Crime Time

Mother of seven children executed by firing squad

A 40-year-old mother of seven children was executed by firing squad in Yemen on Sunday.

She was executed for killing her husband, who she had said molested their daughter, now 14. There was a chance her life could have been spared if one of her children had come forward to agree with what she said.

Her lawyer said none came forward because of pressure from the father's family, the Associated Press reported.

-- Lance Murray

N.M. governor signs bill killing state's death penalty

Calling it the "most difficult decision" of his political career, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law Wednesday legislation that banned the death penalty in that state. Richardson is a Democrat who formerly supported the death penalty.

New Mexico becomes the second second state to ban executions since it was reinstated in 1976 by the U.S. Supreme Court. New Jersey banned executions in 2007.

The law takes effect July 1 and affects crimes committed after that date.

-- Lance Murray

Appeals Court: Condemned killer is crazy, but 'sane' in Texas

Saying that Andre Thomas, "is clearly 'crazy,' but he is also 'sane' under Texas law," the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction and death sentence of a condemned inmate who removed his only eye in December and ate it.

He'd been convicted of killing his estranged wife's 13-month-old daughter five years ago. The wife and their 4-year-old son were stabbed to death in the same attack and their hearts were ripped out.

-- Lance Murray

Killer who said he was too fat to execute is executed

Earlier today we wrote about Richard Cooey, the Ohio double murderer who argued in appeals that he was too obese to execute because his weight would make finding a vein difficult. The U.S. Supreme Court denied that appeal on Monday. He was 5-feet-7-inches tall and weighed more than 260 pounds.

Cooey was executed earlier today.

-- Lance Murray

'Too fat' appeal denied; murderer to be executed

Convicted murderer Richard Cooey contended in his court appeals that he was too fat to be executed humanely. At 5-foot-7 and 267 pounds he argued that his obesity would make viable veins in his arms hard to find.

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court denied one of his two pending appeals and now Cooey is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Tuesday in Ohio. The court denied his appeal without comment.

He still has one appeal pending concerning the drugs used in executions.

Cooey's lawyer said that the double murderer is 75 pounds heavier than when he went to death row because of prison food and 23-hour-a-day confinement.

-- Lance Murray

Cop-taunting killer gets death sentence for murder

Thursday, we told you about the case of Stephen Bryant, the 27-year-old  man who was facing either life in prison or the death penalty in a South Carolina courtroom.

The judge ruled that Bryant should die for one of the three killings he admitted to and gave him life sentences in the other two slayings. Police say that Bryant taunted him during the investigation.

-- Lance Murray

Is it life or death for killer who taunted police?

Stephen Bryant will learn his fate Thursday.

Bryant pleaded guilty last month in South Carolina to three murders and a nonfatal shooting. He taunted investigators.

When the daughter of one victim called her father to check on his welfare, Bryant told her that her father couldn't come to the phone because he had just killed him. He hung up the phone with a laugh.

A judge will decide Thursday whether Bryant gets life in prison or the death sentence.

-- Lance Murray

Consular issue pressed to set aside Thursday execution of Chi

Government officials from the United States and Mexico are warning Texas Gov. Rick Perry about a possible international backlash if the state makes good on its promise to execute a Mexican national today for the rape and murder 15 years ago of two Houston girls.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday unanimously recommended against a reprieve for Jose Ernesto Medellin (right), who was convicted in the crimes.

Perry was expected to make a final decision Tuesday on Medellin’s fate, reported Dave Montgomery of the Star-Telegram's bureau in Washington, D.C.

He also reported that the Bush administration, the Mexican government and much of the diplomatic community have warned of an international backlash if the execution goes forward without a hearing on Medellin’s claim that he was denied an opportunity to contact the Mexican consulate after his arrest.

But the issue of a consular visit, Montgomery added, also looms large in the case of condemned killer Heliberto Chi of Arlington (left).

Chi, a native of Honduras, is scheduled for execution Thursday, but his lawyer has argued that Chi didn't get to visit with a representative of his homeland after his arrest for the March 2001 killing of an Arlington men’s clothing store manager.

A hearing was set for Tuesday in Fort Worth on a request by the lawyer to have Chi's execution date set aside.

Read more the rest of Montgomery's report here.

-- Bill Miller

Texas executions still on hold, awaiting Texas high court ruling

A prominent defense lawyer expects the death chamber on Texas' death row to remain quiet a little longer, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week upholding the constitutionality of lethal injections.

That's because the highest court in Texas must still resolve questions about Texas' use of lethal injections raised in an appeal by an Arlington killer.

"I expect it will be Katie bar the door when it comes to judges setting execution dates in Texas," said David Dow, who runs the University of Houston Law Center. "But until the Court of Criminal Appeals issues its ruling on whether the Texas protocol [for administering lethal injections] holds up, I doubt we'll see any executions go forward."

Dow represents Heliberto Chi, (right) condemned for the 2001 shooting death of an Arlington clothing store manager.

Dale Scheanette, (left) condemned for the 1996 rape and killing of Wendie Prescott, a 22-year-old Mansfield teacher's aide whose body was found in a bathtub in her Arlington apartment, also was spared his Nov. 27 date with death.

Chi's execution, scheduled for Oct. 3, was among at least half a dozen in Texas that were set aside after the Supreme Court signaled that it would review lethal injection.

Staff Writer John Moritz reports. Click here for more information on Texas' death row.

-- Bill Miller

Phone calls get N. Korean factory boss executed

Talk about extreme punishment: execution by firing squad in front of 150,000 people.

That's the price paid by a factory boss in North Korea who was executed for the crime of -- believe it or not -- making international phone calls, according to an aid group that reported the execution.

The group also reported that six people were crushed to death and 34 people were injured in a stampede as the crowd left the stadium where the execution took place.

The man apparently made international phone calls on 13 phones he had installed in the basement of the factory. You can read more about it here.

-- Lance Murray