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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A condemned Ohio inmate who weighs at least 480 pounds wants his upcoming execution delayed, saying his weight could lead to a "torturous and lingering death." Ronald Post, who shot and killed a hotel clerk in northern Ohio almost 30 years ago, said his weight, vein access, scar tissue and other medical problems raise the likelihood his executioners would encounter severe problems. He's also so big that the execution gurney might not hold him, lawyers for Post said in federal court papers filed Friday. "Indeed, given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Tuesday evening execution of a Texas death row inmate whose lawyers say should be ineligible for the death penalty because of his low IQ.

A condemned killer's fight to receive surgery for agonizing hip pain pushed Kentucky officials into an uncomfortable debate over security, politics and even the possibility of inviting scorn from Fox News pundits. Emails and memos obtained by The Associated Press show corrections officials struggling for a year to reconcile their duty to provide medical care with the political ramifications of spending tens of thousands of dollars for surgery on a man they plan to execute. A key problem would turn out to be security issues that led several hospitals to balk at treating inmate Robert Foley, who still hasn't had...

In 2011, death row inmate Abdul Awkal sued an Ohio prison because he was receiving non-halal food while in prison. As a consequence, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction banned all pork products in prison. This year, prisoner James Rivers filed a lawsuit arguing that pork should not be outright banned. He reasoned that, should Muslims not want to eat pork, they had the right to, but that it was discriminatory to ban pork for everyone. Additionally, the prison did offer meals without pork products in them before the ban. To reinforce Rivers's lawsuit, prison authorities argued that the...

California is to hold a referendum on whether to abolish the death penalty and spare the lives of 723 death row inmates, nearly one quarter of all those facing execution in America. The vote will take place alongside political elections in November after more than 500,000 people in the state signed a petition asking for the issue to be added to the ballot. California is the state with the highest number of prisoners awaiting execution, and its San Quentin prison houses the largest death row facility in the US. Under the proposal being voted on, those currently sentenced to death...

A 53-year-old death row inmate died of natural causes Tuesday morning at San Quentin State Prison, according to prison authorities. Frank Manuel Abilez, who was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder and sodomy of his 68-year-old mother in Los Angeles County, was found unresponsive in his cell Tuesday morning, said Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Lt. Sam Robinson.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities in Tennessee say two men have been arrested, including a former prison guard, for a plot to break out Tennessee's lone female death row inmate, Christa Gail Pike. New Jersey State Police on Monday arrested 34-year-old Donald Kohut of Flemington, N.J., who has frequently visited Pike in prison, on a charge of bribery and conspiracy to commit escape.

<p>Jerry Brown came to the Chronicle editorial board where he made a compelling argument as to why two competing tax measures vying for the November ballot should be scrapped so that his measure can stand a better chance of passing. I used the occasion to ask Brown about the death penalty in California. Brown, a former Attorney General, said that there are no innocent inmates on California’s death row.</p>

Longtime readers know that I personally oppose the death penalty, and that mine is a minority opinion around here — and I’m comfortable with that. If I wasn’t, I might look for moral support from one of the most hopelessly liberal states in the country, my native state of California. Surely, if one state would have an electorate opposed to the death penalty, it would be the one who keeps cluelessly electing Democrats in a near-one-party government despite thundering towards fiscal and economic collapse. Right?Wrong: By 2:1, CA Voters Back Death Penalty: 61% of registered voters from the state of...

700 gather outside San Quentin for Occupy protest As many as 700 peaceful Occupy demonstrators gathered outside San Quentin State Prison this afternoon as part of a nationwide effort to call for prison reform. "It's been an amazing day," said Crystal Bybee, a spokeswoman for the local Occupy 4 Prisoners group. "We've had hundreds of people out here reading messages from prisoners and speaking out about issues that are important to us." Among the reforms protest organizers are calling for are elimination of solitary confinement, a ban on the death penalty and an end to California's "three-strikes" law. The protest...

The man who killed 9-year-old Matthew Cecchi of Oroville, California, in 1998, was found hanged in his cell on death row on Thursday. Since the state re-instituted capital punishment in 1978, 86 inmates have died — 54 of natural causes, 19 by suicide and 13 by actual execution. I am sure that someday the argument will be that death row is cruel and unusual punishment because it “drives” so many people to suicide. The murder of Matthew Cecchi led to the Matthew Cecchi Public Safety Act, which provides for family restrooms in parks in San Diego. Erika Lyn Smith explained...

Death-row inmates headed to their executions will no longer be able to pick what they’d like for their last meal. Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, issued this statement in response to concerns from Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire: “I believe Senator Whitmire’s concerns regarding the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their last meal are valid. Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made. They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit.” Here’s the original post about Whitmire’s concerns: Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman...

A chilling look inside the minds of female prisoners unfolds on Thursday with the première of the new TLC show, Prison Diaries. The first episode of the series focuses on Emilia Carr, one of just 63 women on death row in the U.S. Carr is seen in ankle chains and handcuffs, led by a burly, fully-armed female guard as she leaves her cell. She wears bright orange overalls and trainers, her long, dark hair allowed to fall around her hunched shoulders.

Humberto Leal Garcia was executed in Huntsville, Texas, Thursday after being convicted of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl in 1994. His death comes after failed attempts by his attorney as well as the Obama administration to delay his execution until the end of this year due to concerns of rights violations. According to the local newspaper, Huntsville Item, Garcia accepted responsibility for his crimes and appeared remorseful prior to his death. While he was lying “strapped to a gurney in the death house, he apologized for his actions and said he wanted Christ in his life.” “I’ve hurt a...

A bill that seeks to abolish California's death penalty advanced Thursday after its first legislative hearing with support from the author of the state's death penalty and a former warden who presided over executions. Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, said she introduced the bill because California can no longer afford a capital punishment system that is both expensive and ineffective as it battles persistent multibillion-dollar budget deficits. If eventually signed into law, the bill would put the question before voters in 2012. The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 5-2 along party lines in favor of SB490 after hearing testimony from Sacramento...

Texas is set to execute on Thursday Mexican national Humberto Leal Garcia for the rape and murder of a teenage girl, defying pleas by the Mexican government and President Barack Obama to delay it because his consular rights were violated

<p>The Obama administration is taking the unusual step of asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Texas from executing a Mexican citizen who was convicted and sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl.</p> <p>The administration is asking the court to delay the July 7 execution of Humberto Leal, 38, for as long as six months to give Congress time to consider legislation that would directly affect Leal's case.</p>

SOME 300 drug traffickers are on death row in Iran, the judiciary has announced, reflecting Tehran’s hard line on narcotics which has added to international concerns over its extensive use of capital punishment. "For 300 drug-related convicts, including those who were in possession of at least 30 grammes of heroin, execution verdicts have been issued," Sharq daily quoted Tehran prosecutor-general Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying yesterday. Although the list was long it did not contain any big-time traffickers or ringleaders, he said. All the convicts face death by hanging. Amnesty International says Iran is second only to China for the...

Mississippi is set to execute later on Tuesday a man convicted in 1999 of slaying four people, the first inmate in the state to be put to death using a new drug as part of the lethal injection. Benny Joe Stevens is scheduled to be executed shortly after 6 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. He will be executed using the drug pentobarbital, a sedative often used to euthanize animals, because of a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental. Several states have switched to pentobarbital because of the shortage.