While the death penalty has long been a hot-button political issue in the U.S., as of late it has not received as much attention as other controversial issues. RELATED: Traveling While Black: Houston, Texas RELATED: Traveling While Black: Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas In 2011, a number of high profile executions, as well as judges and politicians campaigning for […]
JARRATT, Va. (AP) — A man who raped and suffocated an 88-year-old woman was executed, becoming Virginia’s first inmate to be given a lethal injection using a revised three-drug cocktail. Jerry Terrell Jackson, 30, was pronounced dead at 9:14 p.m. Thursday at Greensville Correctional Center. Asked if he had any final words, Jackson shook his […]
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 […]
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.
