"death penalty"

In 1948 and 1950, Juneau executed two Black men — Austin Nelson and Eugene LaMoore — for the murder of a local grocer. The trials, according to a legal historian who has researched them for decades, were riddled with misconduct and errors. 

The United States will not seek the death penalty against Kenneth Manzanares, who’s facing trial in the death of his wife aboard a cruise ship in Southeast Alaska. 

“The fact is that after 1902, all of the people who were executed in Alaska were either racial minorities or ethnic minorities,” said attorney Averil Lerman. The last three men executed in the territory were an Alaska Native and two black men.

The judge gave the federal prosecutor 60 days to consider whether to pursue the death penalty. The defendant, Kenneth Manzanares of Santa Clara, Utah, pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge in the death of his wife, Kristy.

Ronald Bert Smith Jr. died by lethal injection late Thursday night, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stay his execution. A judge sentenced Smith to die for murdering a man in 1994.

Justice Clarence Thomas called one of the opinions “a remarkably aggressive” use of the court’s power to review the decisions of the states’ highest courts.

Saudi Arabia’s spate of 47 executions last week continued a trend from 2015, in which several countries that have the death penalty used it more often.

The Supreme Court heard its first death penalty case of the new term Wednesday, and the questioning quickly showed how deep and bitter the divide between the justices has grown on this issue.

Roof has been charged with murdering nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina in June. He also faces federal hate crime charges.

The judge imposed the death penalty on Tsarnaev shortly after the convicted bomber’s first remarks in public since the 2013 attack that killed three people and left 264 others wounded.