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Alabama on Thursday halted the execution of an inmate who had argued that his veins were too damaged for lethal injection, because medical staff did not think they could connect the intravenous line by the time the death warrant expired at midnight. Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said the prison system halted Doyle Lee Hamm's execution around 11:30 p.m. "out of an abundance of caution" after medical staff said they did not think they could obtain "the appropriate venous access" before midnight. "It was a time issue," Dunn said. "I wouldn't necessarily characterize what we had tonight as a problem....

A federal judge has stayed the lethal injection of an Alabama inmate in order to have an independent medical expert review his claims that he is too sick to be executed. [Snip] A lawyer for Doyle Lee Hamm has argued that lethal injection would be unconstitutionally cruel because lymphoma and hepatitis C have compromised Hamm's veins. His lawyer also argued it would be inhumane to execute someone battling cancer. [Snip] Hamm was scheduled to be executed Feb. 22 for the 1987 murder of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham.

A man who became known as Houston's "Tourniquet Killer" because of his signature murder technique on four female victims more than two decades ago is set to become the nation's first prisoner executed in 2018.

A condemned murderer who was one of just 16 inmates on California’s Death Row to have exhausted his appeals died of unknown causes, prison officials have announced. San Quentin officials are investigating the death of Fernando Belmontes, 56, but say there was no obvious cause. More details about his death earlier this month have not been released. Belmontes was one of 16 condemned inmates — out of California’s nearly 750 — who had exhausted his appeals. As such, he was considered a top priority for execution. Belmontes was sentenced to die at 20 years old, a year after he murdered...

SAN QUENTIN — A condemned murderer who was one of just 16 inmates on California’s Death Row to have exhausted his appeals died of unknown causes, prison officials announced this week. San Quentin officials are investigating the death of Fernando Belmontes, 56, but say there was no obvious cause. More details about his death have not been released. Belmontes was one of 16 condemned inmates — out of California’s nearly 750 — who had exhausted his appeals. As such, he was considered a top priority for execution. Belmontes was sentenced to die at 20 years old, a year after he...

J.W. Ledford, who is schueduled to be executed Tuesday, has asked for a high-calorie last meal with three kinds of meat. The Department of Corrections on Thursday released Ledford’s requested menu: filet mignon wrapped in bacon with pepper Jack cheese, large French fries, 10 chicken tenders with sauce, fried pork chop, bloomin’ onion, pecan pie with vanilla ice cream, sherbert and Sprite. Ledford has filed a petition for clemency and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles will hear from his lawyers and advocates on Monday. He also has a complaint pending in federal court in Atlanta, saying a death...

Full title................... The U.S. Supreme Court is refusing to block the first of two scheduled Arkansas lethal injections in one night............

Almost two years after Texas tried to import an execution drug from overseas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled Thursday that the drug can’t be admitted into the United States. In July 2015, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice tried to import 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic that the state has previously used in executions, but the FDA seized the drugs at a Houston airport and has held them ever since. The federal agency has maintained that the import of the drug is illegal because it is not currently approved in the U.S. In a statement, the...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The latest ruling from the 8th Circuit Court has postponed Lee's execution -- originally scheduled for 7 p.m. -- to 8:15 p.m. There are no other legal barriers at this time hindering his execution from moving forward. Thursday afternoon, the Arkansas Supreme Court denied Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's request for reconsideration on the stay that was granted for Stacey Johnson. Johnson's stay will not be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, meaning his scheduled execution will not happen.

(CNN)Six Arkansas death row inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection this month in Arkansas have -- as expected -- asked the Supreme Court to reverse a federal appeals court order and uphold a district court's injunction that temporarily stopped the executions.The district court found that the inmates were likely to show that the lethal injection drug protocol "entails a substantial risk of harm."

After barring Arkansas from executing eight inmates in rapid succession because of a dispute over how it obtained one of its execution drugs, Judge Wendell Griffen went to an anti-death penalty rally, where he made a stir by lying down on a cot and binding himself as though he were a condemned man on a gurney. Griffen's participation in Friday's protest outside the governor's mansion sparked outrage among death penalty supporters, including Republican lawmakers who described it as judicial misconduct and potential grounds for Griffen's removal from the bench.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Arkansas intends to execute seven death row inmates between Monday and April 27, a pace never seen since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976. Gov. Asa Hutchinson initially set four double-executions so the state could use a key execution drug before its April 30 expiration date, but a federal judge stayed one execution, saying prisoner Jason McGehee was entitled to a 30-day comment period following a clemency recommendation. Another federal judge is considering the men's request for stays of execution.A look at the seven men who are scheduled to die and...

The state of Arkansas plans to put to death eight inmates over a span of 10 days next month, a pace of executions unequaled in recent American history and brought about by a looming expiration date for a drug used by the state for lethal injections. The eight men facing execution — four black and four white — are among 34 death row inmates in Arkansas, where capital punishment has been suspended since 2005 over legal challenges and difficulty in acquiring the drugs for lethal injections. All eight men were convicted of murders that occurred between 1989 and 1999, and...

Facing overwhelming evidence against him and a possible death penalty, Esteban Santiago's legal team has only two realistic options, experts say: Try to make a swift plea agreement or pursue an insanity defense. Neither of those choices is a sure thing,.... Santiago, 26, is accused of fatally shooting five people and injuring six others last week at the international airport in Fort Lauderdale. -snip- "But you're not defending against guilt in these types of cases, you're defending against the punishment. ... -snip- Federal prosecutors rarely seek a death sentence and even more rarely persuade jurors that execution is appropriate. The...

Serial killer Charles Manson back in prison after doctors determine he is TOO WEAK for surgery after suffering from intestinal bleeding US mass murderer Charles Manson is now back in prison after he was found to be too weak to undergo surgery after suffering from intestinal bleeding, media reports said on Friday. The 82-year-old, who is serving nine life sentences for the 1969 grisly killing of seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, was reportedly transported from California's Corcoran state prison to a hospital in Bakersfield on Sunday. The celebrity gossip website TMZ said Manson was supposed to undergo surgery...

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has added New York’s top federal public defender to his legal team as he appeals his death sentence, filings show. A judge approved David Patton, the head of New York’s influential federal public defenders office, to represent Tsarnaev, 23, on Friday.

A Virginia inmate asked a federal court Wednesday to block the state's plans to execute him next month with lethal injection drugs from a secret compounding pharmacy, suggesting even a firing squad would be more humane. Attorneys for Ricky Gray said in a federal complaint that there is a serious risk that Virginia will "chemically torture" the man to death when it uses compounded drugs for his execution scheduled for Jan. 18. Although firing squads aren't permitted under Virginia law, his attorneys argue even that method would be a more humane alternative. "It is both more humane, quicker, more effective,...

A notorious killer on San Quentin’s death row died after being found unconscious in his cell early Thursday, prison officials said. The Marin County coroner will now work to determine how 55-year-old Gilbert Rubio died after correctional officers found him unresponsive during a security check just after 6 a.m. Rubio was sentenced to die on Sept. 20, 2000 for the 1998 murder and robbery of high school vice principal George “Skipper” Blackwell in his Long Beach home.

As summer approaches in Louisiana, prison officials insist that ice, fans and cold showers are enough to protect death-row inmates from dangerous heat and humidity. […] U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson questioned Friday why prison officials won’t spend roughly $1 million to install the air conditioning, since the state has already spent much more money fighting this issue in court. The judge already ruled it unconstitutional to keep inmates where the heat index exceeds 88 degrees. …