Serial killer on federal death row dies at Indiana hospital
A convicted serial killer whose victims included two young boys died Sunday at a hospital in Indiana, authorities said.
Death Penalty
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Year in Review: COVID aside, Barrett’s ascent to SCOTUS tops year’s biggest legal news stories
COVID may have seemed like the only thing that happened in 2020, but for Indiana’s legal community, the past year brought watershed developments that will be with us for years to come, many of which were touched directly by the pandemic. Here are the Top 10 non-coronavirus Indiana legal news stories as determined by consensus of the Indiana Lawyer editorial staff.
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Web exclusive: Young attorney driven in fight to abolish capital punishment
Attorney Ashley Eve was one of more than a dozen death penalty protesters who claimed that their First Amendment rights were violated when Indiana State Police set up roadblocks that kept capital punishment protestors almost 2 miles away from the federal prison in Terre Haute while three executions took place there last month. Eve was motivated to a career in law by her opposition to the death penalty.
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Resuming executions: As DOJ reinstates capital punishment, Southern District unsure what’s next
With federal death row in its jurisdiction, the Southern Indiana District Court is preparing but does not know what to expect as the U.S. Department of Justice moves forward with the resumption of executions after nearly two decades.
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Articles
Court could reimpose Boston marathon bomber’s death sentence
The United States Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Joe Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment.
On federal death row, inmates talk about Biden, executions
On federal death row in Terre Haute, prisoners fling notes on a string under each other’s cell doors and converse through interconnected air ducts. A top issue these days: whether President Joe Biden will halt executions, several told The Associated Press.
Jones: Pardon me? Can you deny a presidential pardon or commutation?
Though most of us might strain ourselves thinking of a reason why one might refuse a pardon or a commutation, multiple individuals have attempted to reject a pardon or commutation, providing both interesting stories and a strange, potential check on the executive.
DOC secrets remain after justices rule for disclosure
Despite a ruling in her favor from the Indiana Supreme Court capping her years-long quest to find out how the state of Indiana might carry out an execution, Washington, D.C., attorney Katherine Toomey was still waiting for answers two weeks later.
Justices split, let stand rulings against DOC over death penalty secrecy
The Indiana Supreme Court has evenly split in a long-running dispute over disclosure of records concerning the state’s lethal injection drugs, clearing the way for disclosure of the records and the payment by the state of more than a half-million dollars in legal fees.
Executioners sanitized accounts of deaths in federal cases
Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys “beds” and final breaths “snores.” The sworn accounts by executioners, which government filings cited as evidence the lethal injections were going smoothly, raise questions about whether officials misled courts to ensure the executions scheduled from July to mid-January were done before death penalty opponent Joe Biden became president.
82 advocacy groups call on Biden to end federal executions
Dozens of civil rights and advocacy organizations are calling on the Biden administration to immediately halt federal executions after an unprecedented run of capital punishment under former President Donald Trump and to commute the sentences of inmates on federal death row.
Biden pressed to end federal death penalty
Joe Biden, the first sitting U.S. president to openly oppose the death penalty, has discussed the possibility of instructing the Department of Justice to stop scheduling new executions, officials have told The Associated Press. But it remains unclear whether Biden may take broader action to halt the federal death penalty.
Analysis: Federal executions likely a COVID superspreader
As the Trump administration was nearing the end of an unprecedented string of executions in Terre Haute, 70% of death row inmates were sick with COVID-19. Guards were ill. Traveling prison staff on the execution team had the virus. So did media witnesses, who may have unknowingly infected others when they returned home because they were never told about the spreading cases.
Feds withheld info on virus cases after Terre Haute executions
At least two journalists tested positive for coronavirus after witnessing the Trump administration’s final three federal executions, but the Bureau of Prisons knowingly withheld the diagnoses from other media witnesses and did not perform any contact tracing, The Associated Press has learned.
Suspect in IMPD officer’s slaying to face death penalty
The man accused of fatally shooting an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer will face a potential death sentence, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday.
Indiana inmate agrees to plead guilty in inmate’s killing
An inmate at a central Indiana prison has agreed to plead guilty in the fatal stabbing of another inmate, four months after he rejected the same plea agreement. The inmate has previously requested the death penalty.
Trump administration carries out 13th and final execution
The Trump administration early Saturday carried out its 13th federal execution in Terre Haute since July, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, an opponent of the federal death penalty.
Despite riot, impeachment, business as usual for high court
At this fraught moment in American history, the Supreme Court of the United States is doing its best to keep its head down, going about its regular business and putting off as many politically charged issues as it can, including whether President Donald Trump’s tax returns must be turned over to prosecutors in New York.
US executes Virginia gang killer despite COVID-19 infection
The federal government executed a drug trafficker Thursday in Terre Haute for slaying seven people in a burst of violence in Virginia’s capital in 1992, with some witnesses in the death chamber building applauding after the 52-year-old was pronounced dead.
Drug dealer convicted in 7 killings faces possible execution
It was one of the worst bursts of gang violence ever seen in Richmond, Virginia. At least 11 people were killed in a 45-day period in 1992, all at the hands of gang members who eliminated anyone they thought would get in the way of their growing crack cocaine business.
US executes first woman since 1953
A Kansas woman who briefly won a reprieve earlier this week from an Indiana federal judge was executed early Wednesday morning in Terre Haute for strangling an expectant mother in Missouri and cutting the baby from her womb. It was the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government has put to death a female inmate.
Judge halts first US execution of female inmate in 67 years
An Indiana federal judge has halted the U.S. government’s first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades, saying a court must first determine whether the Kansas woman who killed an expectant mother, cut the baby from her womb and then tried to pass off the newborn as her own is mentally competent.
Inmate scheduled for Friday execution loses 7th Circuit appeal
A federal prisoner scheduled to be executed Friday at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute has failed to secure habeas relief from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.