In Missouri, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is considering a bill that would abolish the death penalty and replace it with a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for anyone convicted of a capital crime, the Missouri Independent reported. If passed, the bill would not be retroactive and would not result in the resentencing of the eight men currently on death row. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Jim Murphy, has the support of several religious leaders, including Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, as well as lawmakers from both chambers, according to the Independent. Another bill, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, would bar judges from imposing a death sentence when there is a hung jury in a death penalty case. Missouri and Indiana are the only two states that allow a judge to sentence a person to death if the jury is unable to agree on a death sentence. That bill now goes to the Senate.
In New York, federal prosecutors will not appeal a judge’s ruling that removed the death penalty in the case of Luigi Mangione, ABC News reported. That means jury selection in the federal case will begin on Sept. 8, with opening statements on Oct. 13. Mangione’s trial in state court is slated to begin on June 8.
In West Virginia, a bill that would reinstate the death penalty advanced in the state Senate this month. Senate Bill 264 would permit the death penalty for first-degree murder in the killing of a law enforcement officer or first responder in the line of duty. Virginia’s last execution was in 1959, and it abolished capital punishment in 1965, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
In Alabama, a Macon County jury found Ibraheem Yazeed, accused in the 2019 kidnapping and killing of 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard, guilty of felony murder and guilty of murder, lesser charges under the capital murder counts he was originally indicted on, WBRC News reported.
In Florida,A man convicted of killing a 10-year-old boy during a robbery at a nail salon in North Miami Beach in 2013 will spend the rest of his life in prison, CBS News reported. On Tuesday, a judge ruled that 31-year-old Anthawn Ragan will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. The decision followed a court finding that Ragan’s cognitive disabilities meant the death penalty was not the appropriate punishment, nearly a decade after the crime was committed.