Also, it would be pretty hard to track down the lion
-
Contact the PP Team
Capital punishment - Is it really a punishment?
- Thread starter Yossarian
- Start date
Also, it would be pretty hard to track down the lion
In other words, "eye for an eye".
Hein OP??
You agreed with post 69 as above?
Glad that you realized it was all nonsense in post 40.
Yossarian
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You must be living in that $1.8 million coffin, eating that puffer fish and taking all those drugs you mentioned earlier. That's the only explanation possible for you coming to the conclusion that you have posted.In other words, "eye for an eye".
Hein OP??
You agreed with post 69 as above?
Glad that you realized it was all nonsense in post 40.
You must be living in that $1.8 million coffin, eating that puffer fish and taking all those drugs you mentioned earlier. That's the only explanation possible for you coming to the conclusion that you have posted.
ahem ahem,
Now go back n read the hogwash in post 40.
No criminals never lose all their human rights.
They are removed from soceity as they are danger to the society yes. But there are guidelines regarding how the cells should be, their food requirements, sanitary requirements, working hours, etc.
Granted these requirements arent 100% followed due to various reasons but they are there.
I dont understand AI but i do study medical psychology & forensic sciences
. Most of the serial criminals are extremely sick, they have lost their moral fibre, they are a threat to to themselves & socity but they arent born that way. They become what they are becoz of their environment, their upbringing & genetic predilection.
If they end up as criminals then its the job of the courts & the society to provide them with proper help.
I get your concern of normal people feigning insanity to get away of their crimes but it always doesnt work about that way. Court appoints experienced specialists in that field to verify the claims of the defendant.
Most sane person people dont have the gall to pull off the stuff that would prove them to be insane i.e. it hardly ever works out for them.
Even if declared insane they end up in mental institutions where they are kept under supervision of specialist for a certain time before they are formally admitted there.
Even during your stay there you can pretend to be miraculously cured & get discharged. There are several checks & balances.
Yossarian
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My point was simply this:
There is talk of genes that predisposes those that have them to commit crimes. In other words they are 'subroutines' in the software programming code of life, ie the DNA.
From a layman's viewpoint, our entire bodies, including the brain, are simply a set of very complex machines and electronic components, each component (ie organ) peforming a set of instructions sent out by the CPU (the brain). The CPU (the brain) itself is simply following the programming code (DNA in conjunction with the laws of physics and chemistry) to control the various components that keeps the whole machine working as a unit. The data from it's external sensory I/O ports (hearing, sight, smell, touch etc), along with its internal diagnostics (pain, hunger, tiredness.. etc) are used by the programming software to determine what subroutines and processes to activate ie what action to take.
On that basis, just like a complex machine with a very advanced IA unit inside it which, to an outside observer, appears to be able to 'think' and 'learn', but is actually simply working to programming code, is not a human being just a complex machine with a very advanced CPU?
Because that is what we are saying if we go down the predisposition route.
Robert
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Actually human rights are relative, because they are created by humans and change with time and cultural mores.
But I agree about the barbaric statements. A society's values can be based on fear and revenge, or on love and redemption. I want the UK to have the latter values. Apply 'tough love' to the convicted criminal, to redeem him and make him into a decent member of society. Criticise and correct the behaviour, while upholding the value of the person.
Yossarian
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In which case, since no one has responded to the following post perhaps you care to respond?
Do you think by the use of, as you say 'tough love', if Anders Behring Breivik decides to become angelic in the next few years, would you be prepared to put aside his murder of 77 innocents and release him maybe in as little as 10 years time?
Saqs
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I actually mentioned the psychological factors at play. Its an interesting debate to have. I actually started a thread way back regarding the 'evil gene'. Need to bump it.
Robert
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No, as he would appear to be a sociopath. I would keep him detained until he dies. That is the level of tough love which seems appropriate to me in his extreme case.
Yossarian
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And that's why I say, if imposed, a life sentence should mean life and not being let out after a decade or two for good behaviour.
One other thing I would change is this nonsence of being let out early if someone has behaved whilst in prison. A prison should mean serving the full term of the sentence, and good behavour whilst serving the sentence is an expectation and a favour being done by the convict. Sure, 'reward' him for his good behaviour by not increasing the sentence if he behaves, otherwise additional prison time is added on if he doen't.
As to what the sentence should be for any type of crime, that's a totally separate discussion. But once decided, and imposed by the judge, it should be served in full and not reduced at the discretion of the parole board or the prison service.
Yossarian
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meant "not a favour being done by the convict"
Mods/ Admins - c'mon chaps, give a little bit of leeway to edit/correct mistakes. One minor mistake, without being able to edit/correct it immediately after noticing the error (usually straight after posting) can give the opposite meaning to what was intended.
Mods/ Admins - c'mon chaps, give a little bit of leeway to edit/correct mistakes. One minor mistake, without being able to edit/correct it immediately after noticing the error (usually straight after posting) can give the opposite meaning to what was intended.
Robert
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UK courts and jails use a combination of stick and carrot. With good behaviour and efforts made to cooperate with rehabilitation such as counselling and work programmes, the prisoner will be allowed out earlier than the tariff. The prison governor can add to his sentence if he behaves badly.
One thing that I learned recently is that a whole-life term is just that. Even if a murderer is released after 25 years, he is on license and will be immediately imprisoned if he breaks any law ever again.
