Free Republic

Texas on Thursday executed a man convicted of fatally beating a mentally disabled woman -- after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that he has an IQ of 67 and should be exempt from the death penalty. In his final statement before the lethal injection, Robert Ladd, 57, addressed the sister of his victim by name, telling her he was "really, really sorry." Ladd was sentenced to death for hammering, strangling and setting ablaze 38-year-old Vicki Ann Garner in 1996 — while he was on parole for a 1980 stabbing and arson that killed a woman and two children. Ladd's...

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide a case on the constitutionality of the new lethal injection drug combinations that some states are using for executions. The court agreed to hear a challenge to Oklahoma’s choice of drugs even though on Jan. 15 the court declined to stay an execution there, using the same contested drugs. In April, Oklahoma botched the execution of Clayton D. Lockett, who appeared to gasp and struggle after the drugs were administered before he finally died in the execution chamber of a heart attack.

Four death row inmates who are suing Ohio officials over a new state law that shields the names of companies providing lethal injection drugs want a federal court to prevent the law from taking effect in March. Attorneys for the inmates filed the motion Monday in U.S. District Court in Columbus. They want the court to stop the provisions that they say violate the right of free speech from taking effect, pending a trial on the lawsuit. […] Supporters of the new law have said that shielding the names of companies that provide lethal injection drugs is necessary to protect...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The focus of the Boston Marathon bombing trial figures to be as much on what punishment Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could face as on his responsibility for the attack. With testimony expected to start later this month, the Justice Department has given no indication it is open to any proposal from the defense to spare Tsarnaev's life, pushing instead toward a trial that could result in a death sentence for the 21-year-old defendant. In a deadly terror case that killed three people, including a child, and jolted the city, there may be little incentive for prosecutors who believe they...

Jakarta (AFP) - Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia and expressed fury on Sunday after Jakarta defied their pleas and executed two of their citizens along with four other drug offenders by firing squad.

The Government has raised the number of detainees at Gitmo that they will be seeking the death penalty for to the enormous and shocking number of seven. The ACLU are quick and ready to defend these warriors! Backed by a slate of prominent legal figures, including former Attorney General Janet Reno and former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director William Webster, the ACLU has assembled a team of top civilian attorneys to supplement the military defense counsel assigned to represent Guantanamo’s “high-value detainees.” … The effort significantly adds to the legal forces that over the past seven years have challenged the...

Just weeks before government scientist Bruce Ivins' suicide, a grand jury was convening on the third floor of the federal courthouse, near the U.S. Capitol, looking into the 2001 anthrax murders. Things weren't looking good for Ivins, the only suspect in the case. It was July 2008. His attorney, Paul F. Kemp, according to court documents reviewed by AOL News, had just filed court papers to become a death-penalty-certified attorney in the case -- a little-known fact. And the chief U.S. District judge in Washington, Royce C. Lamberth, had approved the request. "I thought this was a precaution to take....

Oklahoma executed a death row inmate Thursday for killing a baby in 1997 in the state’s first lethal injection since a botched one last spring. Prison officials declared Charles Frederick Warner dead at 7:28 p.m. CST Thursday. The execution lasted 18 minutes. “Before I give my final statement, I’ll tell you they poked me five times. It hurt. It feels like acid,” Warner said before the execution began. He added, “I’m not a monster. I didn’t do everything they said I did.” […] It was the second time Oklahoma used the sedative midazolam as part of a three-drug method, which...

Oklahoma this week plans to conduct its first execution since a faulty lethal injection last April led to U.N. criticism and prompted President Barack Obama to seek a re-examination of how capital punishment is implemented in the United States. The state is set to execute child rapist and murderer Charles Warner on Thursday after spending months revising its protocol for the death chamber to prevent the shortcomings with its last execution. Lawyers for death row inmates said even with the new protocols, the state's execution process remained deeply flawed. They are seeking a court-ordered halt on grounds the Oklahoma process...

