Free Republic

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Gov. Mike Rounds today halted the execution of the state's first prison inmate in 59 years just hours before it was scheduled. Elijah Page, 24, had waived his appeals and asked to be executed for the torture slaying of a Spearfish man six years ago. A spokesman for the governor had said earlier that Rounds had no plans to intercede. But this afternoon Rounds delayed the execution and said he would talk about his decision at a news conference later in the day. Page rejected pleas from friends and death penalty opponents that he reconsider as...

Aug. 24, 2006, 6:50PMFuller executed for murder of Tyler manBy MICHAEL GRACZYKAssociated Press HUNTSVILLE — Condemned prisoner Justin Fuller quietly went to his death this evening for the abduction, robbery and fatal shooting of a Tyler man nine years ago.In a brief statement, Fuller thanked his family and friends for their support. ``Let everyone know that you must stay strong for each other,'' he said. ``Take care of yourselves.''He told the warden standing next to him, ``That's it.''As the lethal drugs began to take effect, he looked at his parents watching through a window a few feet away and...

(August 24, 2006)--Death row inmate Justin Fuller was executed just after 6 p.m. Thursday in the state’s death chamber in Huntsville for the 1997 robbery, abduction and fatal shooting of 21-year-old Donald Whittington, III of Tyler. Whittington's decomposing body was found at Lake Tyler four days after he was reported missing. Police say Whittington's ATM card was found in Fuller's wallet, and his watch was in Fuller's living room.

Human rights groups and concerned individuals worldwide are demanding an end to stoning executions in Iran – and right now are pressuring the head of the Islamic nation's judiciary to lift the death sentence against a 34-year-old mother of two young children. Malak Ghorbany was sentenced to death June 28 by a court in the Iranian city of Urmia after being found guilty of committing "adultery." Under Iran's strict Sharia law, women sentenced to execution by stoning have their hands bound behind their back. They are wrapped from head to toe in sheets before being seated in a pit. The...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A San Antonio man with a previous conviction for manslaughter was executed Thursday for the abduction, rape and fatal stabbing of a woman more than 12 years ago. Richard Hinojosa expressed love for his family and asked his victim's family to find peace in their heart. "I pray for you. Please find peace in your heart," he said looking at the parents, a brother and two aunts of his victim. "I know you may hate me for whatever reason. The Lord says hate no one. I hope you find peace in your heart. I know my words...

Death row inmate Samuel Flippen was executed early Friday for the beating death of his 2-year-old stepdaughter 12 years ago. Flippen was pronounced dead at 2:11 a.m., state Corrections Department spokesman Keith Acree said. Gov. Mike Easley denied a clemency request from Flippen's attorneys after state judges and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments to stop the execution.

(August 17, 2006)--A San Antonio man was executed just after 6 p.m. Thursday in Huntsville for the 1994 abduction, rape and fatal stabbing of a neighbor. Richard Hinojosa, 44, was condemned for the death of Terry Wright, who came upon the man burglarizing her home. Hinojosa’s lawyers said earlier in the day they had exhausted their appeals. Hinojosa denied killing Wright and contended that telling a jury of his previous manslaughter conviction turned the panel against him.

DEADWOOD, S.D. (AP) - This Old West town where Jack McCall killed gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok while he played poker in 1876 again figures in a capital punishment case in South Dakota, which may be facing its first execution in 59 years. McCall was hanged for shooting Hickok in Saloon No. 10. It was the first recorded execution in what would become South Dakota 12 years later. Now, Elijah Page wants to die. Page, 24, has asked to fire his lawyer, forgo appeals and die by lethal injection for his role in the March 13, 2000, slaying of 19-year-old Chester...

INDONESIA-POSTPONE Aug-11-2006 (410 words) xxxi Indonesia postpones executions of Catholics hours after papal appeal By Catholic News Service JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) -- Hours after an appeal by Pope Benedict XVI, Indonesian officials issued a last-minute stay of execution for three Catholics, but said they would be executed after Aug. 20. Gen. Sutanto, the national police chief, announced the stay late Aug. 11 for Fabianus Tibo, 60, Dominggus da Silva, 39, and Marinus Riwu, 48. The three were sentenced to death after being convicted in 2001 of murdering 200 Muslims in May-June 2000 in the Poso area, in Central Sulawesi. Christian-Muslim...

A man who said he worshipped Satan and enjoyed killing three people, stabbing and beating them and stomping on them with steel-toed boots, was executed Tuesday. Darrell Ferguson, 28, the youngest person put to death in Ohio since 1962, died by injection at 10:21 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. He had asked for the death penalty and chose not to pursue appeals, which could have delayed his execution for years. Ferguson was the second inmate executed using the state's new lethal injection protocol, adopted after an execution in May was delayed while prison staff struggled to find a...