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The first federal execution in the United States in 17 years looks set to go ahead on Monday after an appeals court overturned a lower court injunction, saying a lawsuit by the victims' family - which had put the execution on hold - had no legal standing.
White supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee was convicted in the killing of three members of an Arkansas family in 1996 although some relatives of his victims opposed him receiving the death sentence. He is due to be executed by lethal injection at the US Department of Justice's execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana.
His execution had been blocked on Friday by a federal judge after some of the victims' relatives sued, saying they feared that attending could expose them to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
As the number of coronavirus infections rises in about 40 US states, the Bureau of Prisons said on Sunday that a staff member involved in preparations for the resumption of federal executions had tested positive for COVID-19.
The lawsuit filed against the Department of Justice (DOJ) in federal court in Indianapolis sought to block the execution until the pandemic had passed. US District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ordered the department to delay the execution until it could show it was upholding the plaintiffs' right to attend the execution without risking their health.
The government appealed and the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Sunday overturned the injunction, saying no federal statute or regulation gave the victims' family the right to attend the execution.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Baker Kurrus, the lawyers for the victims' family said they planned to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, and that the government had put them in the "untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee's execution and their own health and safety."
US Attorney General William Barr said last July that the DOJ would resume carrying out executions of some death row prisoners convicted of murder and sex crimes. There are some 62 inmates currently on federal death row.
Barr originally scheduled five executions for last December, but had to delay them while long-running lawsuits challenging the government's lethal-injection protocol played out.
An appeals court overturned that injunction in April, and Barr announced new execution dates for July and August of four inmates, all men convicted of murdering children: Lee, Wesley Purkey, Dustin Honken and Keith Nelson.
Prosecutors say Lee murdered an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and their eight-year-old daughter, then dumped their bodies in a swamp. He was convicted in 1999 of multiple offences including murder in aid of racketeering.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...deral-execution-17-years-200713001654389.html
White supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee was convicted in the killing of three members of an Arkansas family in 1996 although some relatives of his victims opposed him receiving the death sentence. He is due to be executed by lethal injection at the US Department of Justice's execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana.
His execution had been blocked on Friday by a federal judge after some of the victims' relatives sued, saying they feared that attending could expose them to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
As the number of coronavirus infections rises in about 40 US states, the Bureau of Prisons said on Sunday that a staff member involved in preparations for the resumption of federal executions had tested positive for COVID-19.
The lawsuit filed against the Department of Justice (DOJ) in federal court in Indianapolis sought to block the execution until the pandemic had passed. US District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ordered the department to delay the execution until it could show it was upholding the plaintiffs' right to attend the execution without risking their health.
The government appealed and the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Sunday overturned the injunction, saying no federal statute or regulation gave the victims' family the right to attend the execution.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Baker Kurrus, the lawyers for the victims' family said they planned to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, and that the government had put them in the "untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee's execution and their own health and safety."
US Attorney General William Barr said last July that the DOJ would resume carrying out executions of some death row prisoners convicted of murder and sex crimes. There are some 62 inmates currently on federal death row.
Barr originally scheduled five executions for last December, but had to delay them while long-running lawsuits challenging the government's lethal-injection protocol played out.
An appeals court overturned that injunction in April, and Barr announced new execution dates for July and August of four inmates, all men convicted of murdering children: Lee, Wesley Purkey, Dustin Honken and Keith Nelson.
Prosecutors say Lee murdered an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and their eight-year-old daughter, then dumped their bodies in a swamp. He was convicted in 1999 of multiple offences including murder in aid of racketeering.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...deral-execution-17-years-200713001654389.html
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A United States district judge on Monday ordered a new delay in federal executions, hours before the first lethal injection was scheduled to be carried out at a federal prison in Indiana. President Donald Trump's administration immediately appealed to a higher court, asking that the executions move forward.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said there are still legal issues to resolve and that “the public is not served by short-circuiting legitimate judicial process". The executions, pushed by the Trump administration, would be the first carried out at the federal level since 2003.
The new hold on executions came a day after a federal appeals court lifted a hold on the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 4pm (20:00 GMT) on Monday at a federal prison in Indiana. He was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.
The execution, the first of a federal death row inmate since 2003, comes after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction on Sunday that had been put in place last week after the victims' family argued they would be put at high risk for the coronavirus if they had to travel to attend the execution. The family had vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The decision to move forward with the execution - and two others scheduled later in the week - during a global health pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people in the US and is ravaging prisons nationwide, drew scrutiny from civil rights groups and the family of Lee's victims.
The decision has been criticised as a dangerous and political move. Critics argue that the government is creating an unnecessary and manufactured urgency around a topic that is not high on the list of American concerns right now. It is also likely to add a new front to the national conversation about criminal justice reform in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department had a duty to carry out the sentences imposed by the courts, including the death penalty, and to bring a sense of closure to the victims and those in the communities where the killings happened.
But relatives of those killed by Lee strongly oppose that idea. They wanted to be present to counter any contention that it was being done on their behalf.
"For us it is a matter of being there and saying, 'This is not being done in our name; we do not want this,'" said relative Monica Veillette.
The relatives would be travelling thousands of miles and witnessing the execution in a small room where the social distancing recommended to prevent the virus's spread is virtually impossible. The federal prison system has struggled in recent months to contain the exploding number of coronavirus cases behind bars. There are currently four confirmed coronavirus cases among inmates at the Terre Haute prison, according to federal statistics, and one inmate there has died.