Oklahoma's last execution went so badly that the state tried to cancel it before it was over. With the inmate writhing while the lethal drugs seeped into his body, his executioners drew the viewing gallery curtains, concealing what the warden later described as "a bloody mess." The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April and other troubling ones this year in Ohio and Arizona gave capital punishment opponents a flicker of hope that areas of the country that most enthusiastically support the death penalty might have a change of heart. They didn't.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging Pakistan’s leader to stop the execution of convicts and re-impose a moratorium on the death penalty. […] In the wake of the Pakistani Taliban school massacre on Dec. 16 that killed 149 people, most of them students, the government reinstated the death penalty and has already executed six people. …

Breitbart has done an INVESTIGATION and has found that the rape charges that Lena Dunham hurled against an Oberlin college Republican named "Barry" are completely unsubstantiated. There was a "Barry" at Oberlin who fits some, but not all, of Dunham's description but he is definitely not the rapist. Unfortunately, "Barry," who can easily be found via Google now has the false finger of Dunham accusing him of rape. I believe he has strong grounds to take action against Lena Dunham. So what would you recommend for punishment? Here are my suggestions: 1. All copies of Dunham's books, Not That Kind...

A report into the botched execution of Clayton Lockett has revealed new grisly details of the moments leading up to his agonizing death. According to the document, a doctor tried to insert an intravenous line into his groin in a frantic attempt to save him, but hit and burst an artery instead. It caused blood to splatter over the doctor's jacket before the execution was officially stopped. Lockett's heart stopped beating moments later. In the report, Oklahoma state prison warden Anita Trammell is quoted as saying that the procedure was a 'bloody mess'.

No one disputes that Scott Panetti—heavily armed, head shaved and wearing camouflage—shot and killed his in-laws at their Texas Hill Country home, showering his estranged wife and 3-year-old daughter in blood. Panetti himself acknowledged during his 1995 capital murder trial that he had killed Joe and Amanda Alvarado. Dressed as a cowboy, he acted as his own attorney, believing only an insane person could prove an insanity defense. Jurors convicted him and sentenced him to death, and he is scheduled to die on Wednesday. Panetti’s attorneys are seeking to get him off death row or, in the very least, to...

A decades-long study has found that budding lawyers are increasingly in favor of harsher punishments. Professor Franz Streng at the University of Erlangen in Bavaria asked his first-year law students the same set of questions every year from 1989 to 2012. “At the beginning of their studies, they’ve still only had their opinions formed by school, their parents and the media,” Streng said. He found that despite the young people feeling less at risk from crime from year to year, they became more and more positive about harsher punishments for criminals. …

Jurors decided the fate of a 41-year-old man Friday who murdered and lit his former girlfriend on fire in front of her children. According to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, jurors decided Tyrone Harts, of Riverside, will be sentenced to death early next year ... At the time of the murder, the children ranged in ages from six to 15-years-old. On Feb. 21, 2011, Harts shot his former girlfriend, Brandi Morales, inside of her Moreno Valley home she shared with her six children ...

Justice: Eric Holder, who dropped the New Black Panther case and almost had a defender of cop-killer Mumia abu-Jamal as an assistant, takes the death penalty off the table for four alleged Virginia cop-killers. The National Guard has not been called up, Al Sharpton has not made an appearance, and neither have 40 FBI agents been dispatched to ensure the convictions of the four gang members who allegedly murdered a Virginia police officer. Nor will there be riots and looting if they are acquitted. When cops are the victims instead of the accused, a different standard of social justice seems...

Holder Takes Death Penalty off Table for Gang Members Charged with Killing Cop by AWR Hawkins 15 Nov 2014 753 post a comment On November 14, federal prosecutors made it clear that Attorney General Eric Holder has "taken the death penalty off the table" for four men charged in the gang-related murder of Waynesboro, Virginia, police officer, Captain Kevin Quick. The Daily Progress reports that 45-year-old Quick was reported missing on February 1. His body was found days later. Siblings Daniel Mathis, Shantai Shelton, and Mersadies Shelton have been charged in the death. A fourth person, Kweli Uhuru, has also...

FULL TITLE: Florida set to execute man who has been on death row for 22 years for raping and murdering his 10-year-old stepdaughter and her mother A Florida Panhandle man is set to be executed tomorrow for raping and murdering his 10-year-old stepdaughter 22 years ago, just minutes after he killed her mother. Chadwick Banks, 43, is scheduled to die at 6pm Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke for the 1992 slaying of Melody Cooper, who was found on her knees naked from the waist down and her body slumped on her bed at their Gadsden County trailer home....

California’s death row houses 749 inmates, including 64 convicted in Orange County. From serial killers to child murderers, here is a closer look at 10 of the most notorious death row cases from O.C., as well as some facts about Death Row in California: ...