Death Penalty

Afternoon Briefs: Lawyer who scammed Charles Barkley gets prison; DA wants death penalty overturned

• An Alabama lawyer was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for running an energy investment scheme that defrauded former NBA star Charles Barkley and other athletes. Donald Watkins Sr., 70, will also have to pay about $14 million in restitution. Watkins said he still considers the victims…

Jul 17, 2019 5:00 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Unlicensed PD’s clients stick with plea deals; lawyer a no-show at sentencing

• Defendants whose plea bargains were handled by an unlicensed public defender in Madison County, Illinois, apparently aren’t interested in a do-over. All but one of the defendants whose cases involved jail time stuck with the same deal they received when the cases were handled by unlicensed law grad Kelcie…

Jul 15, 2019 4:45 PM CDT

Death sentences show slight uptick in 2018 after big decline, new report says

Death sentences imposed in the United States dropped to 31 in 2016, before rising slightly to 39 in 2017 and 42 in 2018, according to a new report citing estimates by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Jul 10, 2019 3:42 PM CDT

Aug. 6, 1890: First execution by electric chair

As an opponent of capital punishment, Thomas Edison had no interest in pursuing capital electrocution. Still, Edison found a way to benefit.

Jul 1, 2019 1:00 AM CDT

Most Democratic presidential candidates oppose death penalty; where does Biden stand?

Democratic presidential candidates are mostly against the death penalty, including former prosecutors who are seeking the nomination. At one time, opposition to capital punishment could have harmed candidates for presidential office, according to the conventional wisdom. But the tide has turned, report the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York…

Jun 20, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

Ethics case is tossed against judge who protested death penalty while ruling in execution drug dispute

The Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission has tossed an ethics case against a judge who participated in death-penalty protests on the same day that he issued a decision barring the state from using an execution drug. The commission said this week it was dismissing the case because too much…

Jun 14, 2019 2:26 PM CDT

Jewish death-row inmate claims judge who sentenced him was racist and anti-Semitic

A Jewish inmate sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer contends he deserves a new trial because the Texas judge who sentenced him used anti-Semitic and racist language outside of court.

Jun 13, 2019 7:30 AM CDT

ABA supports use of traditional insanity defense in death-row inmate’s petition

In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, the ABA said it supports Kansas death-row inmate James Kraig Kahler’s petition to reverse the Kansas Supreme Court decision that rejected the traditional insanity defense in his case. Kahler, who was convicted of killing four family members in…

Jun 10, 2019 12:44 PM CDT

Alabama inmate is executed after a divided Supreme Court denies stay

An Alabama inmate who sought to die by nitrogen hypoxia was executed by lethal injection Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court once again rejected a stay request.

May 31, 2019 9:15 AM CDT

New Hampshire repeals death penalty; its last execution was in 1939

New Hampshire is the 21st state to abolish the death penalty.

May 30, 2019 3:32 PM CDT

Chemerinsky: In death do they part—SCOTUS justices show divisions over capital cases

Some of the court’s most interesting actions this term have occurred not in decisions published after briefing and oral arguments but in orders in death penalty cases concerning whether to stay executions.

May 30, 2019 6:00 AM CDT

Lawyer who didn’t practice law for 2 decades removed from death penalty case

A California lawyer who was appointed to represent a capital defendant after a longtime absence from law practice is no longer on the case. Lawyer Gary Turnbull, now 74, was ousted from the case at the request of the defendant, Juan Pablo Vega, who is accused of killing two people…

May 21, 2019 10:37 AM CDT

FDA lacks jurisdiction to regulate lethal injection drugs, Justice Department argues

The Food and Drug Administration has no jurisdiction to regulate drugs and devices used in executions, according to a legal opinion by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. Articles intended for use in capital punishment aren’t covered by the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, according to the…

May 15, 2019 1:35 PM CDT

Joined by 2 other justices, Thomas rejects liberal colleagues’ criticism in case of death-row inmate

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says “there is nothing of substance” to four colleagues’ allegations of unfairness last month in the U.S. Supreme Court’s handling of a stay request. Thomas concurred Monday in the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case of Alabama inmate Christopher Lee Price. His opinion…

May 13, 2019 10:48 AM CDT

Solitary confinement conditions violated death-row inmates’ Eighth Amendment rights, 4th Circuit rules

Updated: A federal appeals court has ruled that the conditions of death-row solitary confinement that once existed in Virginia prisons violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In a 2-1 decision filed Friday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Richmond, Virginia, barred Virginia from returning…

May 6, 2019 11:00 AM CDT