"The federal government has put this family in the untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee's execution and their own health and safety," the family's attorney, Baker Kurrus, said on Sunday.
Barr said he believes the Bureau of Prisons could "carry out these executions without being at risk". The agency has put a number of additional measures in place, including temperature checks and requiring witnesses to wear masks.
On Sunday, the Justice Department disclosed that a staff member involved in preparing for the execution had tested positive for the coronavirus, but said he had not been in the execution chamber and had not come into contact with anyone on the specialised team sent to the prison to handle the execution.
The victim's family hopes there won't be an execution, ever. They have asked the Justice Department and President Donald Trump not to move forward with the execution and have long asked that Lee be given a life sentence instead.
The last person executed by the federal government was Louis Jones Jr, a US Army soldier put to death in 2003 after he was convicted of the rape and murder of another soldier. He was one of three individuals executed during George W Bush's presidency; before Bush no federal inmates had been put to death since 1963.
But before the pandemic, the economy and healthcare were Americans' top priorities for the government to work on in 2020, with 59 percent and 50 percent naming the two, respectively, in an open-ended question in an Associated Press-NORC poll from December. Some 35 percent said immigration was one of the most important issues the government should work on in 2020, and about as many referenced politics or partisan gridlock.
The percentage of Americans in favour of the death penalty stood at 60 percent in the 2018 General Social Survey, a long-running trends survey. That is about where it was in the 1970s. Support has steadily ticked back down after peaking at 75 percent in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Most Democrats oppose it. By contrast, President Donald Trump has spoken often about capital punishment and his belief that executions serve as an effective deterrent and an appropriate punishment for some crimes, including mass shootings and the killings of police officers.
"This appears to be a distraction," said Samuel Spital, the litigation director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. There are several things that should be at the top of the agenda for the Justice Department right now, he said, including the coronavirus. Another "should be an effort to address the widespread problem of police violence against Black and brown communities in this country which has finally captured the public's attention", he said.
Death penalty
A gurney at a jail in Huntsville, Texas where executions take place. [File: Pat Sullivan/AP Photo]
The majority of people on death row are Black and Hispanic, and the number of cases authorised by the attorney general seeking death since the late 1980s are mostly non-white people.
But the three men chosen to die this week are all white:
Danny Lee, who was convicted in Arkansas of killing a family of three, including an 8-year-old. Family members of Lee's victims have asked a federal judge to delay his execution, saying the coronavirus puts them at risk if they travel to attend the execution. They have asked that the execution be put off until a treatment or a vaccine is available for the virus.
Wesley Ira Purkey, of Kansas, who raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl and killed an 80-year-old woman.
Dustin Lee Honken, who killed five people in Iowa, including two children.
The Justice Department had scheduled five executions set to begin in December, but some of the inmates challenged the new procedures in court, arguing that the government was circumventing proper methods in order to wrongly execute inmates quickly.
Executions on the federal level have been rare and the government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988 — most recently in 2003, when Jones was executed. Though there has not been a federal execution since then, the Justice Department has continued to approve death penalty prosecutions and federal courts have sentenced defendants to death.
In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.
The attorney general said last July that the Obama-era review had been completed, clearing the way for executions to resume. He approved a new procedure for lethal injections that replaces the three-drug combination previously used in federal executions with one drug, pentobarbital. This is similar to the procedure used in several states, including Georgia, Missouri and Texas, but not all
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/resume-federal-executions-17-year-hiatus-200708171146816.html
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said there are still legal issues to resolve and that “the public is not served by short-circuiting legitimate judicial process". The executions, pushed by the Trump administration, would be the first carried out at the federal level since 2003.
The new hold on executions came a day after a federal appeals court lifted a hold on the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 4pm (20:00 GMT) on Monday at a federal prison in Indiana. He was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.
The execution, the first of a federal death row inmate since 2003, comes after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction on Sunday that had been put in place last week after the victims' family argued they would be put at high risk for the coronavirus if they had to travel to attend the execution. The family had vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The decision to move forward with the execution - and two others scheduled later in the week - during a global health pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people in the US and is ravaging prisons nationwide, drew scrutiny from civil rights groups and the family of Lee's victims.
The decision has been criticised as a dangerous and political move. Critics argue that the government is creating an unnecessary and manufactured urgency around a topic that is not high on the list of American concerns right now. It is also likely to add a new front to the national conversation about criminal justice reform in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department had a duty to carry out the sentences imposed by the courts, including the death penalty, and to bring a sense of closure to the victims and those in the communities where the killings happened.
But relatives of those killed by Lee strongly oppose that idea. They wanted to be present to counter any contention that it was being done on their behalf.
"For us it is a matter of being there and saying, 'This is not being done in our name; we do not want this,'" said relative Monica Veillette.
The relatives would be travelling thousands of miles and witnessing the execution in a small room where the social distancing recommended to prevent the virus's spread is virtually impossible. The federal prison system has struggled in recent months to contain the exploding number of coronavirus cases behind bars. There are currently four confirmed coronavirus cases among inmates at the Terre Haute prison, according to federal statistics, and one inmate there has died.
"The federal government has put this family in the untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee's execution and their own health and safety," the family's attorney, Baker Kurrus, said on Sunday.
Barr said he believes the Bureau of Prisons could "carry out these executions without being at risk". The agency has put a number of additional measures in place, including temperature checks and requiring witnesses to wear masks.
