nitrogen hypoxia

The scheduled execution of an Alabama Death Row inmate will not go forward next week as the state waits for the completion of a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. A judge last month stayed the August, 21st execution of David Lee Roberts until a mental evaluation could be conducted to see if Roberts is competent to be executed.

A state judge has stayed an upcoming execution in Alabama to evaluate whether the man is too mentally ill to be put to death. The judge temporarily stayed the Aug. 21 execution of David Lee Roberts until it can be established whether he has a “rational understanding” of what is to happen to him.

Alabama has scheduled a September execution by nitrogen gas for a man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a 1997 robbery. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey set a Sept. 25 execution date for Geoffrey Todd West. West, now 49, is on the death row for killing Margaret Parrish Berry. Prosecutors said West drove to Harold's Chevron in Attalla with plans to rob the store where he once worked. Berry, 33, was shot in the back of the head while lying on the floor behind the counter, prosecutors said.

A federal appeals court ruled Alabama prosecutors violated the constitutional rights of a man sentenced to death in 1990, saying Blacks were rejected from the jury during his trial. The Monday ruling from a three judge panel on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals means Michael Sockwell, 62, is eligible for a retrial.

A man convicted of beating a woman to death nearly 37 years ago is scheduled to be executed Tuesday in Alabama in what will be the nation's sixth execution with nitrogen gas. Gregory Hunt is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday night.

The Supreme Court will consider making it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled, according an order released early on Friday after an apparent technological glitch.

Alabama plans to carry out another execution by nitrogen gas and has set a June execution date for a man convicted of the 1988 killing of a woman. Gregory Hunt is scheduled to be put to death June 10 for the 1988 beating death of Karen Lane.

A man on Alabama's death row wants his execution to go forward this week, saying he believes in an "eye for an eye." James Osgood, 55, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday at his south Alabama prison.

A federal judge has halted Louisiana's first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was scheduled to take place next week. Alabama has carried out four death sentences using this method, called unconstitutional by critics.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Robin "Rocky" Myers to life in prison Friday, saying there were enough questions about his guilt that she could not move forward with his execution. Ivey said Myers, 63, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of being executed later this year. The move stunned Attorney General Steve Marshall and was the first gubernatorial commutation of a death sentence in Alabama since 1999.