisoner to be put to death this year in Texas, which executes more prisoners than any other U.S. state. About 4 p.m. today, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Berkley's appeal. The high court last year refused to review his case. On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his appeal. Before his death, William Josef Berkley thanked his parents, girlfriend and spiritual adviser. Then he told prison staff to "Let it rip," referring to the lethal cockta...

It's now been five years since Indonesia arrested nine young Australians for trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from Bali to Sydney. But even after half a decade, the so-called Bali Nine still face uncertain futures. Three - ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and courier Scott Rush - remain on death row in Bali's Kerobokan Prison. All three are expected to lodge their final appeals, known as judicial reviews, later this year. Rush's appeal is apparently ready to go and could be lodged any day. Will these appeals have any real chance of success? As ever in Indonesia, it's hard to say. But Rush's appeal is, perhaps, the one most likely to succeed, given his sentence is so clearly out of step with those of his co-conspirators. Of the six couriers arrested at Denpasar airport and the Melasti Beach Bungalows in Kuta, Rush is the only one on death row. Four other couriers - Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman and Martin Stephens - are serving life ...

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congo's military high court has overturned the death sentence handed down to two Norwegians convicted of murder, espionage and conspiracy last year after their driver was found dead in the jungle. Both Joshua French, who also holds British citizenship, and Tjostolv Moland had previously served in Norway's military but Oslo has denied they were in active service when the incident occurred last May near the town of Kisangani. "The higher military court accepts the request of the defendants, annuls the decision in all its aspects and sends the case back to the military court of Province Orientale," said Colonel Bassolo Yeliambela, the lead judge in the case. Yeliambela said the top military court in Kinshasa wanted new judges in the court in Kisangani, where the trial originally took place, to reassess the case. The Kisangani court in December upheld the death penalty against the Norwegians and ordered the Oslo government to pay more than $500 mi...

A human rights group from India which visited Sharjah jail in UAE to meet 17 prisoners facing death sentences on charges of killing a Pakistani youth said the accused on death row were tortured, framed and made victims of gross miscarriage of justice. Lawyers For Human Rights International (LFHRI), an organisation of lawyers having its base in Punjab in India, being part of an international movement against Death Penalty, visited Sharjah jail in UAE to meet the 17 prisoners. 2 member team comprising of Navkiran Singh, a human rights lawyer and activist from Punjab practising in the High Court at Chandigarh and who is the General Secretary of LFHRI along with another lawyer Gagan Aggarwal, visited Dubai and Sharjah on 13th and 14th of April and met the lawyers who have been hired to defend these 17 Indians by the Indian Consulate of UAE. They also visited Sharjah jail and met all the prisoners and found a gross miscarriage of justice. The meeting was conducted for almost 2 hours, wi...

The National Economic Council (NEC) has decided to decongest prisons by hastening the execution of inmates on death row, and commute some death sentences to life terms. According to the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, who spoke on the resolution of the council yesterday, government is also determined to assist the judiciary and police to reduce the number of inmates awaiting trial. These inmates account for 80 % of the prison population. The governor said he believes that these measures will go a long way in decongesting prisons and reducing incidences of jail breaks. "There is no basis that somebody who [has] not been committed, at least has not been condemned, [should] be in prison for ten years for an offence committed which the court has not ruled against him," Mr, Orji explained. "So the proper thing is to decongest the prison by looking at these cases and leaving them to go. And that will also on the long run make sure that this upheavals and protest that we...

Hossein Khezri, a 28-year-old man, and Zeynab Jalalian, a 27-year-old woman, both members of Iran’s Kurdish minority, are feared to be at imminent risk of execution. Both were convicted of “enmity against God”, in separate cases, for membership of the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan. Hossein Khezri was arrested in Kermanshah in 2008, held in detention facilities under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence and Revolutionary Guards, and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in Oromieh, north-west Iran, for “enmity against God” (“moharebeh”). His sentence was upheld in or around August 2009. He said he was tortured and asked for an investigation, but his request was denied in March 2010. On 11 April 2010, he was moved from Oromieh Central Prison to an unknown location, raising fears that his execution may be imminent. Zeynab Jalalian, from Maku, a town in the north-west of Iran, was sentenced to death for “enmity against God” around January 2009 by Kermanshah Re...