On Sunday, the Justice Department disclosed that a staff member involved in preparing for the execution had tested positive for the coronavirus, but said he had not been in the execution chamber and had not come into contact with anyone on the specialised team sent to the prison to handle the execution.
The victim's family hopes there won't be an execution, ever. They have asked the Justice Department and President Donald Trump not to move forward with the execution and have long asked that Lee be given a life sentence instead.
The last person executed by the federal government was Louis Jones Jr, a US Army soldier put to death in 2003 after he was convicted of the rape and murder of another soldier. He was one of three individuals executed during George W Bush's presidency; before Bush no federal inmates had been put to death since 1963.
But before the pandemic, the economy and healthcare were Americans' top priorities for the government to work on in 2020, with 59 percent and 50 percent naming the two, respectively, in an open-ended question in an Associated Press-NORC poll from December. Some 35 percent said immigration was one of the most important issues the government should work on in 2020, and about as many referenced politics or partisan gridlock.
The percentage of Americans in favour of the death penalty stood at 60 percent in the 2018 General Social Survey, a long-running trends survey. That is about where it was in the 1970s. Support has steadily ticked back down after peaking at 75 percent in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Most Democrats oppose it. By contrast, President Donald Trump has spoken often about capital punishment and his belief that executions serve as an effective deterrent and an appropriate punishment for some crimes, including mass shootings and the killings of police officers.
"This appears to be a distraction," said Samuel Spital, the litigation director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. There are several things that should be at the top of the agenda for the Justice Department right now, he said, including the coronavirus. Another "should be an effort to address the widespread problem of police violence against Black and brown communities in this country which has finally captured the public's attention", he said.
Death penalty
A gurney at a jail in Huntsville, Texas where executions take place. [File: Pat Sullivan/AP Photo]
The majority of people on death row are Black and Hispanic, and the number of cases authorised by the attorney general seeking death since the late 1980s are mostly non-white people.
But the three men chosen to die this week are all white:
Danny Lee, who was convicted in Arkansas of killing a family of three, including an 8-year-old. Family members of Lee's victims have asked a federal judge to delay his execution, saying the coronavirus puts them at risk if they travel to attend the execution. They have asked that the execution be put off until a treatment or a vaccine is available for the virus.
Wesley Ira Purkey, of Kansas, who raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl and killed an 80-year-old woman.
Dustin Lee Honken, who killed five people in Iowa, including two children.
The Justice Department had scheduled five executions set to begin in December, but some of the inmates challenged the new procedures in court, arguing that the government was circumventing proper methods in order to wrongly execute inmates quickly.
Executions on the federal level have been rare and the government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988 — most recently in 2003, when Jones was executed. Though there has not been a federal execution since then, the Justice Department has continued to approve death penalty prosecutions and federal courts have sentenced defendants to death.
In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.
The attorney general said last July that the Obama-era review had been completed, clearing the way for executions to resume. He approved a new procedure for lethal injections that replaces the three-drug combination previously used in federal executions with one drug, pentobarbital. This is similar to the procedure used in several states, including Georgia, Missouri and Texas, but not all
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/resume-federal-executions-17-year-hiatus-200708171146816.html
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The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for the first executions of federal prisoners in 17 years.
Several executions were delayed after a judge ruled on Monday that there were still unresolved legal challenges against the justice department.
Among those facing the death penalty is triple murderer Daniel Lewis Lee, who was due to be executed on Monday.
The condemned prisoners have argued that lethal injections constitute "cruel and unusual punishments".
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 that "executions may proceed as planned".
How US death penalty capital changed its mind
US government death penalty move draws sharp criticism
The Americans volunteering to watch executions
Last year, the Trump administration said it would resume federal executions.
In a statement at the time, Attorney General William Barr said: "The justice department upholds the rule of law - and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system."
Some of the relatives of Lee's victims oppose his execution in Indiana and had sought to have it delayed, arguing that attending it could expose them to coronavirus.
Earlene Peterson, 81, whose daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were killed by Lee, has said she wants the 47-year-old to be given life in jail, the same sentence as his accomplice.
The Trump administration's move has been criticised as a political decision, with campaigners expressing concern about cases being rushed.
The last inmate executed by federal death penalty was Louis Jones Jr, a 53-year-old Gulf War veteran who murdered 19-year-old soldier Tracie Joy McBride.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53401021
Several executions were delayed after a judge ruled on Monday that there were still unresolved legal challenges against the justice department.
Among those facing the death penalty is triple murderer Daniel Lewis Lee, who was due to be executed on Monday.
The condemned prisoners have argued that lethal injections constitute "cruel and unusual punishments".
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 that "executions may proceed as planned".
How US death penalty capital changed its mind
US government death penalty move draws sharp criticism
The Americans volunteering to watch executions
Last year, the Trump administration said it would resume federal executions.
In a statement at the time, Attorney General William Barr said: "The justice department upholds the rule of law - and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system."
Some of the relatives of Lee's victims oppose his execution in Indiana and had sought to have it delayed, arguing that attending it could expose them to coronavirus.
Earlene Peterson, 81, whose daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were killed by Lee, has said she wants the 47-year-old to be given life in jail, the same sentence as his accomplice.
The Trump administration's move has been criticised as a political decision, with campaigners expressing concern about cases being rushed.
