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Texas carried out the 15th execution of the year just after 6 p.m. Thursday as convicted killer Luis Ramirez was given a lethal injection for his role in the 1998 shooting death of a San Angelo firefighter who had dated Ramirez’s ex-wife. Ramirez was sentenced to die for initiating the murder-for-hire plot that led to the death of firefighter Nemecio Nandin, 29. An accomplice, Edward Bell, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors described Ramirez as a jealous ex-husband so obsessed with his former wife that he paid $1,000 for help in a plot leading to Nandin's death....

Roane County District Attorney General Scott McCluen announced today he would seek the death penalty against captured fugitives George and Jennifer Hyatte. The Hyattes, who drew national attention during their flight following the shooting of a Tennessee prison guard, will be tried separately, McCluen said in a statement. A Roane County grand jury returned first-degree murder charges against both Hyattes in the shooting death of correction officer Charles "Cotton" Morgan. They also face attempted murder charges in connection with a subsequent gun battle with Morgan’s partner, correction officer Larry Harris. The grand jury also charged George Hyatte with escape and...

Iraqis are clamoring for the Butcher of Baghdad's head. In an exclusive interview on the eve of Saddam Hussein's trial, the country's prime minister told international journalist Daphne Barak executioners were lining up to administer justice. The tyrant could face the death penalty for mass murder. "That's not a problem," said Prime Minister Ibrahim alJaafari. "Many people already volunteered. Many people would love to do the job. This is a man who does not deserve any mercy." The prime minister revealed some details about how Saddam's trial will be carried out so the proceedings - and the defendant - will...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A man was executed Thursday for gunning down a Texas state trooper in 1992, a slaying his trial attorneys had argued was prompted by anti-police rap music. For his final statement, Ronald R. Howard looked at the trooper's widow, daughter and brother and said he hoped "this helps a little. I don't know how, but I hope it helps." Then he turned to friends and a brother who were among his witnesses, expressing love and thanking them for locating two of his young children, who visited him on death row within the past week. "Love you all....

Ronald Ray Howard, 32, received a lethal injection just after 6 p.m. Thursday in the state’s death chamber in Huntsville. Howard was sentenced to die for the death of a state trooper. Howard was 18 and driving with a broken headlight when Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Bill Davidson stopped him. The 19-year DPS veteran and married father of two was shot in the neck and died three days later. The shooting happened the night of April 11, 1992 on U.S. Highway 59 in Jackson County, between Edna and Victoria.

A MAN who impersonated a Communist Party official was among at least 26 people executed ahead of China's October 1 National Day holiday. China, which executes more people a year than the rest of the world combined, often puts to death a large number of convicted felons in the days ahead of National Day and other holidays. According to an announcement posted on the Beijing Intermediate People's Court website today, Cao Zhongwu was executed on September 13 for impersonating a Communist Party official and forging documents leading to some 7.03 million yuan ($1.14 million) in ill-gotten gains. "The case has...

A convicted killer in Ohio has just hours to live, and Hurricane Rita has prevented his adoptive parents from seeing him one last time. Herman Ashworth's parents live in southwestern Louisiana. A combination of a lack of electricity at their home and concerns about gasoline shortages and flooding prevented them from making a flight out of Baton Rouge Sunday. They'd earlier been scheduled to fly from Houston, but the airports were shut down by the storm. Ashworth, who said he deserves to die for beating to death and robbing 40-year-old Daniel Baker in an alley in 1996, designated no witnesses...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Frances Newton (search) was executed Wednesday for the fatal shootings of her husband and two children 18 years ago, becoming the third woman, and first black woman, to be put to death in the state since executions resumed in 1982

HUNTSVILLE -- A woman sentenced to die for the fatal shootings of her husband and their two children some 18-years ago was executed Wednesday evening. Frances Newton is the third woman and first black woman executed since Texas resumed capital punishment. Her execution is the 13th this year in Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution when justices rejected appeals that could have kept her from becoming the third woman executed in the state since the Civil War, and the first black woman. Without dissent, the high court declined a pair of appeals about an hour...

Newton didn't deny putting a gun in her 7-year-old son's knapsack and stashing the bag at an abandoned house. But she and her lawyers argued the .25-caliber blue steel revolver she hid was not the one used to fatally shoot her son, Alton; her 21-month-old daughter, Farrah; and her husband, Adrian, 23, at their Houston apartment. Newton all along insisted she was innocent, and the claim about the gun was among several in her appeal to the Supreme Court. She also contended her trial attorneys were incompetent and evidence at her trial improperly was destroyed. "I know I did not...