Watkins (pictured) is the first black district attorney in Texas. He is also known as the "criminal-loving" prosecutor and the "hug-a-thug" DA because he has taken the extraordinary step of using his office as the chief prosecutor in Dallas county to get prisoners out of jail and to rein in a culture of harsh sentences. He has won the release of 14 men serving long prison terms – one was freed after 27 years and another given a pardon after he died in prison – and is investigating hundreds more after concluding that Dallas was plagued by miscarriages of justice due to error, incompetence, racism and a culture among previous prosecutors of pursing conviction rates instead of justice. "Everybody thought: first African American, he's never been a prosecutor, only a defence attorney. His first official act is to review old cases. They were just thinking I was a prosecutor in sheep's clothing," said Watkins. "But there was a problem of credibilit...

Death sentences issued to 3 family members and two of their close associates after a politicized, unfair trial, at which only weak evidence was presented, reveal a continuing program of punishing post-election protestors and intimidating the population, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. These 5 cases, together with that of Abdolreza Ghanbari, also sentenced to death, are based on allegations that the defendants sent videos and pictures to the opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO). "These sentences would be grossly disproportionate even if evidence linked the defendants to the charges, and they demonstrate complete disregard for justice and due process in perversely sending innocent citizens to the gallows, said the Campaigns spokesperson, Aaron Rhodes. "These death sentences are aimed at intimidating the protest movement and are a mockery of justice," he added. Several lawyers familiar with the cases of protestors sentenced to death t...

NASHVILLE – Supporters of Gaile Owens – who faces execution Sept. 28 for the contract murder of her husband -- turned their hopes toward Gov. Phil Bredesen today with a request to commute her death sentence to life in prison or release. Her son spoke publicly for the first time in a press conference held by his mother’s attorneys and supporters. “My statement today is a public plea to Gov. Bredesen to spare my mother’s life,” said Stephen Owens, 37, of Franklin, who visited her last year for the first time in more than 20 years. “I looked my mother in the eyes and told her I forgive her. Mom is extremely remorseful and regretful. She has spent the past 25 years suffering her consequences. She has also spent the past 25 years reforming her life.” The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday denied Gaile Owens’ request to vacate her Shelby County death sentence and modify it to life in imprison, saying that it is lacked the authority to do so and is bound by evidentiary limitations. It sched...

The U.S. Supreme Court has re-scheduled Hank Skinner's case for private conference on April 23rd, so there "should" be a decision by Monday April 26th. If the Court does accept Skinner’s writ, oral arguments would likely take place in the fall of 2010. If they do not accept to hear his petition, a new execution date could be set in 30 days. The question before the court is what legal process prisoners can use when seeking DNA testing. In Texas the courts have ruled that those seeking DNA testing must ask for it in their Habeas petition, which is most unlikely to be granted by the courts governing Texas death row. Skinner filed a civil law suit after the Gray County District Attorney in Pampa, Texas, after he requested she release the DNA evidence so he could have it tested. He was willing to pay for the testing—all he needed was the evidence. She refused and he took it to civil court. Since then, a testing lab in Arizona offered to do the testing and have results to Go...

As his victim's mother watched, Darryl Durr (pictured) was executed this morning for abducting and murdering 16-year-old Angel Vincent of Elyria. Durr, 46, was pronounced dead at 10:36 a.m. after being injected with a single, large dose of thiopental sodium, a powerful anesthetic. Durr's legal team threw up a flurry of last-minute appeals, claiming he might have a severe allergic reaction to the killing drug and that it has not been approved for executions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed a suit as well, arguing that Durr was illegally prevented from obtaining a DNA test on the dead girl's necklace that could have produced evidence showing he was not guilty of the crime. State and federal courts rejected all the appeals, however, clearing the way for Durr's execution - Ohio's fourth in as many months and 37th since 1999. Gov. Ted Strickland rejected Durr's clemency request yesterday. The condemned ma...

WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the case of a Texas man who learned after being sentenced to death that the prosecutor and judge at his murder trial were having an affair. The highest US court declined to intervene in the case of Charles Dean Hood (pictured), 40, who filed a petition in the case last September. Hood was convicted in 1990 of a notorious double murder carried out the year before. His execution has been delayed five times over the years amid various appeals. He filed his most recent pleading to the Supreme Court upon learning of the affair between judge Verla Sue Holland and prosecutor Thomas O'Connell. His attorneys expressed disappointment Monday with the court ruling, calling it a "fundamental injustice." "We are disheartened that the United States Supreme Court ruled not to hear the case of Charles Hood in which the trial judge and district attorney who prosecuted Hood engaged in a secret, long-term, extra-marital a...

A federal appeals court Monday ordered a new sentencing trial for one of the longest-serving inmates on Texas death row. The ruling by 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans leaves intact the capital murder conviction for 50-year-old Anthony Leroy Pierce but orders a new punishment trial. Pierce has been on Texas' death row for 32 years. Only 3 prisoners have been there longer. Pierce has been tried 3 times for the Aug. 4, 1977, robbery and murder of Fred Johnson, a 40-year-old Houston fried chicken restaurant manager. Pierce's first 2 capital murder convictions were overturned on appeal. The appeals court declined to consider Pierce's claims of ineffective trial counsel and mental retardation making him ineligible for execution. In a 7-page dissent, however, Circuit Judge James L. Dennis said he would have ordered an evidentiary hearing on Pierce's retardation claim. In ordering a new sentencing trial, the 3-judge federal panel said the Harris County jury...

1 public hanging in southwestern town of Khoramshahr and 5 executions in the prison of Kerman. 1 man was hanged in public in the town og Khoramshahr, in the southwest Iranian province of Khuzestan, according to the official websites of the Khuzestan judiciary. The man was identified as Torab A. (age unknown) and was convicted of drug trafficking according to the report. According to the report, the public hanging took place in the "Ashayer" square of Khoramshahr on Wednesday April 14. The same day 3 other men had been hanged in public in the northern city of Babolsar. On April 13. another man was hanged in public in the town of Mahshahr (also in Khuzestan province) convicted of armed robbery, while his partner was punished with amputation of one hand and one foot. Iranian authorities have increased number of the public executions since March 2010. Most of the public executions have taken place in the southwesten province of Khuzestan. According to the official website ...

Iran doesn't officially have gay citizens, but then nobody asked Kiana Firouz. "I am an Iranian lesbian." It seems an introduction designed to shock anyone who knows anything about official Iranian attitudes to such admissions. After all, it was the country's own president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who in2007 confidently stated during an address at New York's Columbia University that Iran did not have any gays. But Kiana Firouz, a 27-year-old writer, actress and gay rights activists, is not only real she's out, and proud, having adopted London as her hometown almost 2 years ago. Until then, Kiana lived in the Marzdaran neighborhood west of Tehran. She went to school and studied cinema. It was during her time at school that she became a member of an underground network of lesbians who gathered frequently to talk about their problems. She says each of the women had their own tragic stories to tell. One of the girls told the group of her mothers reaction when sh...

David Bahati wants to execute consenting same-sex couples, arguing it is a crime they choose to commit. The British government will ban a Ugandan MP from travelling to the UK if he is successful in passing a law that would impose the death penalty in Uganda for being gay. Civil servants in the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Borders Agency are drawing up plans to block the visa of born-again Christian MP David Bahati if he does not drop legislation that would see consenting adults who have gay sex imprisoned for life and impose the death penalty on those with HIV which will be called "aggravated homosexuality". The bill also proposes the death penalty for those having gay sex with anyone under the age of 18, with someone disabled or what the legislation describes as "serial offenders". It also calls for life prison sentences for those "promoting homosexuality", which could come to mean human rights groups or those w...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from five Texas Death Row inmates, including Charles Dean Hood , who was condemned even though his Collin County trial judge and the prosecutor were having an affair. The justices did not comment in turning down Hood's appeal. The decision does not change the ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that Hood should get a new punishment trial. The state court made that ruling on a legal point unrelated to the relationship between Judge Verla Sue Holland and Tom O'Connell, former district attorney in Collin County. The state court denied Hood's request that because of the affair, he should have a new trial. Hood, 41, has insisted that he did not kill Tracie Lynn Wallace, 26, and her boyfriend, Ronald Williamson, 46, in 1989 at their home in Plano. "No one should be prosecuted for a parking ticket let alone for capital murder by the district attorney who has had a sexual affair with the judge handling the case, ...