The last inmate executed by federal death penalty was Louis Jones Jr, a 53-year-old Gulf War veteran who murdered 19-year-old soldier Tracie Joy McBride.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53401021
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Daniel Lewis Lee: US executes first federal prisoner in 17 years
US murderer Daniel Lewis Lee has been put to death, hours after the Supreme Court allowed the first executions of federal inmates in 17 years.
Several executions were initially delayed when a judge ruled on Monday that there were still unresolved legal challenges.
The condemned prisoners had argued that lethal injections constitute "cruel and unusual punishments".
But the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that "executions may proceed as planned".
Last year, the Trump administration said it would resume federal executions.
Lee was executed by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Indiana, early on Tuesday.
Some relatives of his victims had opposed the execution and sought to have it delayed, arguing that attending it could expose them to coronavirus.
Earlene Peterson, 81, whose daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were killed by Lee, said she wanted the 47-year-old to be given life in jail, the same sentence as his accomplice.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53401021
US murderer Daniel Lewis Lee has been put to death, hours after the Supreme Court allowed the first executions of federal inmates in 17 years.
Several executions were initially delayed when a judge ruled on Monday that there were still unresolved legal challenges.
The condemned prisoners had argued that lethal injections constitute "cruel and unusual punishments".
But the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that "executions may proceed as planned".
Last year, the Trump administration said it would resume federal executions.
Lee was executed by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Indiana, early on Tuesday.
Some relatives of his victims had opposed the execution and sought to have it delayed, arguing that attending it could expose them to coronavirus.
Earlene Peterson, 81, whose daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were killed by Lee, said she wanted the 47-year-old to be given life in jail, the same sentence as his accomplice.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53401021
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After Supreme Court nod, U.S. executes second federal prisoner in 17 years
(Reuters) - The U.S. federal government on Thursday executed its second prisoner this week, following a 17-year pause after the U.S. Supreme Court again intervened to allow the execution to proceed, overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked it.
The Justice Department executed convicted murderer Wesley Purkey by lethal injection, and he was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m. EDT (1219 GMT) at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said.
The execution had been blocked by a federal court, but the Supreme Court overruled it, just as it did in another case on Tuesday, and putting the federal government back in the business of executing prisoners.
“This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you,” a remorseful Purkey said in his final words, according to a reporter who was allowed to witness the killing and share notes with the media.
Purkey, 68, was convicted in 2003 in Missouri of raping and murdering 16-year-old Jennifer Long before dumping her dismembered and burned remains in a septic pond.
His lawyers argued he had dementia and brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease and no longer understood his punishment, though he had accepted responsibility for his crime. Killing him would breach the U.S. Constitution, they said.
“I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much,” Purkey said after he was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, his arms tied to side boards, and an intravenous syringe was inserted into his right arm.
Before Tuesday, when the Justice Department executed convicted killer Daniel Lee in Terre Haute, the federal government had only executed three people since 1963, all from 2001 to 2003.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-u...deral-prisoner-in-17-years-idUKKCN24H23Y?il=0
(Reuters) - The U.S. federal government on Thursday executed its second prisoner this week, following a 17-year pause after the U.S. Supreme Court again intervened to allow the execution to proceed, overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked it.
The Justice Department executed convicted murderer Wesley Purkey by lethal injection, and he was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m. EDT (1219 GMT) at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said.
The execution had been blocked by a federal court, but the Supreme Court overruled it, just as it did in another case on Tuesday, and putting the federal government back in the business of executing prisoners.
“This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you,” a remorseful Purkey said in his final words, according to a reporter who was allowed to witness the killing and share notes with the media.
Purkey, 68, was convicted in 2003 in Missouri of raping and murdering 16-year-old Jennifer Long before dumping her dismembered and burned remains in a septic pond.
His lawyers argued he had dementia and brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease and no longer understood his punishment, though he had accepted responsibility for his crime. Killing him would breach the U.S. Constitution, they said.
“I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much,” Purkey said after he was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, his arms tied to side boards, and an intravenous syringe was inserted into his right arm.
Before Tuesday, when the Justice Department executed convicted killer Daniel Lee in Terre Haute, the federal government had only executed three people since 1963, all from 2001 to 2003.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-u...deral-prisoner-in-17-years-idUKKCN24H23Y?il=0
sweep_shot
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I fully support capital punishment.
Some crimes warrant it.
Some crimes warrant it.
miandadrules
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Which crimes?
sweep_shot
Test Captain
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Unjust murder, child trafficking, pedophilia, drug dealing, rape etc. All these crimes should result in death penalty provided crimes were proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
miandadrules
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You have quite the fixation on killing. You’ve even left room by adding etc..: just to encompass any other group you’d like to add on later to your killing spree.
Just and unjust are subjective.
sweep_shot
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Imagine a world where money is spent on poor and needy instead of keeping dangerous/monstrous criminals alive.
I don't like the concept of execution but some criminals deserve exactly that. It also frees up resources which can be used in something better.
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US: DC judge halts execution of Keith Dwayne Nelson
A US District Court judge in Washington, DC, has ordered a halt to the federal government's planned execution on Friday of Keith Dwayne Nelson, saying its lethal injection protocol violates a federal law regulating prescription drugs.
In an opinion released early on Thursday, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said the law requires the government to get a prescription for the lethal injection drug pentobarbital, which it plans to use to execute Nelson.
It is unlikely any medical professionals would issue the prescription. The government is appealing.
Nelson's execution was scheduled to be the fifth one this year by the federal government at the death chamber of the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Nelson has been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl.
