Execution of Butler County man to set record in lethal-injection era

Calif. prison officials get supply of lethal injection drug at center of canceled execution
San Francisco — California Prison officials have secured a fresh supply of a Lethal Injection drug they ran out of last week, contributing to cancellation of the State's first execution in nearly five years. In a court filing Wednesday, the State Attorney General's office said it had secured 12 grams of sodium thiopental with a 2014 expiration date. The State called off the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown last Thursday after two significant legal setbacks and expiration of its seven...

State obtains new supply of lethal injection drug
San Francisco — Prison officials have secured a fresh supply of a Lethal Injection drug they ran out of last week that contributed to the cancellation of California's first execution in nearly five years. In a Court filing Wednesday, the State Attorney General's office told U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel it had secured 12 grams of sodium thiopental with an expiration date in 2014. The State called off the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown on Thursday after two significant lega...

State obtains new supply of lethal injection drug
San Francisco — Prison officials have secured a fresh supply of a Lethal Injection drug they ran out of last week that contributed to the cancellation of California's first execution in nearly five years. In a Court filing Wednesday, the State Attorney General's office told U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel it had secured 12 grams of sodium thiopental with an expiration date in 2014. The State called off the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown on Thursday after two significant lega...

US executions delayed by shortage of death penalty drug
Pharmaceutical company suspends production of Pentothal because it cannot obtain sufficient quantity of active ingredient The death chamber in Lucasville, Ohio. The shortage of a drug used in the Lethal Injection is likely to result in a delay to US executions. Photograph: Kiichiro Sato/AP Several of the 17 Prisoners condemned to be put to death in the US by the end of January are likely to receive a temporary reprieve after a commercial drug company said it had run out of the anaesthetic widely...

Malloy, Foley maneuver around home-invasion verdict
With a televised clash over Capital Punishment likely just a few hours away, Gubernatorial contenders Dan Malloy and Tom Foley maneuvered delicately but differently around Tuesday afternoon's conviction in the Cheshire Home Invasion slayings. Foley cited both Malloy's opposition to Capital Punishment and referred to the July 2007 murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in reaffirming his support for the death penalty - and implying a Malloy win would spare the Cheshire suspects f...

Ohio Gov./Sen.: Ted Strickland vs. John Kasich/Lee Fisher vs. Rob Portman
By Michael Crowley Monday, Oct. 04, 2010 It was a cruel summer for Democrats in Ohio. A few months ago, this state — where both the state house and a Senate seat are up for grabs — looked like a rare place where Democrats might hold their own against intense national headwinds. Although Incumbent Democratic Governor Ted Strickland had presided over the loss of nearly 400,000 Jobs, spring brought some green shoots of recovery and modest job gains. In one spring stretch, five out of eig...

Texas delays hearing into whether executed man was innocent
Stumble This! Austin, Texas — A court hearing to determine whether a man executed in 2004 was innocent of burning to death his three young daughters was postponed Wednesday when prosecutors asked the Judge to take himself off the case. Cameron Todd Willingham's family is seeking to have his name cleared amid claims that the evidence Arson investigators used in his 1992 trial was based on flawed science. If the court exonerates Willingham of killing his three daughters he will be the first...

Ore. woman pleads guilty to killing pregnant woman
HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon woman obsessed with having a baby pleaded guilty Wednesday to the Murder of a pregnant woman whose unborn child was cut from her abdomen after she was bludgeoned to death. Korena Roberts, 29, was sentenced to life in Prison without the possibility of Parole. Her plea means she won't face trial and a possible death sentence. She was accused of beating 21-year-old Heather Snively with a collapsible Police baton in June 2009 and using a straight razor to open Sniv...

SoCal man convicted in missile smuggling case
Los Angeles — A Southern California man was convicted Wednesday on a Conspiracy charge for attempting to arrange the Smuggling of shoulder-fired, surface-to-air Missiles from his homeland into the United States. Yi Qing Chen, 46, of Rosemead, was found guilty of five felony counts, including drug Conspiracy and Conspiracy to import Missile Systems designed to destroy Aircraft. It is the first guilty verdict in the nation under a 2004 anti-terrorism statute that outlaws the importing of ...

Strickland Leads Kasich By 4 Points
Our Week 4 tracking poll, conducted October 3-5, 2010, shows Governor Ted Strickland at 46 percent and Republican John Kasich at 42 percent, a 4-point lead for Strickland. The Strickland lead expands in the four-way vote as Kasich's unfavorable Ratings have increased and those voters who do not support Strickland are increasingly open to alternatives. In the four-way vote, Strickland leads with 44 percent support while alternative Candidates sap Kasich's support and leave him with just 37...

Factbox: Kerviel joins rogue traders' gallery
Tue Oct 5, 2010 12:08pm EDT n">(Reuters) - Former Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel was sentenced to three years in Prison by a Paris court on Tuesday for his role in a trading Scandal and ordered to reimburse the French Bank 4.9 Billion Euros ($6.75 Billion). The 33-year-old was found guilty of breach of trust, computer abuse and forgery. Here are some other notorious "rogue traders" of the last two decades: April 2010 -- MF Global employee Evan Dooley was indicted on Fraud and other...

Michael White's Conference Daily: Law and order
Index Michael White's Conference Daily: Law and order; crime and the Conservatives Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke vowed to introduce a pragmatic reform of the penal system, as Theresa May announced new powers for police accountability. So where do the Tories stand on law and order? Michael White reports Law and order Debates at Conservative conferences once brought forth a crowd of Activists demanding a return to Capital Punishment. No more, it appears. Michael White reports from...

