Death Penalty News

Several years ago, in the middle of the Christian Holy Week leading up to Easter, an execution team strapped Jeannie Alexander onto a gurney at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Alexander was then the head chaplain at the prison, which houses Tennessee's death row. She is an ardent death penalty abolitionist, but she'd worked closely with the execution team because, she says, "I believed that somebody needed to be there who did not want this person to die." On that day, the execution team - more than a dozen people with various responsibilities, from extracting the condemned prisoner to locating a vein suitable for lethal injection - was participating in a training session, a mock execution known to many inside the prison as "band practice." In this instance, they didn't have anyone to play the part of the condemned, a role staffers refer to as the "victim." The atmosphere during these rehearsals, Alexander says, w...

Jurors left a Sacramento courthouse in tears after they recommended giggling cop killer Luis Bracamontes be sentenced to death for the slaying of two California officers. Bracamontes cheered when a jury in February convicted him for the 2014 murders of Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer Sheriff’s Detective Michael Davis Jr. He was also found guilty of attempted murder, carjacking, weapons violations and other crimes. Bracamontes, who is an undocumented Mexican immigrant, has repeatedly confessed his guilt and has even requested the death penalty amid his dozens of courtroom outbursts. He spent the bulk of his trial with a grin on his face, at times breaking into fits of giggles as prosecutors described his violent tear on Oct. 24, 2014. Investigators said Bracamontes and his wife, Janelle Marquez Monroy, led police on six-hour car chase through Placer County and into Auburn, where the deadly spree came to a violent end. Sacramento Superior...

"I believe that there is nothing humane about killing a human being. We speak of humane modes of execution only for animals to put them out of their suffering." Attorney General Mike Hunter and Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh recently announced that Oklahoma would no longer attempt to execute prisoners by lethal injection and would begin drafting a protocol for a new mode of execution, inert gas inhalation or nitrogen hypoxia. They admitted that lethal injection is unworkable in Oklahoma. Allbaugh said he has been engaged in a search for drugs for 2 years that has taken him "to the backstreets of the Indian subcontinent" and has been unable to purchase them. Hunter blamed the inability to purchase drugs on "a guerrilla war waged against the death penalty by its opponents," seeking to intimidate and boycott drug suppliers. I suggest that the primary reason that lethal injection has become unworkable is that doctors and pharmacists have refuse...

Convicted Norfolk bank robber Erick Vela this week filed a petition asking a federal judge to stay his execution and vacate his sentence, saying his death sentence is unconstitutional. The 211-page petition filed in U.S. District Court Tuesday argues in part that Vela is intellectually disabled and that executing him would violate his Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Vela's petition for habeas corpus, which was filed by his attorneys, marks his latest appeal following unsuccessful efforts in state court to overturn his death sentence. "Mr. Vela accepted responsibility for his role in the murders when he (pleaded) guilty," the petition said. "Central issues in his case are whether he is ineligible for the death penalty ... because he is intellectually disabled, and whether mitigating circumstances existed so that his life should be spared." Vela, 37, has been incarcerated on Nebraska's death row at the Tecum...

The Nevada Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the cases involving a death row inmate who wants to die and the controversial ballot initiative aimed at preventing local governments from enacting sanctuary city policies. The state’s high court will hear 60 minutes of oral arguments in the legal challenge to the Prevent Sanctuary Cities ballot initiative at 10 a.m. on May 8. The proposed constitutional amendment, spearheaded by state Senate Minority Leader and Republican lieutenant governor candidate Michael Roberson, would prohibit any state or local government from implementing policies that would make it a “sanctuary community” that does not cooperate with federal immigration laws. In January a Carson City judge threw out the initiative, calling it “excessively broad and general,” and said it was likely to confuse voters. Roberson’s group appealed the decision. The justices will also hear hear arguments in the case of twice-convicted murderer Scott Dozier,...

