Free Republic

Twenty-four hours after a police officer shot Lily, a 5-year-old Border Collie-English Setter mix, its owners still don't understand why the police officer was on their property and why he used lethal force. ... had just returned from a shopping trip and their two dogs had slipped into their truck, then into the garage, before re-emerging when an officer walked up the driveway... Asked by the officer to control his two dogs, Mark Boling urged him not to advance, but he did. "My dogs don't bite, They're not going to hurt you," Boling, 52, an electronics technician with a defense...

In 1916, a circus in Tennessee sentenced an elephant to death by hanging In the early 1900s, it wasn't uncommon for humans to use their waxing technological prowess for the express purpose of torturing the hell out of animals. In one particularly mind-boggling incident, a five-ton circus elephant named Mary was condemned to death by hanging after her owners nixed executions by firearms, dismemberment, and electrocution. After Mary killed her handler in St. Paul, Virginia because of abuse/poor training/a toothache/some nebulous combination thereof, the proprietors of Sparks World Famous Shows executed the pachyderm in the railyards of Erwin, Tennessee on...

WikiLeaks: The sleazy criminal organization dedicated to publishing U.S. secrets may loudly deny its leaks led to the hanging of a man in Iran Tuesday. But that's irrelevant because WikiLeaks gave Tehran the pretext it sought. A 24-year old Iranian man was the latest victim of the mullahs' monstrous tyranny this week, executed as a spy for Israel, supposedly for killing an Iranian nuclear scientist on behalf of his Zionist masters. That's a whiff of the twisted kangaroo court verdicts typical of Iran. In reality, Majid Jamali Fashi was a young kick-boxing instructor who visited Baku, Azerbaijan, for a tournament...

An appellate court is paving the way for executions of death row inmates, including two from East Tennessee. The Tennessee Court of Appeals last week issued an opinion affirming the decision of Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman to uphold a new procedure set by the state Department of Correction to try to ensure a death row inmate is unconscious before fatal drugs are administered under the state's three-drug lethal injection process. "Plaintiffs have simply failed to carry their heavy burden to demonstrate that the lethal injection protocol as revised in November 2010 constitutes wanton exposure to an objectively intolerable risk...

A convicted child sex offender was executed Wednesday for the beating death of a 10-month-old boy he was baby-sitting at a home in Dallas.

Three men convicted of multiple killings were hanged Thursday in Japan's first executions in more than a year and a half.

Three death row inmates in Japan were executed by hanging on Thursday, the country's first executions in more than a year and a half. The men were reportedly hanged in three different prisons. One was convicted of ramming a car into a train station and then knifing people nearby, killing five, in 1999. The second killed two people in 2001 and the third killed three in 2002.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court refused last-day appeals from convicted killer Jesse Joe Hernandez, clearing the way for his execution Wednesday evening for the 2001 beating death of a 10-month-old boy he was baby-sitting at a home in Dallas. The high court ruling came about two hours before the 47-year-old Hernandez, who previously was convicted of a child sex offense, could be taken to the Texas death chamber for lethal injection. The justices' order was brief and did not include an explanation for their decision. The execution would be the fourth this year in Texas. Ten-month-old Karlos...

/begin my excerpts On the Kim Jong-eun's Order "Not even a hair should be left" ... Mortar Used Lee Yong-soo Kim Jong-eun Ordered, "Not even a hair should be left" More than ten generals purged this year, "Another day, another one disappears." Since Kim Jong-il's sudden death last year, Kim Jong-eun took over and N. Korean military has been in the vortex of unprecedented 'purge drive' and the means of execution is (very) cruel, such as using mortar fire, a knowledgeable government source on N. Korea revealed on Mar. 21. He said, “Since Dec. 30 last year when Kim Jong-eun...

A young woman sits cross-legged on the ground laughing playfully as she is fed a lychee. Another plays cards in pair of baggy pink pyjamas. The moving images could show any group of young women as they go about their daily lives in prison. But just hours - and in some cases minutes - after the pictures were taken, each of the four women were led into a concrete yard and executed.