No, the Supreme Court is not 'pro-business', contrary to Dahlia Lithwick's claim
Slate s Dahlia Lithwick has falsely claimed that in the Supreme Court, Big Business always prevails, Environmentalists are always buried, female and elderly workers go unprotected, death row inmates get the needle, and criminal defendants are shown thedoor. That false claim is utterly inconsistent with reality. Over the last dozen years, the death penalty has been dramatically cut back in cases like Roper v. Simmons (2005), as the Supreme Court has invalidated the death penalty...

Ex-wife of Texas man executed for killing their 3 kids repeats her claim he confessed
Austin, Texas — The ex-wife of the Texas man executed for setting fire to their home and killing their three daughters tearfully reiterated her contention Wednesday that he confessed his guilt to her. Stacy Kuykendall read a prepared statement to reporters outside the Travis County Courthouse. She told reporters that Cameron Todd Willingham set the fire that killed the girls "and watched while their tiny bodies burned." A hearing is scheduled for later Wednesday in which a Judge has been...

Keep Death Penalty, Connecticu
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Foley: Dan seems angry. Malloy: He started it
One of them is going to be elected Governor, but neither Dan Malloy nor Tom Foley is likely to score a dinner invite from Tuesday's televised hour of caustic asides, withering ripostes and cross-talk. Foley made a fortune in business. Malloy presided for 14 years over Connecticut's only large city that has a triple-A bond rating. But each belittled the other as utterly unqualified and untruthful throughout a debate on the Bushnell stage in Hartford. And they get to do it again at 9 a.m. Wednes...

Justice Stevens, Capital Punishment, and Path Dependence
that upheld the death penalty as reconstituted by Georgia and other states to require states to narrow the category of execution-worthy defendants using aggravating and mitigating factors.   In the interview with Totenberg, Stevens says that he expected that the sorts of factors upheld in Gregg would mean that only the worst of the worst would be executed, so that a death sentence would not be the sort of random Lightning Strike that Furman condemned.  But, Stevens goes on to...

Illinois death penalty gains traction as Bill Brady surges, voters approve
(Chicago, IL) October 4, 2010 . With a growing likelihood that Illinois GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Brady , a death penalty proponent who favors lifting the existing Moratorium, will win the November General Election over rival Governor Pat Quinn and that a recent poll shows that a majority of Illinois voters favor of maintaining Capital Punishment, the issue has been thrust into the electoral scrum. Jeremy Schroeder , Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the...

Deliberations May Begin Monday In Cheshire Invasion Trial
NEW HAVEN, CT (CBS 2) — A Connecticut jury may begin deliberations Monday afternoon in the Home Invasion trial of Steven Hayes. Hayes and an accomplice were charged with killing Dr. William Petit’s wife and two daughters and burning down the family Home in Cheshire back in 2007. They were also facing Rape charges. Petit was beaten and tied-up in the basement, but escaped. Hayes could face the death penalty if convicted. His co-defendant was scheduled for trial next year.

Justice Stevens says he only regrets vote to uphold death penalty
Former Supreme Court j ustice John Paul Stevens , who was not on the bench this morning for the new term for the first time in 35 years, says the only vote he would change from all his years on the High Court was the one to uphold the death penalty. In a wide-ranging interview with NPR's Nina Totenberg, the 90-year-old Stevens says he thought at the time that the universe of defendants eligible for Capital Punishment was so narrow that "you can be confident that the death penalty was...

Annals of American Injustice
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the question on whether prosecutors can be liable if they violate the Constitutional Rights of the accused. The background of the case is, in addition, very instructive about the functioning of the death penalty, even before we get to the fact that the DA intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence: In John Thompson’s case, there was no physical evidence linking him to the crimethe brutal Robbery and Murder of an unarmed New Orleans...

Burglar guilty of murders
A BURGLAR could be facing the death penalty after being convicted of killing a mother and her two daughters in a 2007 Home Invasion in the Connecticut town of New Haven. Steven Hayes, 47, was convicted of Murder, Sexual Assault and other charges by a jury that had heard eight days of Testimony about the July 2007 attacks on Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11,. The sole survivor, Dr William Petit, appeared to hold back tears as the verdict was read. The...

Petit Family Murderer Found Guilty on 16 Out of 17 Crimes
The New York Times reports that Steven J. Hayes has been convicted of 16 of the 17 Crimes that were brought on by the killer who invaded a home in Connecticut and murdered a wife and two daughters. Only taking the jury less than one full day to deliberate, Hayes, who has a long history as a petty criminal, was convicted of the Capital Crimes that make him eligible for the death penalty. The same jury will now embark upon another trial to determine whether or not Hayes will get the death...

Connecticut: Steven Hayes Found Guilty of Capital Murder
© Dr. William Petit Jr Dr. Petit, left, with his daughters Michaela, front, Hayley, center rear, and his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit. His wife and two daughters were killed during a Home Invasion in Cheshire, Conn in 2007. Steven Hayes will never be a free man again. After eight days of gruesome Testimony, a Connecticut jury on Tuesday found the 47-year-old paroled burglar guilty of murdering a mother and her two daughters in a horrific, high-profile, 2007 Home Invasion. The jury, which...

Triple murder case yields convictions
A former parolee was convicted of Capital Crimes on Tuesday for his involvement in nighttime Home Invasion in Cheshire, Conn., three years ago. Stephen J. Hayes was convicted of 16 of the 17 Crimes. He was acquitted of the Arson charge. Testimony showed that Hayes and a friend he had made at a Connecticut halfway house for parolees, Joshua Komisarjevsky, entered the Petit house, beat and restrained the father, Dr. William A. Petit Jr., and raped and strangled of the mother, Jennifer...