death penalty news stories on Newser

Zimmerman May Face Hate-Crime Charges

John Johnson — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:21:58 CDT

A local TV station in Orlando says FBI investigators are questioning witnesses to seek evidence for hate-crime charges against George Zimmerman. The killer of Trayvon Martin currently faces second-degree murder charges that could send him to prison for life. If the feds add hate-crime charges and get a conviction, Zimmerman...

How Texas Executed an Innocent Man

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:56:38 CDT

Carlos DeLuna was executed in 1989 for the murder of Wanda Lopez, but a 400-page article in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review asserts that Texas actually put the wrong man to death, while the real killer bragged about the murder and the fact that DeLuna took the fall. Lopez,...

9/11 Victim's Spouse Goes to Gitmo to Save Plotters' Lives

Matt Cantor — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:07:07 CDT

The husband of a 9/11 victim opposes the death penalty in all cases—and he went to Guantanamo to fight for his beliefs. Blake Allison won one of 10 slots in a 9/11 mourners' lottery, allowing him to visit the island for the arraignment of admitted mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed....

Connecticut Kills Death Penalty

Rob Quinn — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:53:17 CDT

Life without the possibility of parole has replaced lethal injection as the harshest punishment Connecticut's courts can hand down. Gov. Dan Malloy signed a bill to repeal capital punishment, making the state the 17th to do so, and the fifth in the last five years, ABC reports. The new law...

California to Vote on Death Penalty

Rob Quinn — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:00:00 CDT

Voters in California, home to nearly a quarter of America's death row inmates, will decide on abolishing the death penalty this November. A ballot measure on repealing the death penalty has received the necessary 500,000 signatures, reports the Los Angeles Times . The measure would make life imprisonment without the...

Landmark Racial Ruling Takes Inmate Off Death Row

John Johnson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:32:53 CDT

A black inmate in North Carolina came off death row today thanks to a controversial new law in the state. A judge reduced the sentence of Marcus Reymond Robinson to life without parole after ruling that prosecutors purposely sought to keep blacks off his jury, reports the News & Observer...

Experts Can't Figure Out If Death Penalty Deters Murder

Kate Schwartz — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:17:48 CDT

Ohio executed one death-row inmate yesterday and has 11 executions on the books over the next 20 months. The AP notes that could once again make the state one of the country's busiest executioners. So is all that capital punishment deterring murders there? Who knows? That's basically the finding of...

Battling the Death Penalty: Two Who Fought for It

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:31:54 CDT

Californians will soon consider an initiative to repeal the state's death penalty. Two of its biggest backers? The men who successfully championed the expansion of California's death penalty 34 years ago, the New York Times reports. Ron Briggs, now a farmer and Republican county official, ran the campaign for Proposition...

Connecticut to Kill the Death Penalty

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:12:35 CDT

The death penalty is a dead man walking in Connecticut. The state is almost certain to become the 17th one to do away with capital punishment, following a 20-16 vote in the state Senate. That—the 10 hours of debate and the 2:05am vote—was the hard part, explains...