A 79-year-old man died after a nurse mistakenly gave him a drug used in state executions rather than an over-counter medicine. Richard Smith was admitted to hospital in Miami, Florida, after complaining of stomach pains and shortness of breath. The former teacher was prescribed Pepcid, an over-the-counter antacid, to try and cure the problem. Dead: Richard Smith, 79, was admitted to hospital in Miami, Florida, after complaining of stomach pains and shortness of breath Dead: Richard Smith, 79, was admitted to hospital in Miami, Florida, after complaining of stomach pains and shortness of breath But nurse Uvo Ologboride picked up...

BOISE - Triple murderer Paul Ezra Rhoades was executed this morning despite repeated last-minute appeals, in Idaho’s first execution since 1994 and only its second since 1957. “The time of death is 9:15,” Mountain time, Idaho Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Ray announced. “The procedures are complete.” In his final words, Rhoades took responsibility for one of the murders, but not the other two. A friend of the family of one of the victims, who was in the chamber witnessing the execution, said, “The devil has gone home.” Unlike the last person executed in Idaho, double murderer Keith Eugene Wells,...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A convicted sex offender was set to die Wednesday evening for slipping into a San Antonio apartment in the middle of the night, snatching a 7-year-old girl and raping and strangling her.Appeals were exhausted and no late legal maneuvers were made to keep Guadalupe Esparza, 46, of San Antonio, from becoming the 13th Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year. A clemency petition was rejected Monday by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.The battered body of Alyssa Maria Vasquez was found in some weeds behind a convenience store near her home hours after she was...

IRAN: Act by 9 November to call for Pastor Nadarkhani's pardon during Eid Pastor Nadarkhani was arrested in Rasht in 2009 while attempting to register his church. In 2010 he was tried and found guilty of apostasy (abandoning Islam), and was sentenced to death. He now awaits a decision on his case from the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, and a formal written verdict. His life is still in the balance.

A convicted killer raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips Wednesday when an Orange County jury announced that he should receive the death penalty for gunning down the manager of a Tustin Home Depot during a botched robbery in 2007. A jury of six men and six women deliberated for five hours before deciding that death was the appropriate penalty for Jason Russell Richardson, 40, convicted last year of first-degree murder plus special circumstances for the shooting death of Tom Egan, who was trying to protect his employees when he was shot in the stomach Feb. 9, 2007. ...

TRIPOLI, Libya—Fresh evidence has emerged that fighters battling for control of Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte were responsible for numerous extrajudicial killings and other possible atrocities, raising new questions about the final moments in Libya's revolution and adding to the challenges of national reconciliation. Residents of Sirte and medical workers say that they have identified dozens of corpses of both Gadhafi loyalists and antiregime fighters, who appear to have died by shots to the back of the head while their hands were bound. They say these bodies are among hundreds of unidentified corpses littering the streets of Sirte and filling...

The sitting U.S. President Obama, publicly supported the capture of Gaddafi which was soon followed by what appears to be his execution-style murder by his captors. When U.S. soldiers captured Saddam Hussein during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he was taken prisoner, handed over to Iraqi authorities and eventually tried, convicted and executed by them. President Bush has long been excoriated by liberals and leftists as a "war criminal", yet U.S. troops showed excellent restraint and control when arresting Saddam. Now various groups around the world are calling for an investigation into what, according to video of the event,...

And in a butcher shop (!) What's up next, string 'em from a bridge...? They were screaming "Allahu Akbar" when they finished him off- just like Al Qaeda does it, how bout that. While we still do not know who the rebels we just boosted to power actually are (yet plenty of reason to suspect the worst- i.e. packed with AQ and Muslim Brotherhood types), hey, we're about to find out.  Alas, so far-so bad, as they're already committing war crimes, up to and including summary executions... which appears to be just what happened to ole Muammar and out-of-luck son Mutassim. The UN and ICC suspect as much, as...

RAIFORD— A Florida man convicted of shooting a police officer to death during a traffic stop in 1978 is scheduled to be executed Wednesday. Barring an 11th-hour stay, Manuel Valle, 61, is set to become the first prisoner to die from the state's newly revised mix of lethal drugs. The concoction has been challenged, twice delaying the death sentence.

