What a waste, he could have apologized.
What a waste, he could have apologized.
"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin
Originally Posted by bowieluva
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/indiana...-toney-second/An Indiana man convicted in the 2000 killing of a police officer was put to death by lethal injection early Tuesday in the state's second execution since 2009.
Benjamin Ritchie, 45, had been on death row for more than two decades following his conviction in the fatal shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney.
Ritchie told a parole board earlier this month that he had changed during his more than two decades behind bars. He apologized for his actions, which led to the killing of the 31-year-old married father of two children.
Indiana codes require death row inmates to be executed before sunrise on the day their executions are scheduled to take place.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news...s/83720818007/
A man convicted of killing a Texas grandmother is set to be executed on Tuesday, May 20.
Exactly 13 years prior to his execution date, Matthew Lee Johnson robbed a Garland convenience store where Nancy Judith Harris, 76, had worked for about five years. Johnson poured lighter fluid over her head and set her on fire, resulting in second- to fourth-degree burns covering most of her body.
Harris was taken to a hospital by ambulance, where she succumbed to her injuries and was taken off life support five days later.
Johnson has never claimed innocence, and his attorney says he deeply regrets the murder.
Well....I meaaannnnn. I've always had center left view on the death penalty. My only issue with it is that innocent people can be put to death using it and that I'm not against it, but that it should only be used in especially egregious cases that are absolutely proven that the perpetrator was the one responsible. Video evidence etc. In this case, he has never claimed innocence, it's obvious that they probably had video evidence and he set her on fire which is both painful and caused extreme suffering. That just isn't something you do because you panicked or were faced with someone armed. That's something you do because you wanted to inflict a lot of pain and suffering.
It should really be reserved for the folks that there literally is not hope for like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer etc. and I'm all for keeping it because if anything, it's a bargaining chip to get offenders to give up locations of bodies or testify against the main suspect and the like.
You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...a/84136562007/Two men were executed in the U.S. on Tuesday in what is now the nation's fourth double execution of the year.
Florida executed Anthony Wainwright by lethal injection just after 6 p.m. ET for the 1994 rape and murder of 23-year-old Carmen Gayheart, a married mother of two and nursing student who was kidnapped in broad daylight in a grocery store parking lot.
Less than an hour later, Alabama used the controversial nitrogen gas method to execute Gregory Hunt for the 1988 rape and murder of 32-year-old Karen Lane, a woman he had been dating for a month.
The double executions - meaning inmates who were put to death on the same day but in different states - mark the nation's 20th and 21st executions of 2025.
They come as the U.S. is on pace to put more inmates to death this year than any other in the past decade, though the nation is still far from its busiest execution year ever: 98 in 1999.
https://oklahomavoice.com/briefs/okl...r-1999-murder/OKLAHOMA CITY – Tulsa County killer John Fitzgerald Hanson was put to death Thursday by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. The time of death was 10:11 a.m.
Hanson, who also went by George John Hanson, was sentenced to death for the 1999 shooting death of Mary Bowles, 77, a retired bank executive whom he and his accomplice, Victor Miller, abducted from a Tulsa mall.
Bowles was shot four to six times. Her body was later found in a dirt pit near Owasso. Bystander Jerald Thurman was also killed.
The longest-serving man on Mississippi’s death row was executed Wednesday, nearly five decades after he kidnapped and killed a bank loan officer’s wife in a violent ransom scheme.
Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder was sentenced to death in 1976 for killing and kidnapping Edwina Marter.
He died by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.https://apnews.com/article/execution...a771abd0ae95e0Jordan was one of several on the state’s death row who sued the state over its three-drug execution protocol, claiming it is inhumane.
When given an opportunity to make a final statement Wednesday, he said, “First I would like to thank everyone for a humane way of doing this. I want to apologize to the victim’s family.”
He also thanked his lawyers and his wife and asked for forgiveness. His last words were: “I will see you on the other side, all of you.”
Personally, I feel he deserves to die.
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/artic...8-6b24c1568569A man who killed his wife and two children in 1994 after she sought a divorce is scheduled for execution in Florida under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Edward J. Zakrzewski, II, is set to die July 31 in the ninth execution scheduled for this year in the state.
He pleaded guilty in 1996 to three counts of first-degree murder and received three death sentences in the killings of wife Sylvia Zakrzewski, son Edward Zakrzewski, 7, and Anna Zakrzewski, 5.
The man beat his wife with a crowbar and machete and strangled her to death and killed the children with a machete June 9, 1994, in Okaloosa County.
He eventually turned himself into law enforcement after the case was profiled on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries,” according to court documents.
A 69-year-old Tennessee inmate was executed by lethal injection Tuesday morning — despite warnings from doctors and advocates that his heart device could repeatedly shock him during the process.
Byron Black, convicted of the 1988 murders of his girlfriend Angela Clay and her two young daughters, ages 6 and 9, was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, per the Associated Press.
According to multiple witness accounts, Black groaned, gasped and appeared to be in visible distress during the execution. At one point, he reportedly cried out, “It’s hurting so bad,” per the outlet.
