Death Penalty News

It's the latest salvo in a battle over clemency requests filed on behalf of most Louisiana death row prisoners. Louisiana's pardon board can't waive a procedural hurdle to weigh clemency requests from death row prisoners, Attorney General Jeff Landry wrote in an opinion released Wednesday as the board sifts through a historic batch of filings in capital cases. The state's Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole asked Landry's office this week whether it can take up clemency requests filed more than a year after a judge has issued an appeal ruling in capital cases. The request to Landry's office came little more than a month after most prisoners on death row asked the board and Gov. John Bel Edwards to spare their lives.

Almost a year ago to the day, James Nathan Jones endured the longest execution in US history, causing Alabama to halt the practice Alabama is set to resume its executions with a death row inmate who battered a 75-year-old woman to death with a claw hammer - a year after it halted the punishment as critics say the flawed process is tantamount to torture. Convicted killer James Barber is scheduled to receive a lethal cocktail in an IV by 6am Friday for the 2001 murder of Dorothy Epps. A handyman by trade, he murdered her in cold blood with both fists and a hammer before stealing her purse. 

Vigil, protest held for prisoner's execution after 6-month moratorim OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KTUL) — Jemaine Cannon is set to be put to death at 10 a.m. Thursday morning for the murder of Sharonda White Clark in 1995. After a six-month hiatus, executions are set to resume with Cannon's execution after he was denied clemency. The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty delivered petitions to Governor Kevin Stitt's office yesterday hoping to halt Thursday's execution, but the execution is still on schedule. Those opposed to the death penalty will attend a vigil outside the governor's house.

On July 20, America will add two more names to the list of people on the roster of those it has put to death as a punishment for crime. One, the execution of James Barber in Alabama , has already received a lot of publicity. The other, Oklahoma’s execution of Jemaine Cannon , has attracted less public attention. But together they illustrate the continuing injustice and cruelty of America’s death penalty system. The Cannon case highlights the kinds of people who end up on death row and are put to death. It reminds us that we are not executing the “worst of the worst.”

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 19, 2023: State media have reported the execution of an unnamed man for rape during the course of a robbery in Dezful Prison. According to ISNA, a man was executed in Dezful Prison in Khuzestan province. His identity and the exact date of the execution has not been specified. Mehdi Amadeh, the Dezful Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor said: “In July 2017, this individual entered a citizen’s house with the intention of robbery and committed rape.” In cases of rape, there is a high chance of defendants being tortured to make false confessions, which is used to issue death sentences. In Iran is one of the few countries in the world that issues the death penalty for rape. A lot of cases are also rushed without the defendants having access to a lawyer.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida is preparing for its fifth execution of 2023 as James Barnes is scheduled to be executed on August 3. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant on June 22, and Barnes, a convicted murderer, has chosen to waive all appeals and proceed with his execution. Barnes, now 61 years old, was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of his wife, Linda, in 1997. He later confessed to the rape and murder of Patsy Miller, a nurse, in her Melbourne home in 1988. Barnes converted to Islam and confessed to Miller’s murder in an attempt to find closure for her family.

On Thursday in Alabama, United States, the death penalty will be carried out on Jimi Barber, a 64-year-old inmate convicted of robbing and then hammering to death a 75-year-old woman in 2001. Barber’s execution will be the first after a break of executions began in Alabama in November after two cases in which detainees survived prolonged failures to perform lethal injection. In both cases, the executioners had tried for hours to insert the needle into the arms of the two condemned men without success.

Florida’s new death sentencing law cannot apply to defendants who committed their crimes before the law was passed earlier this year, Florida Circuit Judge Kevin Abdoney rules. Florida law previously required that a sentencing jury must unanimously vote for death before the court could impose a death sentence, but in April of 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that allows a jury to recommend a death sentence with as few as 8 votes. The ruling in Bryan Riley’s case means that the new law will not apply in his capital trial because doing so would violate the United States Constitution’s prohibition on ex post facto laws, or laws that retroactively impose criminal liability or punishment.

Today marks the five-year anniversary of Ohio’s last execution, which took place on July 18, 2018. Ohio now joins 15 other states without an execution in the past five years. Although there is no formal moratorium, Governor Mike DeWine has issued several reprieves due to concerns about the lethal injection protocol and the difficulty the state has had obtaining lethal injection drugs. Ohio has executed 56 people in the modern death penalty era, placing it 8th overall in the number of executions in the United States.

An Alabama death row inmate has asked a federal appeals court to stop his execution scheduled for this week, arguing the state hasn’t made sufficient changes to its capital punishment system after problems relating to several other scheduled lethal injections prompted a three-month pause on executions. Attorneys for James Barber filed the motion to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on his behalf on Friday after a district court judge denied his request for a preliminary injunction to stop his execution by lethal injection, which is scheduled to take place at any time during a 30-hour period starting Thursday morning after midnight, court documents show. They argued the state has “not made any meaningful improvements to their lethal injection protocol and practices since” an execution and two called-off executions in 2022 – three cases in which they say the Alabama Department of Corrections had trouble properly establishing intravenous lines.

The state confirmed the medical professionals' positions in a court hearing ahead of Thursday's scheduled lethal injection of James Barber The details emerged during a Monday hearing at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of James Barber, who has already served for than two decades in prison for the 2001 murder of Dorothy “Dottie” Epps in Harvest, Alabama. His execution is currently set to proceed Thursday at 6 p.m. inside Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. During Monday’s hearing, a lawyer for the state, Rich Anderson, told a panel of judges that Barber’s appeal was an “eleventh-hour” attempt at halting his execution when the state had already made changes to assure that implementing its lethal injection protocol would not “superadd” pain to Barber’s death.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 17, 2023: State media have reported the execution of Sangar Khezri for drug-related charges in Naghdeh Prison. According to the Judiciary’s Mizan news agency, a man was executed in Naghdeh Prison in West Azerbaijan province on 17 July. His identity has been reported as Sangar Khezri who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges. Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year for the past three years. At least 206 people were executed for drug-related charges in the first six months of 2023, a 126% rise compared to the same period in 2022 when 91 were executed. 40 people were executed in the same period in 2021.

