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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has rejected pleas from Hollywood actors to spare the life of a man who chopped up four people with a hatchet. Such Tinseltown "experts" as Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo, Danny Glover, Mike Farrell, Richard Dreyfuss, Denzel Washington and Anjelica Huston, some of whom have actually graduated from high school, want murderer Kevin Cooper to be freed or to continue getting taxpayer-supplied room and board, as he has for the past 19 years. Oh, and Jesse Jackson, Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis and International Socialist Organization also want to spare him. Instead Cooper is scheduled to die for...

Prison Officials and Protesters Prepare for Cooper Execution Administrators at San Quentin State Prison are preparing for California's first execution in two years. Convicted murderer Kevin Cooper is scheduled to be executed just after midnight Tuesday. Even as officials went about restricting inmates and curbing visitation, Cooper's supporters were making last-ditch efforts to stay the execution until further evidence can be tested. The Rev. Jesse Jackson attended church at Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland and made a plea on Cooper's behalf. "We appeal to Gov. Schwarzenegger, to Attorney General Lockyer not to kill Kevin Cooper tomorrow night," said...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal court ruled on Friday that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, clearing the way for the execution next week of a man convicted of hacking four people to death. Kevin Cooper, 46, is due to be executed on Tuesday for using a hatchet and buck knife to kill two parents, their 10-year-old daughter and her friend in 1983. He says he is innocent. If the execution goes through it will be California's first in just over two years and the 11th since 1976. "There also appear to be questions concerning the...

Human Corpse Exhibit Stirs Outrage POSTED: 3:35 PM EST February 3, 2004 UPDATED: 5:58 PM EST February 3, 2004DALIAN, China -- Hidden in a maze of factories in the heart of this northeastern Chinese port city is the house Gunther von Hagens built -- and, for many, a place where nightmares are created.Inside von Hagens' sprawling, well-guarded compound, behind a leaning metal fence pocked with holes, are more than 800 human beings - 200 of his staffers and 645 dead bodies in steel cases from almost a dozen nations. The anatomist, whose exhibits of preserved human corpses have riled religious...

<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (search) denied clemency Friday to a man convicted of murdering a couple, their 10-year-old daughter and their daughter's friend with a buck knife and a hatchet.</p> <p>It was the first death penalty case for the new Republican governor and the decision cleared the way for Kevin Cooper's (search) execution, scheduled for Feb. 10.</p>

'Hang him': Judge: Noose or needle for killer Sampson By J.M. Lawrence Friday, January 30, 2004 A federal judge yesterday ordered killer Gary Lee Sampson to die by lethal injection ``or hanging'' in New Hampshire where families of three men he murdered can more easily watch his execution for ``despicable, inexplicable and inexcusable crimes.'' ``If anyone deserves the death penalty, you do,'' U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf told Sampson, 44, proclaiming a New England death sentence as appropriate ``retribution'' for Sampson's six-day killing spree in 2001. Rejecting the government's plan to execute Sampson in Terre Haute, Ind., the judge...

<p>A death row inmate confessed to over a dozen killings just before he was executed Wednesday night, about a month after his punishment was postponed while courts considered an appeal.</p> <p>After he was strapped to the death chamber gurney, Billy Frank Vickers, 58, admitted for the first time that he shot grocery store owner Phillip Kinslow during a botched robbery in 1993. He was being executed for that crime.</p>

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A death row inmate confessed to over a dozen killings just before he was executed Wednesday night, about a month after his punishment was postponed while courts considered an appeal. After he was strapped to the death chamber gurney, Billy Frank Vickers, 58, admitted for the first time that he shot grocery store owner Phillip Kinslow during a botched robbery in 1993. He was being executed for that crime. "It was nothing personal, I was just trying to make a living," Vickers said. Vickers also took credit Wednesday for more than a dozen other killings. He...

Inmate who won delay awaits 2nd date with executioner08:15 PM CST on Tuesday, January 27, 2004Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas – For the second time in about seven weeks, condemned prisoner Billy Frank Vickers is racing the clock. Mr. Vickers, 58, was set to return to the Texas death house today to await lethal injection for the slaying of a Lamar County grocery store owner. Mr. Vickers spent about 10 hours in a holding cell outside the death chamber Dec. 9 while the courts considered an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the lethal drug combination used in executions. When the 5th...