Manuel Valle scheduled to die of lethal injection in FloridaThe execution of a Florida man convicted of killing a Coral Gables police officer 33 years ago is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Manuel Valle, 61, is set to be executed by lethal injection at 4 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Raiford, over eight weeks after his original execution date. Valle was convicted of fatally shooting 41-year-old Luis Pena in the neck during a traffic stop in April 1978. He was driving a stolen car when he was stopped by Pena and officer Gary Spell, who also was shot but saved...

JASPER - Longtime civil rights activist and comedian Dick Gregory held a prayer vigil in Jasper Tuesday night in protest of Lawrence Brewer's execution. Brewer was sentenced to death and is scheduled to die Wednesday for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Junior in 1998. Gregory, a strong opponent of capital punishment, will conduct an 18 hour fast and vigil at the Walls Unit in Huntsville. "When do the State qualify to kill somebody and the government qualify to kill somebody and it's all right"? said Gregrory. "It's never all right to kill somebody intentionally. There are...

Death-row inmates headed to their executions will no longer be able to pick what they’d like for their last meal. Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, issued this statement in response to concerns from Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire: “I believe Senator Whitmire’s concerns regarding the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their last meal are valid. Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made. They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit.” Here’s the original post about Whitmire’s concerns: Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman...

(CBS/AP)  JACKSON, Ga. - Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer, a crime he denied committing right to the end as supporters around the world mourned and declared that an innocent man was put to death. Defiant to the end, he told relatives of Mark MacPhail that his 1989 slaying was not his fault. "I did not have a gun," he insisted.

'It's Over': After Three Torturous Hours Strapped To The Chair Troy Davis Has Been Executed Davis finally died at 11.08pm All nine Supreme Court justices voted to deny the stay after taking more than four hours to come to their decision Appeal had challenged ballistics linking Davis to the crime, and eyewitness testimony identifying Davis as the killer Davis convicted of killing off duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989 Defence lawyers say there is still 'lingering doubt' of Davis' guilt By HANNAH ROBERTS 22nd September 2011 Mental torture: The convicted murderer was sedated and strapped to the chair in...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas. Byrd, 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and pulled whip-like to his death along a bumpy asphalt road in one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history. Brewer, 44, was asked if he had any final words, to which he replied: "No. I have no final statement." He glanced at his parents watching through a nearby window, took several deep breaths and...

The execution of Troy Davis was delayed temporarily by the US supreme court on Wednesday night in a dramatic intervention just as he was due to be put to death by lethal injection. The last-minute decision caused confusion outside the prison in Jackson, Georgia, where family, supporters and civil rights campaigners broke into celebration as they believed the court had granted Davis a stay of execution. But it quickly emerged that the delay was only temporary, while the justices considered whether to issue a stay. Until that moment it seemed almost certain that Davis would be executed, as the Georgia...

Georgia inmate Troy Davis's last-ditch request for a lie detector test to try to prove his innocence ahead of tonight's planned execution has been denied by Georgia Department of Corrections. Defence lawyer Stephen Marsh said he had hoped the polygraph would convince the state pardons board to reconsider a decision against clemency, which was rejected yesterday. Davis, 42, is scheduled to die at 7pm tonight. It is the fourth time in four years that Davis' execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials.

Georgia inmate Troy Davis's last-ditch request for a lie detector test to try to prove his innocence ahead of tonight's planned execution has been denied by Georgia Department of Corrections. Defence lawyer Stephen Marsh said he had hoped the polygraph would convince the state pardons board to reconsider a decision against clemency, which was rejected yesterday. Davis, 42, is scheduled to die at 7pm tonight. It is the fourth time in four years that Davis' execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials.

In what is normally a very unusual move for the Supreme Court, they have now stepped in twice to put the brakes on execution of convicted killers in the Lone Star State. This time it’s the case of Cleve Foster. For the second time in a week, the Supreme Court intervened in the final hours to block a planned execution in Texas.Cleve Foster, a 47-year-old former Army recruiter, was scheduled to die for the rape and murder of a woman he met at a Fort Worth bar in 2002. Foster has maintained that another man who was with him at...

