Free Republic

<p>If Paul Hill dies by lethal injection Wednesday in Florida as scheduled, many will debate what led to the first abortion violence-related execution in the United States.</p> <p>They'll take measure of Hill's passionate, intractable beliefs. His days of showing up outside abortion clinics. His appearances on national television to defend the shooting of abortion doctors as "justifiable homicide." His saying that God told him to kill a doctor outside that Pensacola abortion clinic in 1994.</p>

Barring the unlikely possibility of a stay, a Presbyterian minister who gunned down an abortion doctor will next week become the first American executed for anti-abortion violence. To a loyal core of admirers, Paul Hill is a martyr-to-be whose actions were justified by the Bible. To others, on both sides of the abortion debate, he is a zealot undeserving of respect or pity. "In a very significant way, it's a sad day," said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "It's sad that people like Paul Hill would murder in the name of life." Hill, a 49-year-old...

Man who killed 3 wins execution stayAttorneys argued that jurors didn't weigh his troubled past10:23 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 20, 2003By TERRI LANGFORD / The Dallas Morning News A convicted killer won a stay of execution Tuesday, the day before he was to be put to death for the 1989 slaying of an elderly Dallas woman during a robbery. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted Wednesday's scheduled execution of Mark Allen Robertson after his attorneys questioned whether jurors should have considered the ninth-grade dropout's troubled childhood before sentencing him to death for the capital murder of Edna...

Convicted strangler of 3-year-old set to die08/06/2003Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The one certainty in a "he said, she said" case that put a Brownsville man on death row and a woman in prison for life is that a 3-year-old boy was murdered, sexually abused and strangled with the elastic from his own underwear. "Not that any murder case makes sense, but this was just totally senseless," says Luis Saenz, the former Cameron County district attorney who prosecuted Jose Alfredo Rivera, condemned for the slaying of Luis Daniel Blanco 10 years ago. "It's hard to figure out motive or...

Utah's controversial firing squad may be doomed. "Essentially, we're going to discuss the repeal of the firing squad" during a meeting today of the state Sentencing Commission, says executive director Ron Gordon. Gordon has conducted a study that examines different methods of execution and the question of who decides on which method to employ — the Legislature or the condemned person.Lt. Jeff Meyers points to restraints used on prisoners in the firing-squad chair at the Utah State Prison. A new Deseret Morning News-KSL poll found that while 45 percent of Utahns still favor the firing squad, 51 percent believe it...

Rwandan court sentences 11 to death for genocide KIGALI, Aug. 2 — A Rwandan court has sentenced to death 11 people accused of taking part in the country's 1994 genocide, after 142 suspects were accused in the biggest ever such trial. The court convicted 73 others to life imprisonment, 21 to between one and 25 years in prison and freed 37 others including a woman and a Catholic archdeacon, officials said.

<p>In an unprecedented move, Gov. Frank O'Bannon on Monday issued a 60-day stay of execution for Death Row inmate Darnell Williams to allow for DNA testing.</p> <p>Williams, 36, was scheduled to die Friday in Michigan City for the 1986 murder of a Gary couple, but his lawyer says the DNA tests could show blood on his shorts was not from the victims.</p>

Hitman set to die for plot that killed toddler and parents07/24/2003Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Convicted hitman Allen Wayne Janecka once said the way he dealt with life on death row was to take it one day at a time. More than 22 years after he arrived on death row, this could be his last day. Janecka, 53, faced lethal injection Thursday evening for fatally shooting Kevin Wanstrath, a 14-month-old Houston boy, in the child's crib more than 24 years ago in a murder-for-hire scheme that also claimed the lives of the toddler's parents and, in an earlier murder...

Killer of Arlington optometrist set to die07/23/2003Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The long day of jury selection was over and everyone in the Tarrant County courtroom was somewhat relaxed when accused killer Cedric Ransom made his move. With a 51/2-inch piece of broken glass taped at one end and hidden in his hand, the capital murder defendant tried to stab one of his attorneys in the back. Ignoring orders from a bailiff to back off, Ransom turned his attention to a nearby prosecutor. "He was coming at me and his words were very clear: 'I'm going to kill you!...

Accused Murderer Scott Woodring Is Dead By Sheri Diorio Posted: 7/13/2003 Michigan State Police say Scott Woodring is dead. Woodring is accused in the shooting death of Michigan State Trooper Kevin Marshall. Police say Woodring was found early Sunday morning in a car at Maple Island Road and 60th Street in Dayton Township on the Newaygo County line. Police say Woodring got out of the car when police approached and pointed an assault rifle at police. That's when police shot and killed Woodring. The standoff between police and Woodring began last Sunday. That's when police tried to serve Woodring a...

