Death Penalty

White supremacist serial killer is executed after SCOTUS refuses stay request

White supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was put to death Wednesday morning less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay the execution. Franklin was executed for a 1977 sniper killing at a suburban St. Louis synagogue, report CNN, the Associated Press and the St. Louis…

Nov 20, 2013 2:10 PM CST

Appellate lawyer decked in court by handcuffed death-row client sues county for damages

A Pennsylvania lawyer who was decked in court by a handcuffed death-row inmate while working as a contract appellate lawyer earlier this year has sued Blair County for damages. Plaintiff Timothy S. Burns, 40, lost consciousness briefly when he was knocked to the floor by his client at the counsel…

Nov 19, 2013 9:50 PM CST

Serial killer who may have slain 22 people compares himself to Jesus, hopes for execution stay

Joseph Paul Franklin says he thinks differently now, after 30 years in prison, than he did when he killed “approximately” 22 people in an effort to start a race war. He says he’s repented, no longer holds racist views and doesn’t expect to see any hell fires burning after he’s…

Nov 18, 2013 9:24 PM CST

Judge denies Jodi Arias bid to move murder-sentence retrial, but bans TV cameras in court

The sentencing-phase retrial in the high-profile murder case of Jodi Arias won’t be moved away from Phoenix, an Arizona judge has ruled. But television cameras that streamed live coverage of the trial in which Arias, now 33, was convicted in May of the first-degree murder of her onetime boyfriend, Travis…

Nov 18, 2013 6:00 PM CST

Ex-client faces first-degree murder charge in slaying of divorce lawyer

A former client of a Nebraska lawyer was charged Friday with first-degree murder in Hall County in the fatal shooting of attorney Todd V. Elsbernd, 52, outside his Grand Island law office on Wednesday night. Authorities said Elsbernd represented defendant Michael Petersen, 58, in a 2005 divorce and the two…

Nov 15, 2013 10:30 PM CST

Convicted killer’s execution stayed by governor in order to weigh his organ-donation request

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has stepped in to delay a convicted killer’s execution after the condemned man asked to donate his organs to ailing family members, the Associated Press reports. Ronald Phillips had sought to donate his kidney to his mother and his heart to his sister. But the Ohio…

Nov 13, 2013 9:40 PM CST

Larry Flynt joins with ACLU to fight execution of serial killer who shot and paralyzed him

Hustler publisher Larry Flynt has spent decades in a wheelchair since being shot on March 6, 1978 as he stood on the steps of a Georgia courthouse in which he was facing an obscenity prosecution. His admitted assailant, Joseph Paul Franklin, 63, has been convicted of racially motivated murders in…

Nov 12, 2013 3:00 PM CST

Death-row inmate wants to donate his organs to ailing family members

A convicted murderer scheduled to die in Ohio on Thursday is asking to donate his organs to family members suffering from kidney disease and a heart condition. Ronald Phillips wants to donate his kidney to his mother and his heart to his sister, the Associated Press reports. He is scheduled…

Nov 12, 2013 12:56 PM CST

Bring back the guillotine? A death-penalty opponent touts its merits

As states grapple with shortages of legal injection drugs, a death-penalty opponent is suggesting a solution: Bring back the guillotine. The guillotine is quick and possibly less painful than lethal injection, according to the Slate essay. Doctors need not administer it, avoiding violations of the Hippocratic Oath. And the dead…

Nov 5, 2013 12:15 PM CST

Death penalty support at 40-year low, poll finds

Popular support for the death penalty has dropped to 60 percent, its lowest point in more than 40 years, a new poll shows. It is the lowest level of support Gallup has found since November 1972, when 57 percent of Americans favored capital punishment, according to this press release. Support…

Oct 30, 2013 4:47 PM CDT

When does mental disability prevent execution? SCOTUS to consider Florida IQ standard

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether Florida’s standard for determining mental disability complies with the high court’s 2002 decision barring execution of the mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in Hall v. Florida this morning, SCOTUSblog reports. The case is an appeal by Freddie Lee…

Oct 21, 2013 2:39 PM CDT

Ariz. prosecutor accused of misconduct in capital murder case

An Arizona prosecutor has been accused of misconduct in his handling of a capital murder case. Chief Deputy Pinal County Attorney Richard Wintory allegedly had inappropriate contact with a member of the defense team and then tried to cover up the extent of that contact to the court and his…

Oct 4, 2013 5:30 PM CDT

A 2 percent death penalty? Capital sentences are concentrated in just a few counties, report says

Only 2 percent of the counties in the United States have been responsible 52 percent of the executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center. Similarly, only 2 percent of U.S. counties are responsible for 56 percent of…

Oct 2, 2013 2:06 PM CDT

Family of executed man seeks investigation into possible innocence

Corrected: The family of a Texas man who was executed in 2004 for the murder of his three children is asking Gov. Rick Perry to order an investigation into whether the man should be posthumously pardoned. Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted in 1992 on three counts of first-degree murder for…

Sep 27, 2013 8:00 PM CDT

ABA report urges Texas death penalty reform, says ‘future dangerousness’ factor should be nixed

The ABA’s Death Penalty Review Project has issued the last of 12 reports that assess the death penalty in states that account for more than 65 percent of the nation’s executions. The last report, released Wednesday, evaluates the death penalty system in Texas, according to a press release. The review…

Sep 19, 2013 11:10 AM CDT