Beneath the guard towers and behind the razor wire of a Texas prison, Lawrence Brewer lifts his arm to display his racist tattoos. “Like a cross burning and an intertwined KKK,” he explains, showing off the images cut into his flesh that turned his body into a billboard for hate. His worldview of racial relations came from an earlier stint in prison. “Watching the blacks and the Mexicans and other races literally beat people near death. So I came out after four years of that, with that mentality,” he said. What he did after he came out of prison made...

ATLANTA (AP) — Yet another appeal denied, Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit. He lost his most realistic chance to avoid lethal injection on Tuesday, when Georgia's pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures. They asked prisons officials to let him to take a polygraph test; urged prison workers to strike or call in sick; asked prosecutors to block the execution and they even considered a desperate appeal for...

A chilling look inside the minds of female prisoners unfolds on Thursday with the première of the new TLC show, Prison Diaries. The first episode of the series focuses on Emilia Carr, one of just 63 women on death row in the U.S. Carr is seen in ankle chains and handcuffs, led by a burly, fully-armed female guard as she leaves her cell. She wears bright orange overalls and trainers, her long, dark hair allowed to fall around her hunched shoulders.

US Supreme Court halts Texas execution MICHAEL GRACZYK September 15, 2011 HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution Thursday of a black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago after his lawyers contended his sentence was unfair because of a question asked about race during his trial.

When Rick Perry threw his hat into the ring for the Republican presidential nomination, it set off such a collective cringe among liberal Texans that it likely scored on the Richter scale. Being a native Texan with basic respect for modern civilisation means living in a constant state of low-grade humiliation, as the state's size provides an interrupted stream of news stories highlighting the cranks and Bible-thumpers who win state and local offices – but a presidential campaign means exponentially expanding the amount of national and international attention paid to the streak of mean-spirited ignorance that rules Texas politics. With...

The 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham in Texas remains one of the most controversial death penalty cases in modern U.S. history, with forensic evidence that indicates an innocent man was put to death. Now, activists in Austin would like to make Mr. Willingham Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s running mate. With Mr. Perry surging to front-runner status in the Republican primary race, a slew of activities are planned to raise the profile of the Willingham case, and the aftermath that directly involved Mr. Perry. Anti-death penalty activists that run Cameron Todd Willingham website are recruiting activists in Iowa and New...

Rick Perry says he doesn't lose sleep over the possibility that his state has executed an innocent man. At Wednesday night's Republican Presidential debate in California, moderator Brian Williams noted to Perry that his state "has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times." As Williams tried to continue asking his question, the crowd broke into applause, prompting Williams to pause. The moderator then continued: "Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?" Perry responded, "no, sir." "I've never struggled with that at all,"...

[snip] Williams: Governor Perry...Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. (APPLAUSE) Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent? Perry answered: "No sir," pointed out that death-row convicts are entitled to extensive appeals, and crisply declared: "In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice." [snip] [E.D.]Kain implies...

Thumbing his nose at President Obama, Texas's Republican Governor Rick Perry allowed the Thursday evening execution of a Mexican national, even though the action violated U.S. treaty obligations under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to U.S. states. The Vienna Convention stipulates, among other things, that citizens of one country arrested in another have the right to consult, "without delay," with their own country's consulate, and to be so informed of that right by the arresting authority. If the arrested person so requests, the police must take the initiative by, for example, faxing pertinent information to the prisoner's consulate....

..THE RAPING AND BLUDGEONING THAT AMERICANS WON'T DO Obama bizarrely decided to intervene in a death penalty case in Texas on behalf of a rapist and murderer, also international law. In 1994, he kidnapped 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, raped her with a large stick, and bludgeoned her to death with a piece of asphalt. Just remember. Obama will not pay your mortgage. But if you rape and bludgeon a 16 year old girl to death... he'll be there for you. The San Francisco Chronicle asks, "Is Rick Perry Killing His Way To The White House?". Here's a better headline. "Is Obama...