For weeks leading up to the execution, Black’s attorneys fought to have his implantable cardioverter defibrillator, a medical device meant to shock the heart when its rhythm becomes irregular, deactivated, per The Washington Post.
They argued the device could override the effects of the lethal injection drugs and trigger repeated, painful shocks as he died.https://people.com/tenn-inmate-execu...-risk-11785550"I interpret that my client was tortured today," Black's attorney, Kelley Henry, told NBC News.
Before the execution, a lower court agreed and ordered the device shut off, according to the AP, but Tennessee’s Supreme Court overturned the decision, ruling the judge lacked authority to intervene.
Meanwhile, Nashville General Hospital — where Black’s device had been implanted — stated it never agreed to deactivate it and declined to participate, citing ethical concerns.
Black’s legal team also sought clemency, citing his diagnoses of intellectual disability, heart failure, kidney failure and progressive dementia, the AP reported.
He was wheelchair-bound at the time of his death and had spent more than three decades on death row, per the outlet.
Florida on Tuesday put to death a man convicted of abducting a woman from an insurance office and fatally stabbing her.
Kayle Bates, 67, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. after a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
His death sentence was handed down after his conviction on first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted sexual battery charges in the June 14, 1982, killing of Janet White in Florida's Panhandle.
White's husband, Randy White, witnessed Tuesday's execution.
As Bates was strapped to a gurney, he replied "no" when asked if he had any last words.https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-e...bducted-officeBates abducted Janet White from the insurance office where she worked and took her into a wooded area behind the building, where prosecutors said he attempted to rape her.
He fatally stabbed her and tore a diamond ring from one of her fingers, authorities said.
Bates' lawyers appealed his conviction and filed a lawsuit claiming DeSantis’ process for signing death warrants was discriminatory. The lawsuit was recently dismissed by a judge.
Bates' claim that organic brain damage had not been properly considered during his second penalty phase was also denied by the Florida Supreme Court.
Tuesday's execution was the state's 10th this year, a record. Across the United States, 29 men have died by court-ordered execution as of Tuesday.
It always boggles my mind how mass murderers can avoid the death penalty, yet someone who kills ONE person gets lethal injection. Not saying it's right of course, or that killing just one person is no big deal. Just saying, it's strange how shit works.
Happy Birthday! I hid a dead body in your backyard to celebrate. Good luck finding it under the cement. You can only use a stick to look for it.
Many times race is a factor...especially in the South.
Two inmates have been executed an hour apart during what's expected to be the single busiest month for the death penalty in the U.S. in nearly 15 years.
Florida executed Samuel Lee Smithers on Tuesday, Oct. 14, for murdering two Tampa women in 1996. Smithers, who was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. ET, became the 14th inmate executed in the state this year, a record.
About an hour later, Missouri executed Lance Shockley for the murder of a Missouri state trooper in 2005. He was pronounced dead at 7:13 p.m. ET., the Associated Press reported.
Smithers' and Shockley's executions are among seven this October − four of them this week alone. If they all move forward, it will be the single busiest month for executions in the U.S. since May 2011.Missouri executed Lance Shockley, 48, by lethal injection for the 2005 murder of 37-year-old Sgt. Carl "Dewayne" Graham Jr. of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Graham, a father of a 4-year-old boy at the time, was ambushed and shot in the back with a high-powered rifle as he arrived home in the small rural city of Van Buren. He was then shot in the head.
Prosecutors argued that Shockley killed Graham because the trooper was investigating him as the prime suspect in a case of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...s/86694487007/Florida executed Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, for murdering two Tampa women in 1996: 24-year-old Denise Roach and 31-year-old Christy Cowan.
Smithers, a married deacon at a church in the Tampa suburb of Plant City, made a partial confession to killing both women, who were sex workers, and dumping them in a Plant City pond.
Smithers told police that he got into an argument with Cowan over money he owed her for sex, so he hit her on the head with an axe, threw her in the pond and "finished her off" with a garden hoe.
A Florida man who raped and murdered his next-door neighbor after inviting her over for coffee is set to become the 15th inmate executed in the state this year, nearly double Florida's previous record for annual executions.
Norman Grim, 65, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, Oct. 28, for the brutal murder of his Pensacola neighbor, a 41-year-old lawyer named Cynthia Campbell who was described as always looking for ways to help people.
If Grim's execution moves forward as expected, he'll be the 41st man executed in the U.S. this year, a number not seen since 2012. At least five more executions are scheduled before January.
On July 27, 1998, 41-year-old Pensacola resident Cynthia Campbell called 911 after one of the windows in her house had been broken.https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...a/86931492007/A responding deputy found Norman Grim outside Campbell's home but Grim told him he was just investigating a barking dog.
While the deputy was still there, Grim invited Campbell over for coffee several times, and the deputy encouraged her to accept.
Campbell went to Grim's home that morning and walked into a trap. Grim attacked her with a hammer and a knife and raped and killed her, according to court records, which say she had been bludgeoned 18 times and stabbed 11 times, mostly in the heart.
