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BOISE - Triple murderer Paul Ezra Rhoades was executed this morning despite repeated last-minute appeals, in Idaho’s first execution since 1994 and only its second since 1957. “The time of death is 9:15,” Mountain time, Idaho Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Ray announced. “The procedures are complete.” In his final words, Rhoades took responsibility for one of the murders, but not the other two. A friend of the family of one of the victims, who was in the chamber witnessing the execution, said, “The devil has gone home.” Unlike the last person executed in Idaho, double murderer Keith Eugene Wells,...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A convicted sex offender was set to die Wednesday evening for slipping into a San Antonio apartment in the middle of the night, snatching a 7-year-old girl and raping and strangling her.Appeals were exhausted and no late legal maneuvers were made to keep Guadalupe Esparza, 46, of San Antonio, from becoming the 13th Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year. A clemency petition was rejected Monday by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.The battered body of Alyssa Maria Vasquez was found in some weeds behind a convenience store near her home hours after she was...

IRAN: Act by 9 November to call for Pastor Nadarkhani's pardon during Eid Pastor Nadarkhani was arrested in Rasht in 2009 while attempting to register his church. In 2010 he was tried and found guilty of apostasy (abandoning Islam), and was sentenced to death. He now awaits a decision on his case from the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, and a formal written verdict. His life is still in the balance.

A convicted killer raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips Wednesday when an Orange County jury announced that he should receive the death penalty for gunning down the manager of a Tustin Home Depot during a botched robbery in 2007. A jury of six men and six women deliberated for five hours before deciding that death was the appropriate penalty for Jason Russell Richardson, 40, convicted last year of first-degree murder plus special circumstances for the shooting death of Tom Egan, who was trying to protect his employees when he was shot in the stomach Feb. 9, 2007. ...

TRIPOLI, Libya—Fresh evidence has emerged that fighters battling for control of Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte were responsible for numerous extrajudicial killings and other possible atrocities, raising new questions about the final moments in Libya's revolution and adding to the challenges of national reconciliation. Residents of Sirte and medical workers say that they have identified dozens of corpses of both Gadhafi loyalists and antiregime fighters, who appear to have died by shots to the back of the head while their hands were bound. They say these bodies are among hundreds of unidentified corpses littering the streets of Sirte and filling...

The sitting U.S. President Obama, publicly supported the capture of Gaddafi which was soon followed by what appears to be his execution-style murder by his captors. When U.S. soldiers captured Saddam Hussein during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he was taken prisoner, handed over to Iraqi authorities and eventually tried, convicted and executed by them. President Bush has long been excoriated by liberals and leftists as a "war criminal", yet U.S. troops showed excellent restraint and control when arresting Saddam. Now various groups around the world are calling for an investigation into what, according to video of the event,...

And in a butcher shop (!) What's up next, string 'em from a bridge...? They were screaming "Allahu Akbar" when they finished him off- just like Al Qaeda does it, how bout that. While we still do not know who the rebels we just boosted to power actually are (yet plenty of reason to suspect the worst- i.e. packed with AQ and Muslim Brotherhood types), hey, we're about to find out.  Alas, so far-so bad, as they're already committing war crimes, up to and including summary executions... which appears to be just what happened to ole Muammar and out-of-luck son Mutassim. The UN and ICC suspect as much, as...

RAIFORD— A Florida man convicted of shooting a police officer to death during a traffic stop in 1978 is scheduled to be executed Wednesday. Barring an 11th-hour stay, Manuel Valle, 61, is set to become the first prisoner to die from the state's newly revised mix of lethal drugs. The concoction has been challenged, twice delaying the death sentence.

Manuel Valle scheduled to die of lethal injection in FloridaThe execution of a Florida man convicted of killing a Coral Gables police officer 33 years ago is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Manuel Valle, 61, is set to be executed by lethal injection at 4 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Raiford, over eight weeks after his original execution date. Valle was convicted of fatally shooting 41-year-old Luis Pena in the neck during a traffic stop in April 1978. He was driving a stolen car when he was stopped by Pena and officer Gary Spell, who also was shot but saved...

