NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A Tennessee man on death row who was forced to act as his own lawyer is seeking a new trial, claiming multiple violations of his constitutional rights. Howard Willis was sentenced to death in 2010 for the murders of teenage newlyweds, 17-year-old Adam Chrismer and 16-year-old Samantha Leming Chrismer, both of Chickamauga, Georgia. The […]
Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.) announced a new executive order on Friday to establish a Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner to provide transparency around the state’s processes and protocols for executions. In a statement, Hobbs’ office said she signed an executive order establishing the commissioner as part of her First 100 Days initiative to “build an Arizona […]
HOUSTON—Texas’ oldest death row inmate faces execution Thursday for killing a Houston police officer nearly 32 years ago during a traffic stop. Carl Wayne Buntion, 78, was sentenced to death for the June 1990 fatal shooting of Houston police officer James Irby, a nearly 20-year member of the force. Buntion had been on parole for […]
A Texas death row inmate has received a new execution date. This comes after the Supreme Court granted him a reprieve—due to his request for clergy to pray out loud and touch him during the execution. But the texas criminal system has yet to grant his request.
OKLAHOMA CITY—A state appeals court on Wednesday rejected the appeal of an Oklahoma death row inmate who was sentenced to die for killing a 16-year-old girl in 2012. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied Miles Bench’s motion for an evidentiary hearing and to stay proceedings in his death penalty appeal. Bench, 30, was convicted […]
The question remains open on whether death row inmates are entitled to a spiritual adviser, who can both pray aloud and make physical contact at the moment of execution. After halting a recent execution in Texas, the high court is now weighing the religious rights of those sentenced to death.
House Democrats are hoping to vote on President Joe Biden’s larger social spending plan next week. But is that too optimistic? And a nonpartisan group says it’ll cost much more than the White House’s estimate.
U.S. Navy SEALs are suing the Biden administration. It’s over claims they are being denied religious exemptions to the vaccine. This, while a new law in Illinois seeks to boost vaccinations by preventing employees from opting out for moral reasons.
Do death row inmates have the right to hear prayers at their execution? A debate is underway in the Supreme Court, after a condemned prisoner asked for prayers and physical contact with his chaplain at the moment of death.
JACKSON, Miss.—A Mississippi judge will decide whether a death row inmate who says he wants to be executed is mentally competent to waive all his appeals. The state Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the examination in the case of David Cox. Cox wrote to Mississippi Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. in August saying he wanted […]
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill into law over the weekend that would require death row inmates to choose their execution method if lethal injections are not available in the state. The measure will allow the state to restart executions after nearly a decade-long pause, adding firing squads as an alternative method. A bipartisan group […]
