Tag: death penalty

Republicans Seek Return of Capital Punishment, Hochul Wants Social Media Scrutiny in Response to Buffalo Mass Shooting

The New York gubernatorial candidates’ responses to the Buffalo mass shooting show divided approaches and agendas. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Andrew Giuliani, both Republican candidates for governor, called for a return of capital punishment in New York, while Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, called for more scrutiny on social media platforms. Zeldin suggested reactivating…


Republicans, Democrats Show Divided Responses to Buffalo Mass Shooting

The New York gubernatorial candidates’ responses to the Buffalo mass shooting show divided approaches and agendas. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Andrew Giuliani, both Republican candidates for governor, called for a return of capital punishment in New York, while Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, called for more scrutiny on social media platforms. Zeldin suggested reactivating…


Idaho to Seek Death Penalty for Lori Vallow If Found Guilty of Killing 2 Children

Lori Vallow could face the death penalty if she’s found guilty of killing her two youngest children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, according to new court documents. Fremont and Madison County prosecuting attorneys indicated in a notice filed in the case on Monday that they plan to seek capital punishment against Vallow if she…


SCOTUS Takes Appeal of Texas Death Row Inmate Claiming Scientific Evidence Was Flawed

The Supreme Court agreed on April 25 to hear the appeal of Rodney Reed, who was convicted of murder and rape, and who now wants evidence found at the scene of the crime years ago to be tested for DNA, even though a Texas law forbids it because he took too long to raise the…


State Supreme Court Halts South Carolina Death Row Inmate’s Planned Execution by Firing Squad

The South Carolina Supreme Court on April 20 issued a temporary stay preventing the state from carrying out what would have been its first-ever execution by firing squad. Richard Bernard Moore, 57, was scheduled to be executed on April 29. He would have been only the fourth prisoner in the United States to die by that method…


Arizona on Track, for Now, for 1st Execution Since 2014

PHOENIX—Arizona remains on track, at least for now, to use the death penalty for the first time in nearly eight years in an execution in which a condemned prisoner is being given the option of being put to death by the gas chamber—a method that hasn’t been used in the United States in decades. Clarence…


Death Penalty Possible in Vegas Boy’s Body-in-Freezer Case

LAS VEGAS—The death penalty will be considered in the case of a Las Vegas man accused of kidnapping and killing a 4-year-old boy and hiding the body in a freezer while keeping the boy’s mother captive, a prosecutor told a judge during a brief schedule-setting hearing on Friday. Clark County District Court Judge Tierra Jones…


Supreme Court Sides With Convicted Murderer in Texas Seeking ‘Comfort of Clergy’ at Execution

The Supreme Court sided with a Texas death row inmate who wants his personal pastor to be present, praying, and in physical contact with his body during administration of the lethal drugs that will end his life. The justices voted 8-1, finding that John Henry Ramirez, 37, was likely to succeed on his claim that…


Supreme Court Reinstates Federal Death Sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber Tsarnaev

On Friday morning, the Supreme Court reinstated the federal death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a terrorist who was convicted of bombing the 2013 Boston Marathon, in a 6–3 decision, with all three liberal justices dissenting from the ruling. Tsarnaev, 28, is the lone surviving perpetrator of the 2013 attack that has been deemed one of…


Supreme Court Declines to Hear Georgia Death-Penalty Appeal

By Bill Rankin From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider Georgia’s standard that lawyers contend makes it all but impossible for intellectually disabled capital defendants to prove they are intellectually disabled. Georgia is the nation’s only state with the death penalty that requires defendants to clear the highest legal…