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An illegal migrant was found guilty of “viciously” raping and murdering Maryland mother of five Rachel Morin — after the jury deliberated for less than an hour Monday afternoon, according to reports. Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping after Morin, 37, was killed along a trail about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore in August 2023. The guilty verdict came after less than an hour of deliberations, WBFF reported. Martinez-Hernandez could spend the rest of his life in prison, according to the station. Harford County State Attorney Alison Healey said she would...

When Joseph Grodin was a state Supreme Court justice 40 years ago, the court was a political lightning rod — at least for its rulings on criminal cases, particularly the death penalty. In 1986, Grodin, Cruz Reynoso and Chief Justice Rose Bird were voted out of office after a campaign that called on Californians to “cast three votes for the death penalty,” the only time justices have been denied new terms since the state began nonpartisan retention elections for justices on its highest courts in 1934. The court’s majority swung from liberal to conservative after the vote, drifted back to...

Columbia, South Carolina CNN — A convicted double murderer has been executed by firing squad – the first such execution in the United States since 2010, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections. The execution of Brad Sigmon, 67, by the South Carolina Department of Corrections on Friday is only the fourth firing squad execution in the US since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Sigmon chose firing squad over the two other state-approved methods of execution, lethal injection or the electric chair. He was pronounced dead by a physician at 6:08...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨General Mike Flynn Demands the DEATH PENALTY for Traitors inside the Federal Government who staged Treason against the President: 4:51 PM · Feb 26, 2025

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨Rep. Anna Paulina Luna Demands the DEATH PENALTY for US Intelligence Agents who Leak Classified information to Foreign Enemies: "If you leak classified info to a foreign adversary that is treason. Puts American lives in danger & potentially another war: Capital Punishment." 1:31 PM · Feb 25, 2025

Condemned South Carolina inmate Brad Sigmon has chosen to die next month by a firing squad, a method of execution that has not been used in the US in 15 years. Sigmon is scheduled to die on March 7. On Friday, he became the first South Carolina inmate to choose the state’s new firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair. Only three inmates in the country have been executed by firing squad since 1976. All were in Utah, with the last one taking place in 2010. Sigmon, 67, will be strapped to a chair and have a hood...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a sweeping execution order Monday on the death penalty that directs the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions. Trump’s order, coming just hours after he returned to the White House, compels the Justice Department to not only seek the death penalty in appropriate federal cases but also to help preserve capital punishment in states that have struggled to maintain adequate supplies of lethal injection drugs.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens. Before, during, and after the founding of the United States, our cities, States, and country have continuously relied upon capital punishment as the ultimate deterrent and only proper punishment for the vilest crimes. Our Founders knew well that only capital punishment can bring justice and restore order...

China on Monday (Jan 20) executed a man who killed 35 people in a car rampage in the southern city of Zhuhai in November, in the country's deadliest mass attack in years. On Nov 11, Fan Weiqiu, 62, deliberately drove a small SUV through crowds of people exercising outside a sports complex, also injuring 45 in China's worst such crime since 2014. He was sentenced to death last month, with a court saying his motives "were extremely vile, (and) the nature of the crime extremely egregious". State broadcaster CCTV said on Monday a Zhuhai court "executed Fan Weiqiu in accordance...

In a recent undercover revelation, Jamie Mannina, a Pentagon advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former FBI Special Agent, revealed strategies and covert meetings aimed at influencing public perception and undermining the presidency of Donald Trump. Mannina acknowledged collaborating with retired military leaders, including generals and admirals, to devise methods to counteract Trump’s administration. “I’ve been in conversation with a couple of retired generals to explore what we can do,” he admitted during the undercover conversation. These discussions reportedly occurred in high-security environments, including “The Tank,” a secure room within the Pentagon reserved for critical defense deliberations. Mannina...

NEW YORK CITY — Debrina Kawam, a 61-year-old resident of Toms River, New Jersey, was identified this week as the victim of a gruesome attack in which she was burned to death aboard an F train in Brooklyn on Dec. 22, police said. [cut] Toms River Mayor Dan Rodrick expressed outrage over the crime, calling for a reinstatement of the death penalty in New York and New Jersey. “The states of New York and New Jersey need to bring back the death penalty,” Rodrick said. “We should at least be able to have the death penalty for those who are...

Outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) wrote a scathing tweet about President Joe Biden after he granted clemency to 37 prisoners on federal death row who received life sentences without the potential for parole. He called it “horribly misguided and insulting,” especially regarding the two men convicted of murdering a student at Marshall University. The Democrat-turned-Independent said he felt a moral obligation to speak out against the outgoing president on behalf of the parents of Samantha Burns, a 19-year-old girl who was killed in November 2002. However, her remains were never found. Manchin said her family wrote letters to Biden pleading...

President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he would direct the Department of Justice to pursue the death penalty on the heels of President Biden commuting the sentence of roughly all inmates on federal death row to life without parole. “As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters,” he wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “We will be a Nation of Law and order again!”Mr. Biden announced Monday he’s stopping the execution of 37 men — all of whom were...

Horrific new photos show the gruesome scene inside a Brooklyn subway car where an illegal Guatemalan migrant allegedly set a sleeping woman on fire and then calmly watched her burn — later telling cops he had no memory of the savage killing. Surveillance images captured by MTA cameras in the F train car allegedly show Sebastian Zapeta-Calil standing in the mostly empty F train car, his hands in his hoodie pockets, as flames engulf the woman. The alleged victim, who was seated on the train at the time she was set ablaze, appeared to require a walker — the mobility...

"Those spared include child killers and mass murderers. . . .The Trump administration executed 13 people, but the federal government has not executed anyone under Biden. . . . Like quickly selling border wall parts for pennies on the dollar, commuting these murderers' sentences may be another way for Biden to hinder Trump’s agenda. , , ,The death penalty saves lives and can also be used to save tax dollars."

Victims' families and others affected by crimes that resulted in federal death row convictions shared a range of emotions on Monday, from relief to anger, after President Joe Biden commuted dozens of the sentences.SNIP Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner, Bryan Hurst, was killed by an inmate whose death sentence was commuted, said the execution of “the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace.” “The president has done what is right here,” Oliverio said in a statement also issued by the White House. But Hurst’s widow, Marissa Gibson, called...

Today's episode of CNN This Morning began its segment on Biden's commutation of the death sentences of 37 federal death row convicts with a clip of then-Senator Biden, in 1994, proclaiming "I'm a death penalty supporter," and bragging "I'm the guy who wrote this bill with my own little hands," a bill that added 50 federal death penalty-eligible crimes. I encourage people to watch Biden's display. Even death penalty supporters could cringe at his unseemly hubris. Fast-forward 30 years, and now Biden defenders are explaining his decision yesterday to commute the death sentences of 37 convicts on federal death row...

Fulks and Basham, murderers of Samantha Burns and Alice Donavan in 2002, have received clemancy from their death penalty, today. The families were notified via confference call with the DOJ ahead of public notice. Additionally, nearly 40 others on Federal death row have also recèived clemancy. This is a betrayal of the victims, their friends and families, but also America, because we all paid out of pocket for the apprehensions and trials of these animals. Their clemancies betray the judicial system and juries involved. The Judges don't make the death penalty decions on the Federal level; a jury of peers...

The state of Oklahoma executed on Thursday a man who admitted to sexually assaulting and killing a 10-year-old girl as part of a sick cannibalistic fantasy, despite his defense team trying to blame the horrific acts on autism and mental health issues. Kevin Ray Underwood, who turned 45 on the day he was put to death by lethal injection, became the nation’s final legal execution of 2024 for his 2006 crimes against little Jamie Rose Bolin, CBS News reported. Underwood, who was pronounced dead shortly after 10:00 a.m. local time at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, confessed to luring...

Pope Francis laments ‘ecological debt,’ repeats call for ‘elimination’ of death penaltyPope Francis highlighted the three themes of the eradication of debt, the death penalty, and world hunger during his message for the 2025 World Day of Peace.Issuing a message for the 2025 World Day of Peace, Pope Francis renewed calls for global peace, the tackling of climate change issues, and the “elimination” of the death penalty.Entitled “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace,” Francis’ message for the annual World Day of Peace – January 1, 2025 – focused on certain of his favored talking points, as well as...