The news comes the day after the only Native American on federal death row was executed against the wishes of the Navajo Nation, which called the sentence an affront to its sovereignty.
Lezmond Mitchell, 38, was put to death via lethal injection on Wednesday evening at the Terre Haute prison, 19 years after he was convicted of killing a young girl and her grandmother, the prison announced.
"Justice finally has been served," said the US Justice Department spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, in a statement.
But Mitchell's lawyers said the federal government had "added another chapter to its long history of injustices against Native American people".
Most crimes committed in the United States are tried in state courts, some of which are authorised to apply capital punishment.
But federal courts can take up and try the most serious cases, or crimes committed in jurisdictions outside state control, such as - under certain conditions - Native American reservations.
Federal courts rarely deliver capital punishment sentences and carry them out even less frequently. From 1988 until July, only three people on federal death row were executed.
However, under the administration of President Donald Trump, a staunch advocate of the death sentence, executions have stepped up.
Three people were executed in July. They were all convicted for the murder of children, often having committed their crimes in a particularly violent manner.
Tribal sovereignty
Mitchell was convicted of fatally stabbing a 63-year-old grandmother during a car theft in 2011 and slitting the throat and crushing the skull of her nine-year-old granddaughter. He then buried the heads and hands of the two victims.
Because the killings occurred on Navajo territory in Arizona and the victims and Mitchell were tribe members, US authorities should have obtained the approval of the Navajo Nation for the death penalty, say community officials who point to a 1994 law governing Native American tribal sovereignty.
The Navajo refuse to apply capital punishment to Native Americans, and the victims' family had asked that Mitchell be sentenced to life imprisonment.
A legal challenge, concerning the sovereignty of tribal justice, failed at the last minute in the US Supreme Court.
Trump, who is standing for re-election on November 3, has advocated expanding the use of the death penalty, in particular for those convicted of killing police officers or children and for drug traffickers.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...er-sentenced-life-parole-200827022044581.html
A US District Court judge in Washington, DC, has ordered a halt to the federal government's planned execution on Friday of Keith Dwayne Nelson, saying its lethal injection protocol violates a federal law regulating prescription drugs.
In an opinion released early on Thursday, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said the law requires the government to get a prescription for the lethal injection drug pentobarbital, which it plans to use to execute Nelson.
It is unlikely any medical professionals would issue the prescription. The government is appealing.
Nelson's execution was scheduled to be the fifth one this year by the federal government at the death chamber of the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Nelson has been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl.
The news comes the day after the only Native American on federal death row was executed against the wishes of the Navajo Nation, which called the sentence an affront to its sovereignty.
Lezmond Mitchell, 38, was put to death via lethal injection on Wednesday evening at the Terre Haute prison, 19 years after he was convicted of killing a young girl and her grandmother, the prison announced.
"Justice finally has been served," said the US Justice Department spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, in a statement.
But Mitchell's lawyers said the federal government had "added another chapter to its long history of injustices against Native American people".
Most crimes committed in the United States are tried in state courts, some of which are authorised to apply capital punishment.
But federal courts can take up and try the most serious cases, or crimes committed in jurisdictions outside state control, such as - under certain conditions - Native American reservations.
Federal courts rarely deliver capital punishment sentences and carry them out even less frequently. From 1988 until July, only three people on federal death row were executed.
However, under the administration of President Donald Trump, a staunch advocate of the death sentence, executions have stepped up.
Three people were executed in July. They were all convicted for the murder of children, often having committed their crimes in a particularly violent manner.
Tribal sovereignty
Mitchell was convicted of fatally stabbing a 63-year-old grandmother during a car theft in 2011 and slitting the throat and crushing the skull of her nine-year-old granddaughter. He then buried the heads and hands of the two victims.
Because the killings occurred on Navajo territory in Arizona and the victims and Mitchell were tribe members, US authorities should have obtained the approval of the Navajo Nation for the death penalty, say community officials who point to a 1994 law governing Native American tribal sovereignty.
The Navajo refuse to apply capital punishment to Native Americans, and the victims' family had asked that Mitchell be sentenced to life imprisonment.
A legal challenge, concerning the sovereignty of tribal justice, failed at the last minute in the US Supreme Court.
Trump, who is standing for re-election on November 3, has advocated expanding the use of the death penalty, in particular for those convicted of killing police officers or children and for drug traffickers.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...er-sentenced-life-parole-200827022044581.html
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US woman faces first federal execution since 1953
The US is to execute a female federal inmate for the first time in almost 70 years, the Justice Department said.
Lisa Montgomery strangled a pregnant woman in Missouri before cutting out and kidnapping the baby in 2004.
She is due to be given a lethal injection in Indiana on 8 December.
The last woman to be executed by the US government was Bonnie Heady, who died in a gas chamber in Missouri in 1953, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The federal execution of Brandon Bernard, who with his accomplices murdered two youth ministers in 1999, has also been scheduled for December.
US Attorney General William Barr said the crimes were "especially heinous murders".
Last year, the Trump administration said it would resume federal executions.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54587863
The US is to execute a female federal inmate for the first time in almost 70 years, the Justice Department said.
Lisa Montgomery strangled a pregnant woman in Missouri before cutting out and kidnapping the baby in 2004.
She is due to be given a lethal injection in Indiana on 8 December.
The last woman to be executed by the US government was Bonnie Heady, who died in a gas chamber in Missouri in 1953, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The federal execution of Brandon Bernard, who with his accomplices murdered two youth ministers in 1999, has also been scheduled for December.
