Death Penalty

Utah governor signs law allowing firing squads as execution backup method

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert on Monday signed into law a bill that authorizes the use of firing squads in executions if the state is unable to obtain lethal injection drugs. A spokesperson for Herbert, Marty Carpenter, said lethal injection is preferred, but when the drugs aren’t available, the executive branch…

Mar 24, 2015 7:17 AM CDT

Hundreds of attorneys petition top Texas court over law prof’s 1-year suspension from pro bono work

Some 250 fellow attorneys are backing a Texas law professor in his unusual effort to overturn a one-year suspension that, supporters say, will have the effect of depriving pro bono clients of skilled appellate work in death-penalty cases. David Dow, who teaches at the University of Houston, was held in…

Mar 23, 2015 12:40 PM CDT

SCOTUS won’t hear case of inmate on death row for 30 years; dissenters see ‘glaring’ legal error

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear the case of a Texas inmate who claimed that executing him after more than 30 years on death row would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court denied cert on Monday in the case of Lester Leroy Bower Jr., according to the order…

Mar 23, 2015 10:09 AM CDT

Jury convicts grandma in child’s running death; will consider death penalty

An Alabama woman accused of causing her granddaughter’s death by forcing her to run for hours was convicted of capital murder on Friday. Jurors who convicted Joyce Hardin Garrard on Friday return to court in Etowah County on Monday to consider whether to recommend the death penalty, report the Associated…

Mar 23, 2015 9:11 AM CDT

Once on death row, man released after 39 years behind bars gets $1M for wrongful imprisonment

An Ohio man imprisoned for 39 years based on false testimony in a murder case has been awarded more than $1 million in compensation. Ricky Jackson, now 59, cried last year when he learned he was going to be released by Cuyahoga County, according to the Associated Press and an…

Mar 20, 2015 9:10 AM CDT

Arson-deaths prosecutor is accused of not disclosing informant deal; defendant was executed in 2004

The Texas prosecutor who obtained a death sentence for Cameron Todd Willingham in the arson deaths of his three daughters is accused in an ethics complaint of failing to disclose a deal with a jailhouse informant. The ethics complaint, filed on March 5, says former Navarro County prosecutor John Jackson…

Mar 19, 2015 9:41 AM CDT

Execution is less likely than reversal after a death sentence, study finds

Only 16 percent of people sentenced to death between 1973 and 2013 have been executed, a finding with troubling implications, according to the authors of the statistical study. Even if those on death row in 2013 are excluded; only about 24 percent of inmates sentenced to death were executed, according…

Mar 18, 2015 9:21 AM CDT

Inmate missing 8 percent of his brain is executed; SCOTUS denies stay in divided order

A brain-damaged Missouri inmate was executed on Tuesday after a divided U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay. Four justices would have granted a stay for the 74-year-old inmate, Cecil Clayton, report the Washington Post and St. Louis Public Radio. They are Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor…

Mar 18, 2015 7:06 AM CDT

California judge boots Orange County DA’s office from murder case because of withheld evidence

A California judge has booted the Orange County district attorney’s office from a high-profile multiple murder case, citing a “chronic failure” to turn over prosecution evidence to the defense. Scott Dekraai last year pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder in the 2011 slayings of his wife and seven…

Mar 12, 2015 3:50 PM CDT

Utah lawmakers approve firing squads as execution back-up method

Utah lawmakers on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill authoring executions to be carried out by firing squads if lethal injection drugs aren’t available. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has not indicated whether he will sign the bill, report Reuters and the Associated Press. Utah had allowed inmates to choose…

Mar 11, 2015 11:16 AM CDT

HBO to make TV movie based on case of ex-lawyer accused of killing 2 prosecutors

The case of a former Texas justice of the peace accused of enlisting his wife to help him murder two prosecutors has provided the plot for an upcoming HBO television movie. Eric Williams was convicted last year of killing the wife of the Kaufman County district attorney and got the…

Mar 6, 2015 1:25 PM CST

Mistrial saves Jodi Arias from death penalty; will she get life with or without parole?

For the second time, after days of deliberation, an Arizona jury has been unable to agree on whether Jodi Arias should get the death penalty in a high-profile murder case. So a mistrial was declared Thursday, due to the jury deadlock, and Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens will…

Mar 5, 2015 12:40 PM CST

A new defense approach to storytelling changes capital cases in Texas

"The first time he murdered was to get a car," Jill Patterson says, "and the second time he murdered was also to get a car.

"At age 6 his mother didn't have a car, and they were doing illegal things in the house. So when he was 6 she said she was taking the defendant to a birthday party, and instead she drove him to an orphanage.

Mar 1, 2015 6:12 AM CST

Convicted in wife slaying, profiled in book and TV miniseries, Robert Marshall dies in prison

A former insurance salesman profiled in a best-selling book and television miniseries about the contract killing of his wife has died in prison. Robert Marshall, 75, was convicted in 1986 for conspiring to murder his wife, Maria, who was shot to death in 1984 at a isolated picnic area off…

Feb 24, 2015 12:10 PM CST

Ex-inmate sues Northwestern University and journalism prof, says they coerced a false confession

Seeking to free one Illinois inmate imprisoned in a high-profile double-murder case as his execution date loomed, did a Northwestern University journalism professor help coerce another man into making a false confession to the crimes? The answer to that question is yes, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in…

Feb 17, 2015 2:05 PM CST