Grim then wrapped Campbell's body in some carpet and sheets and dumped her in Pensacola Bay, where a fisherman found her just two hours later.
Yeah I noticed a trend where they are putting a lot of inmates to death who committed crimes in the late 90's. I guess after 25 years their appeals have been exhausted.
His scheduled date/time is tonight at 6.
"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin
https://people.com/alabama-to-execut...a-man-11922117
Alabama Set to Execute Man for Murder, Despite Never Killing Anyone
I am not against the felony murder rule, however I definitely think the trigger man should have the harshest punishment.On March 12, the state of Alabama is scheduled to execute Charles "Sonny" Burton.
In 1991, Burton masterminded the robbery of an AutoZone during which one of his accomplices killed a man, according to a copy of his petition for a writ of certiorari obtained by PEOPLE.
Burton, now 75, was convicted of capital murder in 1992 and sentenced to death.
Derek DeBruce, the accomplice who shot a man dead, was also sentenced to death, but in 2015 the state resentenced him to life in prison.
Now, Burton and his supporters are hoping that Governor Kay Ivey will commute his sentence to life without parole.
This is wrong.
If the actual shooter was resentenced to life without parole, the same should go for this man. Otherwise this is a miscarriage of justice.
"A vagabond dreamer, a rhymer and singer of songs
Singing to no one and nowhere to really belong." - Waylon Jennings
I'm with everyone else here. It's ridiculous that the person that actually did the killing got his sentence reduced and the accomplice is going to die for the crime. Unless, this is what he personally wants. I mean, he's 75 and has been in prison forever and won't ever leave. If he wants the easy out, then give it to him, but if he's fighting to get it reduced, just reduce his sentence FFS.
You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass
This is excellent news.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/10/us/so...abama-governorThe governor of Alabama has granted clemency to a man on death row for three decades, a rare move that spares the accomplice in a 1991 murder from execution on Thursday.
Gov. Kay Ivey, in announcing her commutation of Charles Burton’s death sentence, said she could not “proceed in good conscience” with the execution because he was not the shooter. She said his sentence will now be life in prison without parole.
“I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not,” Ivey said in a statement on Tuesday. “He will now receive the same punishment as the triggerman.”
I think this is super reasonable. I'm surprised though since it's Alabama.
This is great news. Finally someone in charge that has common sense. Good on that judge.
You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass
I was very happy to see this when I read it this morning. Restored a little of my faith in the justice system. A little. Not a lot.
"A vagabond dreamer, a rhymer and singer of songs
Singing to no one and nowhere to really belong." - Waylon Jennings
Florida carried out the second of two executions in one day at 6 p.m. on July 28, by lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. It was the first time since 1964 that Florida executed two inmates on the same day.
James Duckett, 68, a former Mascotte police officer, was executed earlier in the day for the 1987 kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee, who, prosecutors say, was abducted by Duckett from a convenience store where she'd gone to buy a pencil.
Her strangled, drowned body was found in a lake the next day.
Duckett declined to say any last words and was declared dead at 1:19 p.m. following the administration of Florida's three-drug cocktail.https://www.tallahassee.com/story/ne...e/91039897007/Dominick Occhicone, 80, was executed at 6 p.m. for the 1986 murder of his ex-girlfriend Anita Gerrety's parents.
They'd dated for three years, were engaged to be married and had one child together when Gerrety ended the relationship over Occhicone's temper, violent acts and physical abuse.
Occhicone, who blamed Gerrety's parents for the breakup, went to their home, cut the phone line, fatally shot Raymond Artzner in the face and shot Martha Artzner four times, killing her.
Occhicone's final words were, "I’m sorry for the hurt I’ve caused my family.” To the victims’ family, he said, “I know it don’t mean much, but I’m sorry. I never meant to do what I did.”
Just more than a month before her scheduled execution, Christa Pike will be in court beginning Aug. 11 to watch her attorneys try to stop her lethal injection.
Pike, scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819, faces a Sept. 30 execution date at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
She has been in custody since 1995 when she was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1996 for the 1995 torture and killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Pike was 18 when she, Slemmer, Shadolla Peterson and Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, went to a wooded, isolated area behind the University of Tennessee's agriculture campus steam plant, ostensibly to smoke marijuana.
Pike was jealous of Slemmer, who she believed was trying to seduce Shipp.Archived article: https://archive.ph/J05pk#selection-921.0-921.247With Peterson serving as a lookout, Pike and Shipp tortured Slemmer for 30 minutes. Slemmer's body was found with a pentagram carved into her chest.
Slemmer was bludgeoned to death. The beating was so savage that a piece of Slemmer's skull was dislodged. Pike kept the skull fragment and showed it to friends afterward.
Pike also was convicted of attempted first-degree murder after a 2001 assault on a fellow inmate.
Pike's attorneys will argue that her execution is inherently cruel because it will be carried out in a men's prison by an all-male execution team.
They say Pike suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after childhood abuse at the hands of men.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_Pike
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