Indiana panel drops contentious requirement from voting bill
A legislative committee has overhauled a contentious proposal to require Indiana voters to submit identification numbers with mail-in ballot applications.
Terre Haute
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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
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.
Indiana Gaming Commission fines Spectacle $530K for slow removal of CEO
The Indiana Gaming Commission has fined Spectacle Entertainment more than a half-million dollars for not initially complying with an order to remove its former CEO and chairman from any ownership or oversight of the company.
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.
Southern Indiana District Court on list for more judges
The Judicial Conference of the United States is asking Congress to create 79 new judgeships in federal courts across the country, including adding two new permanent judges in the Southern Indiana District Court.
COA splits on whether email was contract between apartment owner, vendor
A settlement offer received via email between a former apartment owner and a service vendor was an enforceable contract, a majority of the Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed. A dissenting judge, however, would reverse the order requiring the parties to be bound by the terms of a March 2016 email exchange.
Terre Haute man sentenced after student eats drug-laced candy
A Terre Haute man was sentence to a decade in prison in a case where a student at a local school became ill after eating drug-laced candy.
Casino exec Ratcliff permanently banned from Indiana gambling industry
Longtime Indiana casino executive Rod Ratcliff has been permanently banned from the state’s gambling industry. Ratcliff, who previously served as chairman and CEO of Centaur Gaming and as CEO and chairman of Spectacle Entertainment, has been entangled in a battle with the Indiana Gaming Commission for months, as the state agency has been investigating Ratcliff and his companies.
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.
Snow closes courthouses in Indianapolis, Southern Indiana District
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana is closing all federal courthouses Feb. 16 because of the winter storm dumping heavy snow throughout much of Indiana. Likewise, many state courts also closed, including Marion Superior and Circuit Courts.
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.
Ratcliff sues Indiana Gaming Commission for suspending his license
Longtime casino executive Rod Ratcliff is suing the Indiana Gaming Commission for suspending his gaming license last month. The suit alleges the situation has jeopardized a the opening of a new casino in Gary.
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.
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.