Relatives of Grizelda Hernandez and little Dominic Alexander Hernandez burst into tears upon hearing the sentence of life in prison without parole awarded by the jury in the double murder trial of Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Ronald Anthony Burgos-Aviles on Monday in the 49th Court before Judge Joe Lopez. Burgos-Aviles was already found guilty on July 6 of murdering his lover Grizelda Hernandez, 27, and their son Dominic Alexander, 1, at Father McNaboe Park on April 9, 2018. On Monday, Webb County District Attorney Isidro "Chilo" Alaniz presented his closing arguments in the final stage of the punishment phase where he asked the jury to say 'Yes' to the question of whether Burgos-Aviles was likely to be a danger to society and to say 'No' to a sentence of life in prison without parole as they would opt instead for the death penalty.

A Maryland Supreme Court ruling questions how reliable ballistics science is and how it can be used in criminal trials. Attorneys for a convicted killer in Prince George’s County challenged whether crime scene analysts can definitively match bullets to a gun. Maryland's highest court ruled the idea of a perfect match doesn't match up with the science. The court placed limits on what forensic experts can say in all cases involving guns moving forward. Shell casings recovered at crime scenes are sent to a lab where technicians microscopically inspect them looking for evidence the casing can be linked to a weapon and, ultimately, a shooter.

Earlier this month, family members of some of the 23 people killed and 22 people injured by a mass shooter at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 confronted the killer for the first time in a federal court. They’d waited nearly four years. Some were barely able to speak through tears. “I still remember everything so clearly, even though I have tried to erase it from my memory,” one teenager said, according to media reports. They should not bear these memories alone. Against the waves of gun violence that seem to regularly beat against this country, we have called for a vigil of memory, testimony and witnessing. At times we have mourned alongside communities. Other times we have called for action. Steady oars in angry waters.

Newly revealed documents detail how an Ohio father allegedly executed his three sons and how the boys’ mother and sister heroically tried to save them. The bill of particulars against defendant Chad Doerman, 32, sheds light on how he allegedly killed the children and even how long he contemplated the act. But it falls short on revealing a key detail — the motive for the deaths of Chase, 3, Hunter, 4, and Clayton, 7. Doerman returned home from work early on June 14, according to the bill of particulars obtained by WCPO. He allegedly asked his wife and sons to join him for a nap in the master bedroom. His rifle, a Marlin Model HC .22, was next to the bed, authorities said. Meanwhile, the boys’ sister watched TV in the family room.

Both perpetrators were executed on Sunday Two Saudi Arabian nationals were executed in Saudi Arabia after they shot at a policeman and a security vehicle while covering for armed suspects. The perpetrators possessed weapons and had been covering for other armed suspects. The perpetrators, Ali bin Saleh bin Ahmed Al Jumaa and Muslim bin Hussein bin Hassan Al Abu Shaheen, from the eastern region of the nation, were sentenced to death by the court.  The death penalty was executed on Sunday. The Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia informed residents of the court's decision in order to detract residents from committing such crimes and to let residents know that their safety is paramount. Source : khaleejtimes.com , Staff, July 17, 2023 _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ FOLLOW US ON: CONTACT : deathpenaltynews@gmail.com HELP US KEEP THIS BLOG UP & RUNNING! ...

Iran’s morality police will resume patrols to make women comply with strict Islamic dress codes, state media reported Sunday, 10 months after the death of a young woman in their custody triggered nationwide protests. Saeid Montazeralmahdi, spokesman for Iran’s enforcement body, Faraja, said police will restart vehicle and foot patrols across the country from Sunday, the state-run Fars news agency reported. Officers will first warn women who are not complying, while those who “insist on breaking the norms,” may face legal action, he said.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST: Elizabeth Breunig says she has never done an interview like the one she did last year. ELIZABETH BREUNIG: He called me the night of his attempted execution. And, you know, I don't think I've ever spoken to anyone in the course of my reporting who was so shaken. DETROW: It was last November. Alabama officials had just tried to execute Kenneth Smith, who 34 years earlier had been convicted in the murder for hire of Elizabeth Sennett. They had tried to execute him, but they had failed. BREUNIG: They sat him down in the prison office and allowed him to make a phone call to his wife. And he asked her to three-way me in. He just wanted to make sure that he got down on the record what happened immediately while it was on his mind.

The Harris County District Clerk’s Office is attempting to resolve nearly 100 criminal appeals, including 2 death penalty cases, that were overlooked by the court system for decades. Among them are the appeals of the 2 death-sentenced prisoners, Tony Tyrone Dixon and Syed Rabbani. Tony Tyrone Dixon, a prisoner with intellectual disabilities, was convicted of capital murder he committed at the age of 17 and sentenced to death in 1995. In August 1998, Mr. Dixon’s appellate attorney filed his first post-conviction habeas corpus appeal, arguing that Mr. Dixon was mentally incompetent to stand trial. After the appeal was filed, the judge signed an order allotting prosecutors an unspecified amount of time to file their response beyond the then 30-day deadline. The prosecutors did not respond to Mr. Dixon’s request for a new trial until 2014.