El Paso man sentenced to 90 consecutive terms for Walmart shooting
July 25, 2023
Patrick Crusius, who pleaded guilty in February to killing 23 people and injuring 22 others at an El Paso Walmart store, was sentenced early this
Patrick Crusius, who pleaded guilty in February to killing 23 people and injuring 22 others at an El Paso Walmart store, was sentenced early this
“If you take away the arguments about cost, deterrence, and closure, what’s left other than a call for vengeance?” the Idaho Statesman asks in an
The State of Alabama killed James Barber last Friday, its first execution since Gov. Kay Ivey called for a temporary halt in November after the
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate Richard Glossip’s 1997 capital murder conviction and return his case to a
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Rodney Reed’s petition for a new trial in the murder conviction that sent him to death row 25
In Oklahoma, Anthony Sanchez, on death row for 27 years, told CBS News in a telephone interview that he will reject his opportunity for a
Not even pleas from the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops were enough to persuade Gov. Ron DeSantis to commute Duane Owen’s death sentence and spare
Two men, Barry Jones in Arizona and Lamont Hunter in Ohio, walked off death row the same day earlier this month, each wrongly convicted of
“Black-led organizations are working to stop the spread of legislation reinstating the death penalty” in “a response to a resurgence of legislation in states controlled
Fifty years ago this month, on February 18, 1972, California abolished the death penalty. But it didn’t stay abolished. The lesson for us is that we have two tasks: abolish the death penalty, and keep it abolished. A Powerful Attack on the Death Penalty The California Supreme Court ruled, by a 6-1 vote, that the death penalty violated the state Constitution, which prohibits “cruel or unusual punishments.” The court said
Texas has executed at least five men who were very likely innocent, according to a recent report by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. And of the 186 men and women who were exonerated after being sentenced to death since 1973 in the U.S., 16 were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in Texas, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. So it’s not all that surprising, but
California’s death row, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, will be dismantled. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that a two-year-old pilot program will be expanded, resulting in the transfer of most if not all, of the 694 men and women currently on death row to lower-level security prisons throughout the state. The goal, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told the Associated Press, is to
In Alabama, Matthew Reeves was executed January 27, despite having an intellectual disability. Reeves was killed by lethal injection because he failed to choose a new method, nitrogen hypoxia, within the 30-day period required by corrections officials. Reeves’ lawyers had argued that his intellectual disabilities prevented him from understanding the form giving him the option of choosing nitrogen hypoxia over lethal injection. Reeves was sentenced to death for the killing
Alabama executed Matthew Reeves last night despite the fact he had an intellectual disability. His execution was the second state killing yesterday after Oklahoma executed Donald Grant in the morning. State officials killed Reeves after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court order staying his execution. Reeves was killed by lethal injection because he failed to choose a new method, nitrogen hypoxia, within the 30-day period required by corrections
Oklahoma executed Donald Grant this morning, less than 24 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay on Wednesday afternoon. He was killed by lethal injection. Grant was sentenced to death for killing two hotel workers during a robbery in 2001. Although Oklahoma has a history of botched executions, initial reports indicate there were no serious physical problems with Donald Grant’s. AP reporter Sean Murphy said Grant spoke for
“In his Defense,” a documentary on the Kevin Cooper case, is in the works right now, and California filmmaker Kenneth Carlson has released a teaser for it on CarlsonFilms.com Just over seven months ago, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered an independent investigation of Cooper’s death penalty case. At the time, he explained that,“In cases where the government seeks to impose the ultimate punishment of death, I need to be satisfied
In his editorial in Verdict, Austin Sarat says there is such significant “new progress in the effort to abolish America’s death penalty,” that it’s “not too early to begin thinking about what it will be like to live in a country without [it} and to anticipate and plan for the battles that may ensue when it is ended.” Acknowledging that it’s unlikely the U.S. Supreme Court will abolish capital punishment,
In Texas, the oldest person imprisoned on death row is scheduled to be executed on April 21. Carl Wayne Buntion, who is 77, has been on death row since 1991 when he was convicted of the 1990 killing of Houston police officer James Irby during a traffic stop. Buntion has spent 20 of his 30 years on death row in solitary confinement. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Buntion’s appeal in