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused the United States of breaking international law when Texas executed Mexican citizen Humberto Leal Garcia Jr. Thursday night. The execution sparked controversy after the International Court of Justice in the Hague determined in 2004 that the U.S. had violated the Vienna Convention when officials failed to tell foreign inmates about their right to visit their consular officials. But the U.S. Supreme Court voted yesterday that Texas could go ahead with the execution, even over the objection of President Barack Obama. Pillay said today the execution "raises particular legal concerns" about the...

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (UPI) -- The Texas execution of a Mexican national puts the United States in violation of international law, the U.N. human rights chief said Friday. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said federations like the United States have a responsibility to ensure that individual states "respect the international responsibilities assumed by the country as a whole." ...."I am very disappointed that neither the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles nor the governor took steps open to them to prevent this breach of the U.S. obligations under international law from occurring," Pillay said.

Texas has executed a Mexican national for the kidnapping and rape of a 16-year-old San Antonio girl. Garcia, 38, was put to death less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-to-4 vote, rejected pleas from the Obama administration for a delay to avoid what it called serious international repercussions…. Before Garcia's trial, Texas authorities failed to inform him of his right to speak with officers from the Mexican consulate and failed to inform the consulate that a Mexican national had been arrested.

WASHINGTON — In a 5-to-4 decision that split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on Thursday evening rebuffed a request from the Obama administration that it stay the execution of a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas. The inmate, Humberto Leal Garcia Jr., was executed about an hour later. ……On Thursday, in an unsigned majority opinion, the Supreme Court said that Congress had had plenty of time to act and that the court would not now “prohibit a state from carrying out a lawful judgment in light of unenacted legislation.” “Our task,” the majority wrote, “is to rule on...

Humberto Leal , a Mexican illegal alien was finally executed Thursday evening for the 1994 rape-slaying of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, whose brutalized nude body was found hours after he left a San Antonio street party with her. She was bludgeoned with a chunk of asphalt. Leal was executed after the U.S. Supreme Court (by a 5-4 vote) turned down a appeal by President Barack Obama to stop the execution due to complaints by the Mexican Government and the U.N. justice court that he had not properly received “consular access” before his trial. As with his lawsuit against Arizona over its...

A Mexican national was executed Thursday for the rape-slaying of a teenager after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a White House-supported appeal to spare him in a death penalty case where Texas justice triumphed over international treaty concerns. Humberto Leal, 38, received lethal injection for the 1994 murder of Adria Sauceda. She was fatally bludgeoned with a piece of asphalt. Leal was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. EDT (2221 GMT).

Texas is set to execute on Thursday Mexican national Humberto Leal Garcia for the rape and murder of a teenage girl, defying pleas by the Mexican government and President Barack Obama to delay it because his consular rights were violated

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a last-minute stay of execution in a Texas case involving a Mexican national who was not told of his right to diplomatic counsel when arrested.

The case of a Mexican man scheduled to be executed on Thursday in Texas threatens to disrupt U.S. diplomatic relations abroad and creates a politically volatile dilemma for Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is considering a run for president. Unless Perry or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to stay the execution, Texas plans to execute Humberto Leal Jr. at 6 p.m. Central Time for the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the United States violated the rights of Leal and more than three dozen other Mexican nationals on death row because...

<p>The Obama administration is taking the unusual step of asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Texas from executing a Mexican citizen who was convicted and sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl.</p> <p>The administration is asking the court to delay the July 7 execution of Humberto Leal, 38, for as long as six months to give Congress time to consider legislation that would directly affect Leal's case.</p>

Barack Obama Asks For Texas And Rick Perry To Spare Mexican The Death Penalty Texas is preparing to execute a Mexican citizen for a gruesome 1994 murder on Thursday despite an appeal by Barack Obama to spare him because he was not granted the consular help required by international law. By Toby Harnden 05 Jul 2011 Humberto Leal, 38, a native of Monterrey, Mexico was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of Adria Sauceda, 16, whose naked body was found with a large stick protruding from her. She had been bitten and her head crushed by a lump of...