US Attorney General William Barr said the crimes were "especially heinous murders".
Last year, the Trump administration said it would resume federal executions.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54587863
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In Trump’s final days, a rush of federal executions
As President Donald Trump's days in the White House wane, his administration is racing through a string of federal executions.
Five executions are scheduled before President-elect Joe Biden's 20 January inauguration - breaking with an 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions amid a presidential transition.
And if all five take place, Mr Trump will be the country's most prolific execution president in more than a century, overseeing the executions of 13 death row inmates since July of this year.
The five executions are to begin this week, starting with 40-year-old Brandon Bernard and 56-year-old Alfred Bourgeois. They are both scheduled to be put to death at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Attorney General William Barr has said his justice department is simply upholding existing law. But critics have said the move is concerning, coming just weeks before Mr Biden - who has said he will seek to end the death penalty - takes office.
"This is really outside the norm, in a pretty extreme way," said Ngozi Ndulue, director of research at the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center.
Here's what you need to know about President Trump's last-minute rush of executions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55236260
As President Donald Trump's days in the White House wane, his administration is racing through a string of federal executions.
Five executions are scheduled before President-elect Joe Biden's 20 January inauguration - breaking with an 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions amid a presidential transition.
And if all five take place, Mr Trump will be the country's most prolific execution president in more than a century, overseeing the executions of 13 death row inmates since July of this year.
The five executions are to begin this week, starting with 40-year-old Brandon Bernard and 56-year-old Alfred Bourgeois. They are both scheduled to be put to death at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Attorney General William Barr has said his justice department is simply upholding existing law. But critics have said the move is concerning, coming just weeks before Mr Biden - who has said he will seek to end the death penalty - takes office.
"This is really outside the norm, in a pretty extreme way," said Ngozi Ndulue, director of research at the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center.
Here's what you need to know about President Trump's last-minute rush of executions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55236260
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Death row inmate Brandon Bernard has been killed by lethal injection at a federal prison after the US Supreme Court rejected a last-minute request to delay his execution.
Bernard, 40, was just 18 when he took part in the 1999 double murder of an Iowa religious couple, whose bodies he burned in the boot of their car in Texas.
He told Todd and Stacey Bagley's family he was sorry shortly before he was put to death.
His execution is the first of five the Trump administration is rushing through in almost unprecedented fashion before incoming President-elect Joe Biden takes power, with the outgoing US leader having defied calls from campaigners including Kim Kardashian West to stop the killing.
It is the ninth execution since Attorney General William Barr resumed the use of the federal death penalty earlier this year following a 17-year hiatus.
The last time executions were carried out during a presidential lame-duck period was during the tenure of the 22nd president Grover Cleveland in the 1890s.
Defence lawyers had requested an emergency stay and argued in court that Bernard was a low-level member of a youth gang, while five jurors from his trial also pleaded for clemency, saying they regretted not opting for life in prison instead.
Reality TV star Kardashian West also voiced her concerns and was among those who had asked Mr Trump to stop the execution, saying in a series of recent tweets that Bernard's "role was minor compared to that of the other teens involved".
Kardashian West has met with Mr Trump during his time in office to discuss prison reform.
"I'm so messed up right now. They killed Brandon," she tweeted after his death.
"He was such a reformed person. So hopeful and positive until the end. More importantly he is sorry, so sorry for the hurt and pain he has caused others.
"I could go on and on about what an amazing person Brandon was. I do know he left this earth feeling supported and loved and at peace."
Kim Kardashian West speaks alongside Donald Trump during a criminal justice reform event in 2019
One of Bernard's co-defendants, Christopher Vialva, was put to death in September.
Several more inmates are set to be executed before Mr Biden takes office on 20 January.
Alfred Bourgeois is scheduled to be executed later today for torturing and killing his two-year-old daughter in South Texas in 2004.
https://news.sky.com/story/brandon-...shed-series-of-executions-goes-ahead-12157671
Bernard, 40, was just 18 when he took part in the 1999 double murder of an Iowa religious couple, whose bodies he burned in the boot of their car in Texas.
He told Todd and Stacey Bagley's family he was sorry shortly before he was put to death.
His execution is the first of five the Trump administration is rushing through in almost unprecedented fashion before incoming President-elect Joe Biden takes power, with the outgoing US leader having defied calls from campaigners including Kim Kardashian West to stop the killing.
It is the ninth execution since Attorney General William Barr resumed the use of the federal death penalty earlier this year following a 17-year hiatus.
The last time executions were carried out during a presidential lame-duck period was during the tenure of the 22nd president Grover Cleveland in the 1890s.
Defence lawyers had requested an emergency stay and argued in court that Bernard was a low-level member of a youth gang, while five jurors from his trial also pleaded for clemency, saying they regretted not opting for life in prison instead.
Reality TV star Kardashian West also voiced her concerns and was among those who had asked Mr Trump to stop the execution, saying in a series of recent tweets that Bernard's "role was minor compared to that of the other teens involved".
Kardashian West has met with Mr Trump during his time in office to discuss prison reform.
"I'm so messed up right now. They killed Brandon," she tweeted after his death.
"He was such a reformed person. So hopeful and positive until the end. More importantly he is sorry, so sorry for the hurt and pain he has caused others.
"I could go on and on about what an amazing person Brandon was. I do know he left this earth feeling supported and loved and at peace."