A television documentary team has pieced together details surrounding the case of a 16-year-old girl, executed two years ago in Iran. Atefah Sahaaleh: wrongly described as being 22 years old On 15 August, 2004, Atefah Sahaaleh was hanged in a public square in the Iranian city of Neka.  Her death sentence was imposed for "crimes against chastity".  The state-run newspaper accused her of adultery and described her as 22 years old.  But she was not married - and she was just 16.Sharia LawIn terms of the number of people executed by the state in 2004, Iran is estimated to be...

THE Bali bombers responsible for killing 88 Australians could have less than three weeks to live. The three killers -- Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron -- will be shot at dawn on August 22, barring any 11th-hour appeals. Relatives of the men were told of the execution date last week. The evil trio will be taken from their cells on the island jail of Nusakambangan, off the south coast of Java, and driven to the nearby beach where they will be blindfolded and shot. Amrozi, 43, dubbed the smiling assassin, Samudra, 36, and Gufron, 46, also known...

HUNTSVILLE — Proclaiming his innocence, a former county jail officer described at his capital murder trial as a sexual sadist was put to death today for raping and smothering the 3-year-old son of his girlfriend. In a brief final statement, William Wyatt Jr. thanked relatives for their support. ``I went home to be with my father, and I went home as a trooper,'' he told them. Then he addressed his victim's father and grandmother, who watched through a window a few feet from him. ``I did not murder your son,'' Wyatt said. ``I did not do it. I just want...

(August 3, 2006)—William Wyatt, Jr. 41, was executed Thursday evening in Huntsville for the death of his girlfriend's three-year-old son, Damien Willis who was sexually assaulted and then smothered at his mother’s home in Texarkana in 1997. Wyatt admitted leaving the toddler alone in a bathtub, but said he was no capital murderer. Jurors in Bowie County found otherwise, relying on evidence and statements Wyatt made to authorities acknowledging the slaying. Attorneys for the former Bowie County jailer asked appeals courts to block the execution, arguing that Wyatt didn't testify at the punishment phase of his trial because he wrongly...

A television documentary team has pieced together details surrounding the case of a 16-year-old girl, executed two years ago in Iran. Atefah Sahaaleh: wrongly described as being 22 years old On 15 August, 2004, Atefah Sahaaleh was hanged in a public square in the Iranian city of Neka. Her death sentence was imposed for "crimes against chastity". The state-run newspaper accused her of adultery and described her as 22 years old. But she was not married - and she was just 16. Sharia Law In terms of the number of people executed by the state in 2004, Iran is estimated...

23 July 2006 EXCLUSIVE: HANGED FROM A CRANE AGED 16 EXCLUSIVE JUSTICE IRAN STYLE: SICK GIRL EXECUTED BY JUDGE SHE DEFIED Her crime? She had sex with an unmarried man By Susie Boniface IT WAS exactly 6am and the start of another blisteringly hot summer day when 16-year-old Atefeh Rajabi was dragged from her prison cell and taken to be executed. Every step of the way the troubled teenager plagued by mental problems shouted "repentance, repentance" as the militiamen marched her to the town's Railway Square. The Iranian judge who had sentenced Atefeh to death was left unmoved as he...

A convicted killer who chose the electric chair because he was apparently unnerved by the prospect of lethal injection awaited execution Thursday. Brandon Hedrick, 27, was set to become the first person executed in the electric chair in the United States in more than two years. He was condemned to die for the 1997 murder of 23-year-old Lisa Crider, who was abducted, robbed, raped and killed with a shotgun blast to the face. Virginia's Death Row inmates are given the option of dying by injection or electrocution. Three other Virginia inmates have opted for the electric chair over injection since...

Jarratt, Va. (AP) -- A man convicted of raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman was executed Thursday, becoming the first person in the United States to die in the electric chair in more than two years. Meanwhile, a child sex offender was executed in Texas for abducting and killing a 5-year-old girl. In Virginia, Brandon Hedrick, 27, was pronounced dead at the Greensville Correctional Center at 9:12 p.m. after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeals and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied his request for clemency. "I pray for the people that are unsaved," Hedrick said in his final words....

RICHMOND, Va. -- A killer scheduled to be electrocuted Thursday may have chosen to die in the electric chair because he feared lethal injection, his attorney said.

(July 20, 2006)--Texas prison carried out a second consecutive execution Thursday as Robert Anderson, 44, of Amarillo, was put to death for the 1992 abduction and slaying of five-year-old Audra Reeves. The girl lived with her mother in Florida, but had arrived in Amarillo days earlier to spend the summer with her father. After an unsuccessful rape attempt, the girl was beaten, stabbed and then drowned. Her body was found in a Styrofoam ice chest in a dumpster Anderson's history of sexual offenses involving children began as a teenager. He has asked that no additional appeals be filed on his...