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Two San Quentin Prison death row inmates died Friday from what appear to be complications related to the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. There have been at least three death row inmates at the prison who have died of the virus since June 24. Scott Thomas Erskine, 57, had been on California's death row since 2004, and Manuel Machado Alvarez, 59, had been on death row since 1989, both died on July 3, 2020, at outside hospitals. A third death row inmate at San Quentin, Richard Stitely, 71, died June 24...

Japan has opened its execution chamber to the public for the first time in a move designed to inspire discussion over whether the country should scrap death penalty. TV footage from inside the Tokyo Detention House showed the trap door, the viewing room and rooms where the inmate can meet a cleric, with a Buddhist altar and a Buddha statue. The noose was not shown. Footage also showed the "button room", where three prison officers press a button at the same time to open the trap door, so it is not clear which button opened the door. Japan and the...

HUNTSVILLE — A street gang member convicted of fatally shooting an Amarillo couple during a botched beer theft at their grocery store more than a dozen years ago was executed this evening. Ryan Dickson, 30, spoke rapidly when asked if he had anything to say, expressing love to his family and apologizing to the relatives of his victims. No witnesses from his family or the victims' family attended the execution. "I am sorry for what I did, and I take responsibility for what I did," said Dickson, the 13th prisoner to be executed this year in the nation's busiest capital...

LIVINGSTON, Texas -- Every day, Norma LaHood and her husband pass the spot where 10 years ago their son was gunned down. It's the driveway outside their San Antonio home. "It was our choice," LaHood says of the couple's decision to continue living at their home following their 25-year-old son's death. "My husband said they will not chase me out of my home. My son loved his home."

In 1992, before delivering the Supreme Court's ruling in an abortion case, Justice Anthony Kennedy stood with a journalist observing rival groups of demonstrators and mused: "Sometimes you don't know if you're Caesar about to cross the Rubicon or Captain Queeg cutting your own tow line." Or perhaps you are a would-be legislator, a dilettante sociologist and a free-lance moralist, disguised as a judge. Last Tuesday Kennedy played those three roles when, in yet another 5-4 decision, the court declared it unconstitutional to execute people who committed murder when they were under 18 years old. Such executions, it said, violate...

Deseret Morning News, Wednesday, August 11, 2004 Prison time really up to parole board Sentencing guidelines are only a suggestionBy Linda Thomson and Amy Joi BrysonDeseret Morning News TV commentators on the Fox News Network were reeling Monday night, apparently shocked by the "leniency" of Utah's homicide laws. One demanded to know why Mark Hacking hadn't been charged with capital murder in the apparent death of his wife, Lori, and suggested the first-degree homicide charge against Hacking might be referred to as "misdemeanor murder." Deseret Morning News graphic Also debated was the 5-years-to-life sentence a first-degree felony charge carries...

Source: Peterson jury foreman wanted to be taken off panel REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Court TV) — The foreman dismissed from the jury deliberating murder charges against Scott Peterson Wednesday asked to be removed from the panel, a source close to the case told Court TV anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. "This juror wanted off the case," Guilfoyle Newsom reported Thursday. The panelist, identified as Gregory Jackson, 46, quit the jury after his fellow jurors said they wanted another panelist to lead them, the source told Guilfoyle Newsom. "He was removed as the foreperson and then decided he wanted off the case,"...

NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - Michael Legrand, a death row inmate in Louisiana who was born in the United States and adopted by a Frenchman, has succeeded in having his French nationality recognized, a diplomat said. "As the decision in France has been made to recognize the adoption of Michael Legrand by his father, Paul Legrand, the consulate is providing Michael Legrand, in coordination with his lawyer, consular protection," said Eric Bayer, vice consul of the French Consulate in New Orleans. Bayer said consular involvement could include ensuring that the trial is conducted according to due process rules...