Free Republic

A New York federal judge on Friday dismissed murder and weapons charges against alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, a major blow to prosecutors that means Mangione no longer faces a possible death penalty if convicted. Mangione, 27, previously pleaded not guilty to murder, weapons and stalking charges for allegedly gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in Midtown Manhattan in 2024. Public officials condemned the shocking killing, but Mangione became a folk hero of sorts to some Americans who decry steep healthcare costs and insurance practices. U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett in Manhattan said she dismissed the murder and...

Luigi Mangione won’t face the death penalty for allegedly executing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, a judge ruled Friday — dealing an embarrassing blow to the Justice Department. The 27-year-old still faces the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted of executing health care honcho Brian Thompson in a December 2024 targeted hit on a Manhattan sidewalk. But Manhattan federal Judge Margaret Garnett threw out the charges against Mangione that could have led to a rare death penalty trial in New York. The jurist found that the death penalty-eligible parts of the case, brought by the US Attorney’s Office for the...

A Cuban citizen faces a felony charge after federal officials say he rammed his vehicle into two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles in San Antonio on Tuesday, injuring an ICE officer.Robyn Argote Brooks was being detained by ICE officers when he "weaponized his vehicle against federal law enforcement officials and rammed two ICE vehicles with his car," according to a Thursday news release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.Argote Brooks was arrested on a charge of destruction of government property, according to a federal criminal complaint. The complaint alleges he caused nearly $5,000 in damage to one of...

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a career criminal who stabbed a woman more than 40 times in an unprovoked attack in a Dollar General parking lot. 54-year-old Lemar Beasley stabbed Cheyenne Kastens, 36, in the parking lot of a Fruitland Park, Florida, Dollar General last month.

Last month’s mass shooting at a child’s birthday party in Stockton that left four people dead, 13 injured and more than 150 guests at the targeted event likely severely traumatized, should have been a rallying moment for California’s political leaders. In addition to calling for more gun control, elected leaders could have doubled down on support for crime victims — specifically by improving access to emergency financial assistance and trauma recovery services, as well as violence intervention programs. Available data shows these investment strategies to be effective in lowering crime rates.

A Washington woman angry with pro-life protesters outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility struck one of them with her SUV after an argument, authorities said. Sierra D. Godfrey, 32, of Richland, is accused of swerving toward two men standing near the exit of the Bonnie Avenue abortion facility on December 1 with the intent to scare them. Instead, she hit one in the leg and hip, knocking him down before fleeing the scene. Godfrey, who allegedly admitted to police that she hit the protester and drove away, was arrested December 15 and booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion...

Meanwhile, in the Democrat hellhole of Seattle… A 75-year-old woman lost her eye after she was brutally attacked by a serial assaulter who has a history of punching and stabbing people. 42-year-old Fale Vaigalepa Pea hit Jeanette Marken in the face with a wooden club with a screw through the end of the plank as she was standing on a street corner in downtown Seattle after picking up a food order earlier this month. Close up photo of wooden board with screw in Seattle attack / screen image police bodycam Surveillance footage shows Pea approached Marken and swung the wooden...

A cold-blooded serial killer who slaughtered five people was executed by lethal injection Thursday night in Florida — becoming the Sunshine State’s 19th death row inmate to die this year. Frank Athen Walls, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after being injected with a three-drug cocktail while strapped to a gurney as a Catholic priest prayed by his feet inside the death chamber at Florida State Prison in Raiford. For his last words, the convicted killer apologized for the pain he’s caused his victims’ families.

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – A Seminole County judge on Friday sentenced a man to death after he was convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend when she refused to get an abortion. After roughly two hours of jury deliberation, a jury in October found Donovan Faison guilty of first-degree murder and killing an unborn child. The penalty phase began days later and ended with an 11-1 vote by the jury recommending the death penalty. The case stems from the November 2022 shooting death of Kaylin Fiengo, who was found shot in her car at Coastline Park in Sanford. Fiengo was 18...

Prosecutors announced they will be seeking the death penalty for a Pennsylvania man accused of raping and killing his 2-year-old son in August. The McKean County District Attorney’s Office announced the filing on Monday against 33-year-old Tyler Prescott of Bradford, citing four reasons that support the commonwealth’s first execution this century. That sentence, however, would hinge on Prescott being convicted of first-degree murder, which is the only crime that can be punished by death according to PA law, but also comes with an alternative sentence of life in prison. McKean County DA Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer said the Commonwealth will list the...

