Capital Punishment
The Capital Punishment section covers all things related to the death penalty — from legal decisions to ethical considerations.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen is petitioning the county Superior Court to resentence 14 men — all being held in San Quentin State Prison — to terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole
“I’ve decided to drop my appeals and have my sentence carried out… I was fairly tried and convicted. I agreed with the court’s decision,” the inmate said
The inmate is the first person executed in Oklahoma this year and the 12th put to death since the state resumed executions in 2021 following a nearly seven-year hiatus
“We’ve waited a long time for justice to be served,” said Ryan Jett, a brother of one of the victims
“It’s kind of unfortunate that we had to wait so long for justice to be served, but it’s been served,” the victim’s brother said
Lt. Debra Clayton was shot and killed in a Walmart parking lot; a second officer was killed in a traffic collision during a manhunt for the suspect
“It took 22 years but the time came. It is done. We can finally and really begin to heal — 22 years of wondering what was going to happen,” the girl’s sister said
Brent Ray Brewer, 53, died by chemical injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the April 1990 death of Robert Laminack
“The execution will be carried out by nitrogen hypoxia, the method previously requested by the inmate as an alternative to lethal injection,” Gov. Kay Ivey said
Officer Billy Clardy III was 48 years old when he was shot and killed in December 2019 during an undercover drug operation
Three states — Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi — have authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method but no state has attempted to use it
Thomas Creech was sentenced to life in prison, but less than 10 years later, he beat another man in custody to death and was sentenced to death
Antoinette Frank was convicted in the 1995 death of Officer Ronald Williams II during a robbery at a restaurant, where both officers sometimes moonlighted as security guards
Jedidiah Murphy’s plea about the safety of pentobarbital post-fire rejected by U.S. District Judge
Unsettling possibility of executing the innocent ignites discussion on pausing the death penalty despite its rooted support among state voters
Michael Zack III, 54, was put to death for killing two women during a 9-day series of crimes in 1996
Sheriff Grady Judd: “I am glad he (Johnson) hasn’t enjoyed a day of freedom since then, but the truth is, he should have been executed by the State a long time ago.”
After a court ruling that the electric chair and lethal injection are cruel and unusual punishments, lawyers say the inmates want to know about the phenobarbital supply and efficacy
Forcing a condemned-to-death inmate to breathe only nitrogen causes hypoxia, which halts bodily functions
Anthony Sanchez, 44, pronounced dead after a three-drug lethal injection, is the third man put to death in Oklahoma this year
Electric chair is the state’s default method of execution but inmates can choose death by firing squad or lethal injection
An autopsy concluded that Stephen Todd Booker, 69, who became a published poet while serving on death row, died of acute fentanyl toxicity
Anthony “Jack” Sully, 79, died of natural causes at a medical facility outside of the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center
A council, allowed to meet in secret, advised Gov. Newsom on a $360 million plan to remake the prison grounds as a college campus, with a student union, classrooms and possibly a coffee shop
According to the protocol “Nitrogen gas will be administered for 15 minutes, or five minutes following a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer”
At the time of the 2019 killings, Michael Cummins was close to being arrested for probation violations
Judge: Inmate’s constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment may have been violated after officials repeatedly scheduled his execution
James Phillip Barnes, 61, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke
Former homicide investigator Paul Neske, who questioned Johnny Johnson, said Casey’s murder was more “violent and brutal than any case I’ve ever seen”
Before Casey White’s escape last year, he was already essentially serving a life sentence following multiple felony convictions in 2019
Johnny Johnson was convicted of killing a 6-year-old girl in 2002
“The justice that James Barber managed to avoid for more than two decades has finally been served,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said
Jemaine Cannon, 51, stabbed a woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after he escaped from a prison work center
