CLEVELAND— A serial killer will be put to death for murdering 11 women and dumping their bodies around his property, a judge ruled Friday. Anthony Sowell should die by lethal injection for his crimes, Judge Dick Ambrose ruled, accepting the sentencing recommendation of the jury that convicted Sowell of aggravated murder. Sowell, 51, never looked […]
Judges in Alabama are using their power, ignoring juries and imposing the death penalty on defendants who kill white victims, according to a recent report by the Equal Justice Initiative. Among other findings, the report examines judicial overrides — a little known practice that allows judges to overturn jury-decisions in death penalty cases. From the […]
Since 1976, Alabama state judges have overturned 107 jury decisions in capital cases, and in 92 percent of those cases, jury recommendations of life imprisonment were rejected in favor of death sentences, according to a new report by the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit law firm based in Montgomery, Ala. Last November, jurors in Lee […]
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The planned execution Thursday of a Mexican national has prompted a flurry of appeals on his behalf, including a rare plea from the White House, because of what it could mean for other foreigners arrested in the U.S. and for Americans detained in other countries. Humberto Leal, 38, is awaiting a ruling […]
CHICAGO — Death row in Illinois is dead. On Friday, a ban that Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law in March took effect. It’s a quiet last chapter to the story of capital punishment in Illinois, which captured the attention of the world in 2000 when then-Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium. Ryan cleared death […]
WASHINGTON — At a hearing scheduled for Monday, December 6, a district court in Texas will decide whether the death penalty is unconstitutional in the state based on the disproportionately high risk of wrongful convictions in Texas.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a stay of execution appeal from Teresa Lewis, scheduled to be the first woman executed in the United States in five years.
The Racial Justice Act, only the second of its kind in the United States, has given inmates sentenced to death in North Carolina a potential route to relief. As of today, 114 death row inmates there have filed motions asserting their sentences were tainted by racial bias. While the individual circumstances in each case differ […]