Zhang Zhongsheng showed 'extreme greed' and was handed most severe punishment for 'big losses he caused to the nation and the people', court rules A former vice-mayor of a poverty-stricken city in the coal-rich province of Shanxi was on Wednesday sentenced to death, without reprieve, for accepting over 1 billion yuan in bribes (US$160 million). The sentencing of Zhang Zhongsheng - known for his splendid hilltop mansions and dubbed the "godfather" because of his influence and power in the city of Luliang - was an unusually harsh punishment for economic crimes, even since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and started an unprecedented crackdown on corruption. Zhang can still appeal the sentence handed down by the Intermediate People's Court of Linfen, and the death penalty must be approved by the supreme court in Beijing. In sentencing, the court said Zhang had shown "extreme" greed in taking bribes, according to Xinhua. ...

A weeklong photo exhibition being held next month will aim to shed light on the everyday lives of inmates of Japanese prisons and promote public awareness about the challenges the country's criminal justice system faces. Around 60 photos, which were taken by 6 photography majors of Tokyo Polytechnic University with permission of the Justice Ministry, will be displayed at Hibiya Library & Museum in Hibiya Park, central Tokyo, from April 1 to 7.

The U.N. Human Rights Office has called into question Japan's possible execution of Aum Shinrikyo cult figures on death row who are seeking a retrial. "We do note that some of the defendants in this case are reportedly requesting a retrial," Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the office, said in a written interview with Kyodo News. "Execution of individuals with appeals or other proceedings still pending is against the U.N. Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty," she said. Death sentences have been finalized for 13 members of the cult, including Aum founder Shoko Asahara, 63, who masterminded the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 13 people and left over 6,000 people ill. Earlier this month, the Justice Ministry transferred 7 of the 13 on death row from the Tokyo detention center to other facilities across the country, likely bringing them a step closer to execution. ...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A Wichita Falls man has now become the fourth person executed in Texas this year. Rosendo Rodriguez, III, 38, was executed Tuesday evening in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a woman whose body was found in suitcases in a landfill in Lubbock in the early 2000s . Rodriguez was pronounced dead in at 6:46 pm CDT. He was executed one day after his birthday. His last words were, "With that Lord into your hands I command my spirit. I have ran the race, I have fought the fight. I have accomplished what God intended me to do. Warden I'm ready to join my Father... Here I go." He also said, "The State may have my body, but they will never have my soul." In 2006, Rodriguez rejected a plea deal which would have given him life in prison. Rodriguez's execution is the seventh this year in the United States and the fourth in Texas, which has executed more inmates than any state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penal...

The state of Alabama has agreed to not set any more execution dates for an inmate who survived his February execution attempt after officials couldn't start his IV before midnight. According to a press release from Hamm's lawyer Bernard Harcourt, he and lawyers from the Alabama Attorney General's Office entered into a confidential settlement agreement Monday that resolves all pending litigation in both federal and state courts regarding Doyle Lee Hamm's execution. The settlement will end efforts to set another execution date, the press release stated. Harcourt said the settlement "comes after lengthy, fruitful discussions" with the AG's Office. "I cannot discuss the terms of the agreement, but I will say that Doyle, his family, and his legal team are extremely relieved," Harcourt said. The Feb. 22 execution date came after months of legal battles revolving around whether Hamm's veins were able to handle the IV required ...

Rosendo Rodriguez is set to die for killing a Lubbock prostitute and tossing her body in a dumpster in a suitcase. His final appeals claim the medical examiner's testimony that she was sexually assaulted before her death could be invalid. The man dubbed Lubbock's "suitcase killer" is set for execution Tuesday evening, 1 day after his 38th birthday. Rosendo Rodriguez was sentenced to death in the 2005 murder and sexual assault of Summer Baldwin, a newly pregnant prostitute, according to court records. Baldwin's body was found folded inside a suitcase at the city's landfill. Rodriguez was also implicated in the 2004 murder of 16-year-old Joanna Rogers, whose body was also found in a suitcase in the landfill after Baldwin was discovered. He still has a final appeal pending in the U.S. Supreme Court questioning the credibility of the medical examiner's testimony and arguing that Baldwin wasn't sexually assaulted, but if it is rejected, Rodri...