JASPER - Longtime civil rights activist and comedian Dick Gregory held a prayer vigil in Jasper Tuesday night in protest of Lawrence Brewer's execution. Brewer was sentenced to death and is scheduled to die Wednesday for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Junior in 1998. Gregory, a strong opponent of capital punishment, will conduct an 18 hour fast and vigil at the Walls Unit in Huntsville. "When do the State qualify to kill somebody and the government qualify to kill somebody and it's all right"? said Gregrory. "It's never all right to kill somebody intentionally. There are...

Death-row inmates headed to their executions will no longer be able to pick what they’d like for their last meal. Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, issued this statement in response to concerns from Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire: “I believe Senator Whitmire’s concerns regarding the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their last meal are valid. Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made. They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit.” Here’s the original post about Whitmire’s concerns: Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman...

(CBS/AP)  JACKSON, Ga. - Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer, a crime he denied committing right to the end as supporters around the world mourned and declared that an innocent man was put to death. Defiant to the end, he told relatives of Mark MacPhail that his 1989 slaying was not his fault. "I did not have a gun," he insisted.

'It's Over': After Three Torturous Hours Strapped To The Chair Troy Davis Has Been Executed Davis finally died at 11.08pm All nine Supreme Court justices voted to deny the stay after taking more than four hours to come to their decision Appeal had challenged ballistics linking Davis to the crime, and eyewitness testimony identifying Davis as the killer Davis convicted of killing off duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989 Defence lawyers say there is still 'lingering doubt' of Davis' guilt By HANNAH ROBERTS 22nd September 2011 Mental torture: The convicted murderer was sedated and strapped to the chair in...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas. Byrd, 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and pulled whip-like to his death along a bumpy asphalt road in one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history. Brewer, 44, was asked if he had any final words, to which he replied: "No. I have no final statement." He glanced at his parents watching through a nearby window, took several deep breaths and...

The execution of Troy Davis was delayed temporarily by the US supreme court on Wednesday night in a dramatic intervention just as he was due to be put to death by lethal injection. The last-minute decision caused confusion outside the prison in Jackson, Georgia, where family, supporters and civil rights campaigners broke into celebration as they believed the court had granted Davis a stay of execution. But it quickly emerged that the delay was only temporary, while the justices considered whether to issue a stay. Until that moment it seemed almost certain that Davis would be executed, as the Georgia...

Georgia inmate Troy Davis's last-ditch request for a lie detector test to try to prove his innocence ahead of tonight's planned execution has been denied by Georgia Department of Corrections. Defence lawyer Stephen Marsh said he had hoped the polygraph would convince the state pardons board to reconsider a decision against clemency, which was rejected yesterday. Davis, 42, is scheduled to die at 7pm tonight. It is the fourth time in four years that Davis' execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials.

Georgia inmate Troy Davis's last-ditch request for a lie detector test to try to prove his innocence ahead of tonight's planned execution has been denied by Georgia Department of Corrections. Defence lawyer Stephen Marsh said he had hoped the polygraph would convince the state pardons board to reconsider a decision against clemency, which was rejected yesterday. Davis, 42, is scheduled to die at 7pm tonight. It is the fourth time in four years that Davis' execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials.

In what is normally a very unusual move for the Supreme Court, they have now stepped in twice to put the brakes on execution of convicted killers in the Lone Star State. This time it’s the case of Cleve Foster. For the second time in a week, the Supreme Court intervened in the final hours to block a planned execution in Texas.Cleve Foster, a 47-year-old former Army recruiter, was scheduled to die for the rape and murder of a woman he met at a Fort Worth bar in 2002. Foster has maintained that another man who was with him at...

Beneath the guard towers and behind the razor wire of a Texas prison, Lawrence Brewer lifts his arm to display his racist tattoos. “Like a cross burning and an intertwined KKK,” he explains, showing off the images cut into his flesh that turned his body into a billboard for hate. His worldview of racial relations came from an earlier stint in prison. “Watching the blacks and the Mexicans and other races literally beat people near death. So I came out after four years of that, with that mentality,” he said. What he did after he came out of prison made...

ATLANTA (AP) — Yet another appeal denied, Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit. He lost his most realistic chance to avoid lethal injection on Tuesday, when Georgia's pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures. They asked prisons officials to let him to take a polygraph test; urged prison workers to strike or call in sick; asked prosecutors to block the execution and they even considered a desperate appeal for...