President Donald Trump on social media has pointed out that the penalty for the refusal of military troops to obey orders is serious. Punishment up to and including execution. The response from the president came after a list of Democrats made a video urging federal employees, including members of the military, to refuse to obey what they called, without a definition, "illegal" orders. Presumably that would be orders from the president, as commander-in-chief of the military, with which the Democrats disagreed, most likely for political purposes. Leftist California Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed it was a call by Trump to "hang...

A bill proposing the death penalty for “terrorists” passed a first reading in Israel’s parliament on Monday – a measure that could apply to Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis. The amendment to the penal code, demanded by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and approved by the National Security Committee, was approved by 39 votes to 16. It must pass a second and third reading before becoming law. The vote went ahead amid a tense truce with Hamas in the Gaza war that had raged since October 7, 2023. While the death penalty exists for a small...

The Knesset’s National Security Committee, chaired by MK Tzvika Foghel, on Monday approved for a first reading the "Death Penalty for Terrorists" bill. The bill stipulates that “a terrorist who murders an Israeli citizen out of racism or hostility toward a public, with the intent to harm the State of Israel or the revival of the Jewish people in its homeland, shall be sentenced to death, and to this punishment alone.” Additionally, the proposal amends the law so that a death sentence could be imposed by a military court with a simple majority of judges, rather than a unanimous decision....

In a major milestone for the Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) administration, the state of Florida has carried out its 15th execution of 2025, a record under Gov. Ron DeSantis that shows the state’s renewed vigor in dealing with the worst sorts of crimes, such as those committed by the individual who was put to death in this case. That individual was Norman Mearle Grim Jr., a 65-year-old who was convicted of the 1998 sexual assault and slaying of his neighbor, Cynthia Campbell. According to media reports of the execution, Grim was pronounced dead at 6:14 pm on Tuesday, October 28,...

Luigi Mangione was roughed up by a group of transgender women during a wild night out in Thailand in the months before he allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a new report claims. The 27-year-old accused assassin allegedly bragged to friends over WhatsApp about his raucous nightlife backpacking through Asia before he returned to the US in July 2024 and allegedly shot Thompson that December, the New York Times reported Tuesday. In one eyebrow-raising message, Mangione claimed he had been beaten up by seven “ladyboys” — a colloquial term for transgender women — in Bangkok and shared a photo...

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is defending his pro-life beliefs this week after he denied clemency to a convicted murderer and is facing criticism from activists who oppose the death penalty. Kehoe, a Republican, rejected last-minute appeals to halt the execution of Lance Shockley, who was convicted of killing Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in 2005. Shockley was executed by lethal injection Oct. 14 in Bonne Terre, Missouri, marking the first execution since Kehoe took office as governor, Missouri news station First Alert 4 reported. “The murder of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Carl DeWayne Graham, Jr.,...

FLORENCE, Ariz. — The State of Arizona executed Richard Djerf by lethal injection on Friday at Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence.When asked if he had any last words, Djerf said he "did not."Witnesses to the execution said the inmate officially died at about 10:40 a.m. after some time was spent struggling to find a vein on Djerf's arm to insert a needle.The death penalty comes roughly 30 years after he admitted to killing four members of a Phoenix family.Court records show Djerf committed the murders for retribution of a "petty theft" of Albert Luna Jr., whose parents and two siblings were...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo and the Death Penalty CharadePopes since John Paul II have created the impression in the minds of many Catholics—and many outside the Catholic Church—that the Church believes the death penalty to be intrinsically immoral.The pontificate of Leo XIV has just passed its first real milestone: its first media controversy. The recent friction over Pope Leo’s comments concerning the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago and his plans to award Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois an honor for his efforts on behalf of immigrants, despite supporting abortion throughout his career, probably mark the end of a “honeymoon” period for...

... “Early this morning, the execution of Roy Lee Ward was carried out, delivering accountability for the brutal rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne on April 16, 2001,” said Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita in an an early Friday statement. “Following his 2007 conviction and death sentence, Ward’s case was thoroughly reviewed, culminating in the Indiana Supreme Court setting his execution date and Governor Mike Braun rejecting his request for clemency.” ...

On October 14, 2025, Missouri is set to execute Lance Shockley by lethal injection. The circumstantial evidence is compelling, but comprehensive DNA testing wasn’t done—and the courts have decided that it never will be. In 2005, Sergeant Carl Graham was investigating Shockley's role in a fatal drunk driving accident. Graham was killed by a rifle shot. Shockley (28) was charged with the murder. There were no eyewitness or physical evidence—no DNA, fingerprints, blood or murder weapon. Shockley's trial started on March 20, 2009. The jury found him guilty but deadlocked on the penalty—life or death. The trial judge sentenced him...