The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/capital-punishment/)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denies Dylann Roof’s effort to remove the appellate lawyers in his death penalty appeal because the attorneys “are my political and biological enemies.”
Gary Otte was put to death by lethal injection. An attorney for Otte said stomach movements and the appearance of tears by his eyes during the execution showed that Otte was in pain after being injected with the sedative midazolam, which is being challenged in Ohio.
Gov. Rick Scott assigned more than 25 murder cases to another prosecutor after Amaris Ayala in Orlando said she would not seek the death penalty. Ayala, who lost a court battle with Scott, now will assign seven assistants to review each case.
The state says the execution of Mark James Asay proceeded without incident. He was the first white man in Florida executed for killing a black person. Asay shot Robert Booker after using a racial epithet but denied he was a white supremacist.
Lawyers on opposing sides of Thursday’s California Supreme Court ruling on a capital punishment measure approved by voters agreed that the case is likely to lead to executions being carried out sooner and more often in a state that last put a prisoner to death in January 2006.
High court upheld a proposition approved by 51 percent of voters that removed legal hurles that have barred executions. A capital punishment advocate predicted that inmates might be put to death again in a few months after a 10-year hiatus.
A controversial three-drug cocktail will be used to end the life of Mark Asay, 53, a white supremacist who murdered two people in 1987.
Gov. Eric Greitens halts the execution of Marcellus Williams, says he will appoint a board of inquiry after an “inconclusive” DNA test raised questions about Williams’ guilt.
It is the first time that a division of Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, has entered the death-penalty debate. Florida is scheduled to execute Mark Asay using the drug on Thursday.
Orange County, Ca., judge won’t impose the death penalty for Scott Dekraai, who killed eight people, because prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies used jailhouse informants improperly and hid evidence.