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7/26/05 EU reminds Iran of moratorium on executions Tehran, July 26, IRNA- European Union on Tuesday expressed concern over reports of executions of two youths in Mashhad on July 19. EU said in statement faxed to IRNA by British Embassy in Tehran that one of the youths, Mahmoud Asgari, was aged under 18 at both the time of the crime and the execution. "The EU recalls its long held position that capital punishment may not, in any circumstances, be imposed on persons below 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the crime. Such punishment is in...

YORKTOWN, Va. -- Is Daryl Atkins mentally retarded? That question will be the sole focus of a trial set to begin this week, and the answer will determine whether he lives or dies. Atkins, 27, is the Virginia inmate whose case led the U.S. Supreme Court three years ago to bar execution of the mentally retarded as unconstitutionally cruel. Yet he has remained on death row for the 1996 robbery and murder of an Air Force enlisted man. While the high court's ruling protected the severely mentally retarded, it provided little guidance for the far greater number of inmates, like...

NASHVILLE - Have condemned inmates who've died because of lethal injection done so peacefully or has a drug that paralyzes the muscle system masked horrific side effects? States are grappling with that question in the latest wave of death row appeals. The Tennessee Supreme Court heard arguments about the drug Pavulon, or pancuronium bromide, in a death row case last month, and is expected to rule by September. In Kentucky, a similar issue is expected to reach the state Supreme Court soon. In Missouri, an inmate got a last-minute stay in May so the U.S. Supreme Court could review his...

TDCJ Alexander Martin: Evidence showed he slit the throat of  Helen Oliveros, had sex with her after she was dead and took about $150 from her. HUNTSVILLE — Condemned inmate Alexander Martinez figures death can't be worse than the life he now has on Texas death row. "You wonder what's past this," Martinez said recently from a small visiting cage at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice near Livingston. "I'm going to find out."Martinez, who would turn 29 next week, ordered all appeals stopped and is volunteering for lethal injection scheduled for Tuesday evening in Huntsville."I...

CHICAGO (AFP) - A death row inmate who was denied the chance to donate his liver to his ailing sister was put to death after the governor of Indiana rejected his last-minute clemency request. Gregory Scott Johnson, 40, died by lethal injection shortly after midnight (0500 GMT), said Indiana corrections spokeswoman Java Ahmed. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels said he denied the request on the advice of doctors who said Johnson was not a suitable donor because he is overweight and has Hepatitis B. Johnson was convicted in 1986 of beating an 82-year-old woman to death during a burglary and setting...

The lethal injection that peacefully dispatched Michael Ross did far more violence to New England's sense of self than to the serial killer. The region hadn't witnessed an execution in four decades. The sight of harsh Southern customs creeping into their blue-state bastion deeply unnerved many New Englanders. Twelve states currently do not have the death penalty. They are mostly in New England and the upper Midwest. Many others, including Connecticut, have it on the books but generally don't execute people. Capital punishment has become a major source of anti-U.S. feelings in Europe and elsewhere. But most Europeans don't understand...

The lethal injection that peacefully dispatched Michael Ross did far more violence to New England's sense of self than to the serial killer. The region hadn't witnessed an execution in four decades. The sight of harsh Southern customs creeping into their blue-state bastion deeply unnerved many New Englanders.

BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- A twice-convicted murderer who strangled a 9-year-old girl in St. Louis in 1986 was executed early Wednesday after a split vote by the U.S. Supreme Court. Vernon Brown, 51, was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center, nearly 2 1/2 hours after his execution was scheduled. The execution was delayed when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a temporary stay shortly after midnight. But on a 5-4 vote, the court later lifted that stay and denied the stay. Lawyers for Brown had argued that the drugs used in lethal...

SOMERS, Conn., May 12 - Demonstrators Thursday protested Connecticut's plans to execute a convicted serial killer early Friday morning, after two decades of legal efforts to prevent his death appeared to have failed and he declared his desire to die. Death penalty opponents held vigil outside the rural complex of state prisons where the killer, Michael Bruce Ross, was waiting for a warden to lead him to the execution chamber and an unidentified executioner was to administer a lethal injection into his arm at 2:01 a.m.. Mr. Ross, 45, had sought that fatal moment for nearly a year. In defiance...

(Somers-AP, May 12, 2005 Update 11:28 PM ) _ A serial killer who struggled to hasten his own death -- and was forced to prove he wasn't out of his mind -- awaited lethal injection early Friday in New England's first execution in 45 years. Michael Ross, 45, was scheduled to be put to death at 2:01 a.m. after fighting off attempts by public defenders, death penalty foes and his own family to save his life. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected two last-minute appeals from Ross' relatives late Thursday afternoon, and the U.S. Supreme...

