Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment is a profoundly complex and controversial aspect of the criminal justice system. This section provides articles that explore the history, legal frameworks, and ethical debates surrounding Capital Punishment in various jurisdictions. Correctional professionals can gain insights into the procedures, implications, and ongoing discussions about using the death penalty. Understanding Capital Punishment is crucial for those involved in its administration and those engaged in broader criminal justice reform efforts. For further context, explore related topics on supermax prisons.
Paul Kendrick remains on death row for the 2018 attack that led to Sgt. Mark Baserman’s death inside SCI-Somerset
Gov. Kevin Stitt cited the victim’s family’s forgiveness in granting clemency to Tremane Wood, convicted in a 2002 murder
Ralph Baze was sentenced to death in 1994 for killing Powell County Sheriff Bennett and Deputy Briscoe, but Gov. Beshear has declined to sign a death warrant citing legal hurdles
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
Jemaine Cannon, 51, is set to become Oklahoma’s second executed death row inmate on July 20 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester
Anthony Sanchez is scheduled to be executed in September for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student
On July 1, death by firing squad will become an approved back-up method of execution in Idaho
James Barber has asked a federal court to call off his lethal injection and rule that he is only allowed to die by nitrogen suffocation
Barry Lee Jones had spent 29 years behind bars for murder, child abuse and sexual assault convictions in the death of his girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter
Of the more than 290 people on Florida’s death row, Duane Owen was one of the longest held there
The 51 clemency applications came after a bill to abolish the death penalty failed during Louisiana’s legislative session