Kim Kardashian West speaks alongside Donald Trump during a criminal justice reform event in 2019
One of Bernard's co-defendants, Christopher Vialva, was put to death in September.
Several more inmates are set to be executed before Mr Biden takes office on 20 January.
Alfred Bourgeois is scheduled to be executed later today for torturing and killing his two-year-old daughter in South Texas in 2004.
https://news.sky.com/story/brandon-...shed-series-of-executions-goes-ahead-12157671
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Alfred Bourgeois: Second death row inmate executed in two days
A man who killed his toddler daughter nearly 20 years ago has become the second US federal inmate to be executed in as many days.
Alfred Bourgeois' death by lethal injection on Friday comes after Brandon Bernard was put to death on Thursday.
Three more executions are planned before the end of Donald Trump's presidency on 20 January.
Federal executions had been on pause for 17 years before Mr Trump ordered them to resume earlier this year.
If the remaining executions go ahead, Mr Trump will have overseen the most executions by a US president in more than a century.
They break with an 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions during a presidential transition. President-elect Joe Biden takes office on 20 January.
Mr Biden, who for decades was a fierce proponent of the death penalty as a Delaware senator, has said he will seek to end federal executions once he takes office.
The federal death penalty had not been used since 2003, in part due to concerns about the drugs used in executions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55282093
A man who killed his toddler daughter nearly 20 years ago has become the second US federal inmate to be executed in as many days.
Alfred Bourgeois' death by lethal injection on Friday comes after Brandon Bernard was put to death on Thursday.
Three more executions are planned before the end of Donald Trump's presidency on 20 January.
Federal executions had been on pause for 17 years before Mr Trump ordered them to resume earlier this year.
If the remaining executions go ahead, Mr Trump will have overseen the most executions by a US president in more than a century.
They break with an 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions during a presidential transition. President-elect Joe Biden takes office on 20 January.
Mr Biden, who for decades was a fierce proponent of the death penalty as a Delaware senator, has said he will seek to end federal executions once he takes office.
The federal death penalty had not been used since 2003, in part due to concerns about the drugs used in executions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55282093
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US killer requests death by firing squad in Nevada
A killer who may become the first person put to death in Nevada in 15 years has requested the use of a firing squad rather than lethal injection.
Lawyers for Zane Michael Floyd, who are fighting a possible June execution date, say their client's request is "not a delaying tactic".
In court documents seen by the Associated Press, lawyers say the method is "less painful".
The use of firing squads to carry out the death penalty is rare in the US.
Federal public defence lawyer Brad Levenson said Floyd wanted to avoid the proposed three-drug lethal injection put forward by the state.
But any challenge to the proposed process requires that an alternative method be submitted, and Mr Levenson said gunshots would be "the most humane way".
Execution by firing squad is currently only permitted in three states - Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah - and the procedure has not been used since 2010.
Prosecutors have said they will call for an execution warrant against Floyd next month, with a possible date for his death in early June. It would be the first execution in Nevada since 2006.
Floyd, 45, was convicted of fatally shooting four people and seriously injuring another at a supermarket in Las Vegas in 1999.
He was sentenced to death after pleading guilty the following year.
Floyd has appealed against his sentence numerous times, and his lawyers have said that he would seek clemency from the Nevada State Pardons Board on 22 June.
His request last year for the US Supreme Court to hear his case was rejected.
This latest appeal comes weeks after members of the Nevada Assembly - the lower house of the Nevada state legislature - voted in support of a bill to abolish the death penalty in the state.
If passed with a majority vote in the Nevada Senate, the bill would overturn the state's death sentences to become sentences of life in prison without parole.
There are currently 70 people on death row in Nevada - one of 27 states that retain the death penalty, according to the US Death Penalty Information Center. The state has only once granted clemency since 1976.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56810207
A killer who may become the first person put to death in Nevada in 15 years has requested the use of a firing squad rather than lethal injection.
Lawyers for Zane Michael Floyd, who are fighting a possible June execution date, say their client's request is "not a delaying tactic".
In court documents seen by the Associated Press, lawyers say the method is "less painful".
The use of firing squads to carry out the death penalty is rare in the US.
Federal public defence lawyer Brad Levenson said Floyd wanted to avoid the proposed three-drug lethal injection put forward by the state.
But any challenge to the proposed process requires that an alternative method be submitted, and Mr Levenson said gunshots would be "the most humane way".
Execution by firing squad is currently only permitted in three states - Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah - and the procedure has not been used since 2010.
Prosecutors have said they will call for an execution warrant against Floyd next month, with a possible date for his death in early June. It would be the first execution in Nevada since 2006.
Floyd, 45, was convicted of fatally shooting four people and seriously injuring another at a supermarket in Las Vegas in 1999.
He was sentenced to death after pleading guilty the following year.
Floyd has appealed against his sentence numerous times, and his lawyers have said that he would seek clemency from the Nevada State Pardons Board on 22 June.
His request last year for the US Supreme Court to hear his case was rejected.
This latest appeal comes weeks after members of the Nevada Assembly - the lower house of the Nevada state legislature - voted in support of a bill to abolish the death penalty in the state.
If passed with a majority vote in the Nevada Senate, the bill would overturn the state's death sentences to become sentences of life in prison without parole.
There are currently 70 people on death row in Nevada - one of 27 states that retain the death penalty, according to the US Death Penalty Information Center. The state has only once granted clemency since 1976.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56810207
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