In a bitter criticism of the executions carried out last week in Cuba, José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese writer considered Fidel Castro's best friend among European intellectuals, broke with the regime Monday. ''This is as far as I go,'' Saramago wrote in a short but powerful essay printed in Spain's leading newspaper, El País, as the European Union, various countries and organizations around the world continued to offer public repudiations. Killing three men by firing squad at dawn Friday for trying to spirit a ferry boat is unacceptable -- especially since the would-be hijackers didn't hurt anybody, wrote Saramago,...

Man who killed three set to die07/09/2003Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - More than five years after 17-month-old Katrease Houston was gunned down at a home in Killeen, police officer Eric Bradley still can recall details that marked the horrendous scene where the girl's grandmother and an infant also were fatally shot. "The toddler in the high chair was eating crinkle-cut french fries and corn," Bradley said, talking this week about the Feb. 7, 1998, massacre where the girl; her grandmother, Gwendolyn Black, 36; and Black's 5-month-old daughter, Christina Marie, were killed. "She was just sitting there in the high...

Oklahoma executes 11th inmateMan, 39, was convicted of beating roommate to death in 198807/09/2003Associated Press McALESTER, Okla. – A man who beat an Oklahoma City resident to death with an ashtray stand and fireplace poker was executed for the crime Tuesday in Oklahoma's death chamber. Robert Don Duckett, 39, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., becoming the state's 11th inmate executed this year. In his final statement, Mr. Duckett asked for forgiveness. "I just want to apologize and hope my family forgives me. I love them very much, and I hope they never forget that. Let's go," he said,...

HUNTSVILLE -- On Feb. 25, I watched my government kill a killer. Texas' 298th execution was the first death I had seen, but the other reporters and prison officials who were there had each observed more than 100 state killings. With the experience of 306 executions in 20 years, Texas carries them out with machine-like precision. Regular witnesses refer to them as "clinical." The executions take place in the Walls prison unit, a crumbling red brick behemoth dating back to 1848. The unit takes up several blocks of downtown Huntsville and bears little resemblance to a modern-day prison. It looks...

Former policeman executed for slaying of Conroe boy07/03/2003Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Convicted killer Hilton Crawford, fondly known to his 12-year-old victim as "Uncle Hilty," was executed Wednesday evening for the abduction and slaying of a Conroe boy almost eight years ago. Crawford nodded and smiled to witnesses, asking for forgiveness and expressing love for his family. "I thank Jesus Christ. I had an opportunity to serve Jesus Christ, I'm very thankful for that," he said, a small wooden cross dangling from a cord around his neck. The victim's mother, Paulette Everett-Norman, was standing behind a window just a...

A man was executed Wednesday for abducting and killing the 12-year-old son of longtime friends in an apparent scheme to obtain ransom money to pay off his debts. Hilton Crawford apologized and asked for forgiveness from the boy's mother, who witnessed the execution. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. after an injection.

Violent clashes rocked the southern City of Behbahan following the executions of two freededom fighters. Slogans against the regime and its leaders were shouted by many despite the heavy presence of the regime forces who were beating the protesters with clubs and chains. Several protesters and members of the security forces, many of them of Iraqi origin, were injured in the clashes as residents tried to stop the public executions from taking place. The two man were among those arrested during the violent clashes that rocked the City Of Ahwaz earlier this month and were involved in the popular uprising...

Four of six British soldiers killed in a southern Iraqi town were executed after they surrendered following a fierce gun battle, British newspapers reported, as Prime Minister Tony Blair ruled out sending more troops to the country.The British military policemen mounted a last stand Tuesday at a police station in Al-Majar Al-Kabir, around 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Iraq's second city of Basra, and were killed, possibly with their own weapons, after they refused to flee, papers said.Most British newspapers, which carried the story of the deaths on their front pages, said the sequence of events was still...

Three of the six British soldiers killed in Iraq were executed after surrendering their weapons, it was claimed today. The Royal Military Police officers, a sergeant and five corporals, were shot dead after trying to quell a demonstration of Shi'ite Muslims in the town of Majar al Kabir yesterday. The account of a local man, who tried to save the life of the sergeant in charge of the patrol, backs up Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie McCourt who said today: "This attack was unprovoked. It was murder." Two of the men died when shooting broke out as the military policemen faced a...

<p>The execution of three blacks by a Cuban government firing squad in April for attempting to hijack a boat to Miami is raising questions about racism on the communist island.</p> <p>It was the first time anyone, black or white, had been executed for trying to flee Cuba.</p>