The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/capital-punishment/)
Less than one month before the Trump administration’s planned resumption of federal executions, current and former law enforcement officials and former judges — as well as 175 relatives of murder victims — have signed letters opposing the move.
Identified in court documents as a district captain of a white nationalist gang, Justen Hall was convicted in the strangling of a woman in El Paso after an argument near a drug house.
Charles Rhines, 63, was put to death for fatally stabbing a former co-worker during a doughnut shop burglary.
The federal government has resumed executions after a 16-year hiatus. A statement signed by 250 conservative and libertarian leaders across the country aims to build support for reversing a decision that will revive what they call a “failed” government policy.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has postponed two more executions amid difficulty finding drugs to carry out the process. The governor has issued seven execution delays this year.
Daniel Lewis Lee is scheduled to be the first federal prisoner put to death in nearly two decades. But the mother and sister of one of his victims, as well as the original prosecutor in the case, note the second man convicted of the crime only got a life sentence.
A jury called for the death penalty for Michael Gargiulo. Actor Ashton Kutcher testified about a date with one of his victims. California has not conducted an execution since 2006.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals delayed the execution of Randy Halprin, a member of the “Texas Seven” prison escapees, after evidence emerged that his trial judge used anti-Semitic slurs. Halprin is Jewish.
Russell Bucklew’s attorneys said in a clemency request to Gov. Mike Parson that a tumor could burst, causing Bucklew to choke and die painfully in violation of the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. There were no outward signs of distress during the execution, Missouri’s first since January 2017.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected a petition by two death row inmates to find the state’s death penalty unconstitutional, a request that some advocates had hoped would lead to an historic ruling. The court left the door open for individual review of death penalty cases.