Serial Killer Michael Ross Executed in Connecticut

Connecticut Carries Out Its First Execution in 45 Years By WILLIAM YARDLEY and STACEY STOWE SOMERS, Conn., May 13 - Connecticut carried out its first execution in 45 years early today, administering a lethal injection to Michael Bruce Ross, a convicted serial killer who abandoned his appeals and died willingly after 18 years on death row. About 300 death penalty opponents held vigil in the cold and dark outside the rural complex of state prisons where a warden led Mr. Ross to the execution chamber and an unidentified executioner began administering a lethal injection into his arm shortly after the...

(Somers-WTNH/AP, May 13, 2005 Updated 5:30 AM) _ A serial killer who fought to hasten his own execution and was forced to prove he wasn't out of his mind was put to death early Friday in New England's first execution in 45 years. Michael Ross, 45, died by injection at 2:25 a.m. after fighting off attempts by public defenders, death penalty foes and his own family to spare his life. "Today is a day no one truly looked forward to, but then no one looked forward to the brutal, heinous deaths of those eight young girls," Gov. M. Jodi Rell...

Capano's execution date delayed Another delay for the execution of Tom Capano. Superior Court Judge Henley Graves today stayed the June seventh execution date he set nearly two months ago. The stay will allow Capano's appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court to be considered. Capano was sentenced to death for the murder of Anne Marie Fahey in 1996. Prosecutors said Capano killed Fahey, the scheduling secretary for then-governor Tom Carper, because she was breaking off an affair with him. The Delaware Supreme Court is still also considering a motion by Capano's attorney, Joseph Bernstein, to appoint a lawyer to represent...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The killer of two women and a pair of young children was executed by injection early Friday after failed attempts by lawyers to reduce his sentence to life in prison. Earl Richmond Jr., 43, was pronounced dead at 2:19 a.m. at the state's Central Prison in Raleigh, said Pamela Walker, spokeswoman for the state Corrections Department. Richmond spent Thursday meeting with family members and his lawyers, Walker said. One of Richmond's attorneys, Jonathan Broun, said Richmond transformed himself in prison. Richmond had discovered religion and felt sorrow for his victims. "The old Earl Richmond that did these...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Relatives of those killed in Sgt. Hasan Akbar's grenade attack on his comrades said yesterday that he deserved a jury's death sentence, but experts in military law say it's hardly certain the execution will ever happen. The military hasn't executed one of its own since 1961, while states have put scores of civilian killers to death. Experts say the key difference in military justice is the role of the president, who, unlike a governor, must take an active role when a service member gets the ultimate punishment. ''It is unique to the military justice system that there...

HUNTSVILLE — Lonnie Wayne Pursley kept going to prison for longer and longer terms but also kept getting paroled thanks to a shortage of prison space in Texas in the 1990s.A jury in Polk County ensured he wouldn't get out again when they convicted him in 1999 of capital murder and sentenced him to death for the fatal beating and robbery of a 47-year-old East Texas man.Pursley, 43, was scheduled to receive lethal injection Tuesday evening. He would be the sixth Texas prisoner executed this year.The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to review his case. Attorneys trying to halt...

Gay blackmailer hanged in Iran 30/04/2005 13:36 - (SA) Tehran - An Iranian convicted of blackmailing his gay partners with videotapes of their sex acts has been hanged, reports said on Saturday. Hadi Safdari was executed in Bojnourd in the eastern province of South Khorasan, the Qods newspaper said citing the local judiciary. In Safadari's case, the death sentence appears to have been handed down for rape, as the blackmail was deemed to have removed any element of consent. But Iran's Islamic regime also imposes the death penalty for consensual "sodomy" where the offence is repeated and the convict is...

I got a few emails from some Christians after my last column, “A Time to Kill,” ran. They found my easiness with executing confessed and convicted child molesters, rapists and murderers to be offensive and un-Christ like. They stated that I showed a “lack of love” for these culprits whom Christ “cares for,” and that I should “err on the side of mercy” towards these marauders and “love my enemies,” as this would be “the Christian thing to do.” Yes, I was electronically told by this, merciful-to-the-molester-minority, who thinks they’re siding with God when they support sustaining killers who forcefully...

The military has not executed one of its own since 1961, while states have put scores of civilian killers to their deaths. Specialists say the key difference in military justice is the role of the president, who unlike a governor, must take an active role in signing off when a service member gets the ultimate punishment.