State Rep. Sheryl Allen has been waiting for this -- for seven years.     A convincing majority of Utah House members voted Monday for Allen's legislation to eliminate the firing squad as an execution option for condemned killers.     The Bountiful Republican tried to pursuade her colleagues to do away with the choice in 1996 after convicted murderer John Albert Taylor's request for a firing squad death created an international media frenzy. But Allen eventually dropped the bill for lack of support.     This year, spurred on by three more death-row inmates' requests for a firing squad, Allen tried again....

<p>Five times this month, the vote of one Supreme Court justice would have stopped the execution of a convicted killer who claimed it was unconstitutionally cruel to use chemicals to carry out a death sentence.</p> <p>The executions went forward, even though four of the nine high court justices wanted to grant at least a temporary reprieve. The 5-4 votes, all announced without comment by any of the justices, are the latest illustration of the deep rift on the court over capital punishment.</p>

<p>BOMBAY — Starving North Koreans have been publicly executed for stealing food and have died of malnutrition in labor camps, Amnesty International said in a report released yesterday.</p> <p>The human rights group urged the North Korean government to "ensure that food shortages are not used as a tool to persecute perceived political opponents."</p>

Inmate set to die after brief reprieve02:57 PM CST on Tuesday, January 20, 2004Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Condemned inmate Kevin Lee Zimmerman was annoyed last month after receiving a reprieve that spared his life about 20 minutes before he could have been executed. His disappointment may be short-lived. Zimmerman, 42, now is scheduled to die Wednesday night for a fatal stabbing and robbery at a Beaumont motel some 16 years ago. "I was ready to go," he told prison officials Dec. 10 after getting word of the postponement. "The stay only means 18 more months of this crap." But...

<p>BAGHDAD -- Shi'ite Muslims marched through Baghdad for a second day yesterday, this time demanding the execution of Saddam Hussein -- whose Sunni-dominated regime repressed the Shi'ite majority for decades.</p> <p>An estimated 5,000 people joined the march that wound its way from Sadr City, a poor Shi'ite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, to Firdous Square, the plaza in the center of the capital where Saddam's statue was pulled down April 9, marking the ouster of the Ba'athist regime.</p>

<p>BOMBAY -- Starving North Koreans have been publicly executed for stealing food and have died of malnutrition in labor camps, Amnesty International said in a report released yesterday.</p> <p>The human rights group urged the North Korean government to "ensure that food shortages are not used as a tool to persecute perceived political opponents."</p>

This is not a pleasant video, so be forewarned. It shows two prisoners... hands bound behind their backs... blindfolded... placed on the ground inside a 3-walled dirt berm... and executed - blown up - apparently by grenades. Oh, and there's also a group of people who applaud at the beginning of the video. If anyone can translate the narration, please do. I can only make out "Saddam Hussein" in part of it. LAST WARNING: Disturbing Video:Video of Blindfolded Prisoners Being Blown Up

Ohio (AP)--A federal appeals' court vote denying a convicted killer's request to delay his execution was illegal because two judges improperly participated in the vote, a federal judge who wrote a dissenting opinion said. Judge Eric Clay of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the delay would have been granted if not for the two senior judges' votes. He did not specify the tally of the 12-judge vote. Federal law allows senior judges to participate in a vote by the full court only if they participated in the initial panel ruling on the same case, he said. The...

Ohio Man Executed for 1983 Fatal Robbery By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS ASSOCIATED PRESS LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) - A murderer whose claims of mental retardation were rejected by the courts was executed Wednesday after struggling with guards and pleading for his life until the last moment. Lewis Williams, 45, was put to death by injection for fatally shooting a 76-year-old woman during a robbery at her Cleveland home in 1983. Four guards were needed to lift the 117-pound Williams from his knees and pry his hand off the edge of a table before carrying him into the death chamber. As he was...

HUNTSVILLE -- A former pizza delivery driver was executed today for the 1990 shooting death of a woman after robbing her and her husband of some inexpensive jewelry and less than $10. Kenneth Eugene Bruce first addressed the family of his victim, Helen Ayers, and then spoke to his family. "And to the family of Ms. Ayers, I would like to apologize for all the pain and suffering and that God give you closure," And I pray that he blesses you," he said. Turning to his family, Bruce told them he loved them. "I may not be with you in...

Ex-pizza delivery man set to die03:03 PM CST on Tuesday, January 13, 2004Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - It was two weeks before Christmas and the holiday lights were glowing outside the rural home of Richard and Helen Ayers when two young men knocked on the door. Their car stalled and they needed jumper cables, the men told the couple in the house near Prosper, about 30 miles north of Dallas in Collin County. After Richard Ayers invited the pair inside to keep warm, two more young men barged into the house, armed with guns. Ayers was ordered to turn over...