Death Penalty

Ex-Jurist Should Lose Law License for a Year Over Close Relationship with Prosecutor, Judge Says

A Florida judge overseeing an unusual legal ethics case against a former state court jurist has recommended that Ana Gardiner lose her law license for a year over her conduct on the bench. A judicial ethics case against Gardiner over her alleged concealment of a clandestine relationship with a prosecutor…

Jan 9, 2013 8:20 PM CST

Alabama Death Row Inmate Loses Appeal Because of Mistake by Troubled Lawyer

Alabama death-row inmate Ronald Smith had the bad fortune to be represented by a troubled lawyer who failed to submit either a filing fee or a motion to waive the cost along with court papers for a collateral appeal. As a result of the error, Smith’s documents weren’t “properly filed’…

Jan 9, 2013 11:30 AM CST

AG Seeks Appellate Stay of Fed’l Order to Release Capital Murder Defendant Due to Va. Misconduct

As a Thursday deadline nears for the Virginia to release a defendant in a capital murder case because of prosecutorial misconduct, the state’s attorney general is seeking a federal appellate-court stay of a federal district judge’s order to let Justin Wolfe go. Although the two sides disagree about the parameters…

Jan 2, 2013 10:32 PM CST

January 31, 1945: Pvt. Eddie Slovik Executed

The last day of January 1945 was bitterly cold in the Vosges Mountains. A blinding storm had blanketed eastern France, and now the snow crunched beneath a 12-man squad of combat soldiers filing into position to shoot one of their own. Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik had been tried for desertion…

Jan 1, 2013 6:30 AM CST

Is Death Penalty ‘Marginalized and Meaningless’? Capital Sentences Remain Near Historic Low

The death penalty appears to be waning in popularity, according to a new report. Seventy-eight defendants were sentenced to death in 2012, the second lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the report (PDF) by the Death Penalty Information Center. The low point during that…

Dec 18, 2012 5:12 PM CST

Ohio Gov Avoids Obesity Execution Issue re 450-Pound Inmate, Grants Clemency on Another Basis

Sidestepping the issue of whether Ronald Post, at approximately 450 pounds, is too overweight to be humanely executed, Ohio’s chief executive has granted him clemency on another basis. Gov. John Kasich on Monday commuted Post’s death sentence to life without the possibility of parole, saying that this was appropriate, regardless…

Dec 17, 2012 10:55 PM CST

Victim’s Brother Shouts at Judge Who Overturns Three Death Sentences for Racial Bias

A North Carolina judge reduced three death sentences to life in prison on Thursday, spurring an outburst by a brother of one of the victims, a slain state trooper. Judge Gregory Weeks of Cumberland County cited racial bias in sentencing and voided the death sentences under the state’s revised Racial…

Dec 14, 2012 12:39 PM CST

Baby Sitter Wins New Trial in Infant’s Death After Experts Cite Advances in Science of Head Injury

New advances in the field of pediatric head injuries are being cited in a new trial grant for a Texas baby sitter who came close to execution for the 1994 death of a child in her care. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a new trial for Cathy Lynn…

Dec 7, 2012 12:15 PM CST

Accused Serial Killer Facing Potential Federal Death Sentence Found Dead in His Jail Cell

Israel Keyes, a confessed serial killer held in Alaska, was found in his jail cell over the weekend in an apparent suicide, Reuters reports. Anchorage law enforcement officials in a press conference said Keyes was found alone in his jail cell Sunday and that foul play was not suspected. They…

Dec 3, 2012 8:58 PM CST

Pause and Reflect: ABA’s Good Works Are Precious Gifts That Help Fulfill Our Core Missions

Defending the lawyer-client relationship; abolishing barriers and biases; giving voice to clients who cannot speak for themselves—in many ways, the American Bar Association delivers gifts like these to the legal profession every day. These gifts do not come tied with a bow. Yet they are critical for ABA members who…

Dec 1, 2012 10:50 AM CST

New Testimony from ‘I Did It. So What?’ Murderer, Who Tells Jury of Armed Robberies at Sentencing

A man who was convicted of capital murder after telling a California jury, “I did it. So what?” during his testimony at trial is doing himself further damage at sentencing. In what the San Francisco Chronicle describes as five self-destructive minutes Wednesday on the stand, 49-year-old Nathan Burris, who has…

Nov 15, 2012 5:45 PM CST

Double Whammy for ‘I Did It. So What?’ Defendant: Jury Convicts, Voters Didn’t Repeal Death Penalty

An unrepentant pro se defendant in a California capital murder case was, not surprisingly, convicted Wednesday following his testimony to a jury earlier this week that “I did it. So what?” But Nathan Burris, 49, also lost out on another possible chance to derail a potential death sentence when California…

Nov 7, 2012 11:23 PM CST

Eager to Watch Football Game, Murder Defendant Tells Jury ‘I Did It, So What?’

Eager to get back to jail and watch the Monday night football game, a pro se capital murder defendant tried to make it easy for a jury to convict him of two slayings. “I did it. So what?” Nathan Burris told the jury hearing his case in California’s Contra Costa…

Nov 6, 2012 10:52 PM CST

November 1, 1950: Truman Escapes Assassination

On Oct. 30, 1950, a group of armed insurgents attacked the Old San Juan residence of Luis Muñoz Marin, the first elected governor of Puerto Rico. The abortive assassination attempt was part of a bungled coup d’etat orchestrated by Pedro Albizu Campos, a Harvard-educated revolutionary whose Nationalist Party had for…

Nov 1, 2012 5:40 AM CDT

New Stay Granted for Inmate Claiming ‘Grandiose Delusion’ Bars His Execution

A federal appeals court granted a temporary stay of execution on Tuesday for a Florida inmate who believes he is the “prince of God.” The U.S. Supreme Court refused to vacate the stay delaying the execution of John Errol Ferguson by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, report…

Oct 24, 2012 12:17 PM CDT