Category: Death Penalty

Lisa Montgomery Executed After SCOTUS Clears the Way

by · Jan 12, 2021 11:36 pm

Lisa Montgomery was executed tonight for the 2004 murder of 23 year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett.  The execution took place after the Supreme Court wiped away what has become the routine carnival of defense counsel’s obtaining last-minute stays from friendly district courts, generally with arguments that could have been (or were) presented months or years before.  The New York Times has the story here.  Kent covered it last week here.

From sympathetic accounts, Montgomery led a dreadful life.  But no one forced her to undertake the gruesome murder of a completely innocent person, then cut open her belly to take her baby.

Full USCA-DC Rejects Rehearing For Notorious Murderer

by · Jan 5, 2021 11:53 am

On New Year’s Day, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the stay of execution for notorious murderer Lisa Montgomery. Today, the full court turned down her rehearing petition. Matthew Schwartz had this story for NPR Saturday:

Lisa Marie Montgomery said she was interested in purchasing a puppy. But once the Kansas woman arrived at Bobbie Jo Stinnett’s Missouri home in 2004, she attacked the pregnant 23-year-old, using a rope to strangle her until she lost consciousness.

With a kitchen knife, Montgomery cut the 8-month-old fetus out of Stinnett’s womb, taking it to raise as her own. Stinnett was found later by her mother, dead in a pool of blood. Continue reading . . .

Marathon Bomber Update

by · Dec 23, 2020 9:27 am

Last Friday, I noted the Marathon Bomber case in the Supreme Court and discussed how this is the perfect test case for President-elect Biden’s new-found opposition to the death penalty in all cases. If he really means all cases, he should demonstrate that opposition to the nation in a case that cries out for that penalty.

Today, the Supreme Court scheduled the Tsarnaev case for conference on January 8. Continue reading . . .

The Marathon Bomber, the Death Penalty, and the Biden Administration

by · Dec 18, 2020 9:51 am

On April 15, 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother plotted a massacre as an attack on the country that had generously allowed him to come here and go to college. Tsarnaev intentionally chose children as his primary targets, setting his bomb down beyond a group of children near the Boston Marathon finish line.

Last month, AP reported that the President-elect’s spokesman said, “President-elect Joe Biden is against the death penalty and will work to end its use.”

Really? End its use means end it for all murderers, even the very worst. Does he really mean that? If so, he has a chance to show it right out of the gate. Continue reading . . .

USDOJ Finalizes Execution Procedure Regulation

by · Nov 25, 2020 9:10 am

The U.S. Department of Justice has finalized its proposed regulation regarding execution methods in federal capital case. The regulations provides the needed flexibility to deal with the quirk in federal law that says that federal executions must be carried out in the manner prescribed by the law of the state where the crime occurred, or if that state has no death penalty then the law of a state designated by the court.

Update (11/27): The final rule is now published at 18 Fed. Reg. 75846. Continue reading . . .

Judicial Sentencing in Capital Cases

by · Nov 23, 2020 11:30 am

Should sentencing in capital cases be decided by the judge or the jury? Since 1976, the Supreme Court has decided that a two-step process is required: (1) narrow the group of murderers eligible for capital punishment by finding some reasonably objective fact, and (2) decide on what the punishment is just after considering whatever aggravating factors state law specifies and practically everything the defendant wants to submit in mitigation.

Since 2002, the Court has held that the defendant has a right to a jury for step (1). However, since 1976, the Supreme Court has consistently held that step (2) may be decided by the trial judge, a panel of judges, the jury, or the judge after an advisory verdict by the jury, whichever the state chooses.  It reaffirmed that rule earlier this year in McKinney v. Arizona. See this post.

Today the Court turned down yet another attempt to toss out 44 years of solidly established precedent in McMillan v. Alabama, No. 20-193. Continue reading . . .

Supreme Court Summarily Vacates Pro-Murderer Judge; Killer Executed

by · Nov 20, 2020 12:40 am

Mike wrote earlier today about the last minute stay of execution entered by Tanya Chutkan, a turbo-charged public defender made a federal district judge by Pres. Barack Obama.  The stay was for the benefit of Orlando Hall, who, along with his associates, kidnapped, beat, raped, tortured and then buried alive a 16 year-old girl.

The stay survived for a few hours before being summarily overturned by a 6-3 vote of the Supreme Court.  Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan dissented without opinion.  Hall received his long overdue justice shortly thereafter.

Judges like Chutkan are a disgrace to the bench.  They are not there to do justice or follow the law.  They are there to impose their personal opinions on us lesser creatures.  They should find, or be shown, another line of work.