Frances Newton, condemned for the 1987 murder of her husband and two young children, was a step closer to execution Friday after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed her latest application for writ of habeas corpus, saying she had presented no new evidence to warrant a stay. In a petition filed Tuesday, Newton's Texas Innocence Network attorneys argued that two, possibly three, pistols were recovered the night that Adrian Newton, 23, and the couple's children, Alton, 7, and Farrah, 21 months, were shot to death at their Harris County apartment. If multiple weapons were seized as evidence, they contended,...

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - A man turned himself in to authorities in the killing of two convicted child rapists, saying he picked the victims from a sheriff's Web site, police said. Michael Anthony Mullen, 36, called 911 on Monday to claim responsibility for the killings, and officers who talked to him said he gave information that only the killer would know, according to a police news release. He was jailed for investigation of two counts of first-degree murder. Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68, were found shot to death at their apartment Aug. 27. They were both classified as Level...

53-year-old Carl Harrison has a history of brutally raping girls and women.Parole officers from the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice are warning the public about Carl Wayne Harrison, a predatory sex offender who has refused to report to his parole officer. Anyone with information about his location is urged to contact police immediately. Harrison has a history of brutally raping girls and women. He uses manipulation, threats and violence during the commission of his assaults and displays little remorse. His first conviction occurred in 1976 when he attacked a 14 year old girl in a bathroom in a Portland...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The bodies of 36 men were discovered Thursday southeast of Baghdad on a road leading to Iran, police said. The bodies were left on a road leading to Badrah, a town near the Iranian border, police Lt. Abbas al-Shammari said. An official said all but one of the men were wearing traditional Kurdish trousers. All had been shot in the head.

HUNTSVILLE - A Friendswood man who was 19 when he was arrested for fatally stabbing and beating a woman at her home, then robbing her and taking her car nearly 11 years ago was executed Tuesday. Robert Alan Shields, 30, was the 12th prisoner executed in Texas this year. A Galveston County jury condemned him for the killing of Paula Stiner, 27, who had been repeatedly stabbed with a knife from her own kitchen and beaten with a hammer when she was found by her husband as he returned home from work Sept. 21, 1994. The couple had lived at...

Robert Alan Shields, 30, was executed by lethal injection just after 6 p.m. Tuesday for the 1994 slaying of a woman who lived next door to his parents. Paula Stiner, 27, was stabbed and beaten to death in her home in the Houston suburb of Friendswood. Police said she was robbed and her car was stolen. Shields’ attorneys were seeking a stay of execution Tuesday, contending that the inmate was trying to defend himself from Stiner, who was stabbed and cut more than two-dozen times. The U.S. Supreme Court refused late Tuesday afternoon to block the execution.

President Jalal Talabani has paved the way for the first legal execution in Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein, the presidential office said Wednesday. The case involves three men sentenced to hang for murdering three policemen.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Saddam Hussein could be executed after his first trial if he is convicted and sentenced to death for his alleged role in a 1982 Shiite massacre, even though he faces other charges, an official close to the proceedings said Thursday. The first trial, which involves the deposed Iraqi ruler's alleged role in the 1982 massacre of an estimated 150 Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad, is expected to begin by the fall, said the official. He briefed reporters on condition that his name would not be used for reasons of security and the sensitivity of the...

Executions for the three Bali bombers could be imminent with their lawyers and justice officials expecting to receive letters from the Indonesian government authorising the carrying out of their death sentences. Adnan Wirawan, the lawyer for the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, as well as bombing mastermind Imam Samudra and financier Mukhlas, said he has heard that a letter has been sent to authorities in Bali, clearing the way for police to organise firing squads. "I have not yet seen it from the attorney-general, it's not here yet," he said. "But if it's really been issued, we will fight...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A former farm worker from central Texas was executed Wednesday for beating a man to death with a car jack during a violent spree 17 years ago. "I wish I could do something to replace your father, your loved one," Gary Sterling said as two daughters and three sons of his victim stood a few feet away. "But I can't. I know this was a heinous crime." Sterling, 38, was the 11th inmate executed by injection this year in Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment state. He was condemned for the May 1988 death of John...