Prisons

February 22, 2020 - 8:00 am

Security video captures jail inmate's fall through ceiling

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — A security camera captured footage of a jail inmate's apparent escape attempt from a holding room that ended with her falling through a ceiling and landing head-first in a trash can. Jessica Boomershine, 42, was charged with escape and vandalism following the episode late last...
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Protesters gather near Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to protest the execution of Nicholas Sutton Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Sutton was sentenced to death in 1986 for killing a fellow inmate. The 58-year-old had already been serving time for murdering his grandmother and two others when he was 18. Sutton chose the electric chair over the state's preferred lethal injection method. (Andrew Nelles/The Tennessean via AP)
February 21, 2020 - 9:52 am

Tennessee man gets electric chair for killing fellow inmate

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A convicted murderer was put to death in Tennessee's electric chair Thursday, becoming the state's fifth prisoner over 16 months to choose electrocution over the state's preferred method of lethal injection. Nicholas Sutton, 58, was pronounced dead at 7:26 p.m. at the...
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February 20, 2020 - 10:25 pm

Report: California prisoner confesses to killing 2 molesters

CORCORAN, Calif. (AP) — A California prison inmate confessed in a letter that he beat two child molesters to death with a cane while behind bars just hours after his urgent warning to a counselor that he might become violent was ignored, a newspaper chain reported Thursday. Jonathan Watson, 41,...
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FILE - In this July 8, 2019, file photo, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, Calif. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoenaed a sheriff's office in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020, for information about two Mexican citizens wanted for deportation, a move that is part of a broader escalation of the conflict between federal officials and local government agencies over so-called sanctuary policies. ICE, the Homeland Security agency responsible for arresting and deporting people in the U.S. illegally, served the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Hillsboro, Oregon with the subpoenas in an attempt to get more information about two men, including one who has already been released from custody, said ICE spokeswoman Tanya Roman. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
February 18, 2020 - 8:36 pm

Immigration agency subpoenas Oregon county over 2 inmates

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoenaed a sheriff's office in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday for information about two Mexican citizens wanted for deportation, a move that is part of a broader escalation of the conflict between federal officials and...
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FILE - This photo provided by Tennessee Department of Correction shows death row inmate Nicholas Sutton. According to the Tennessee Department of Correction, Sutton is scheduled to be executed Thursday, Feb. 20 for killing a fellow inmate. (Tennessee Department of Correction via AP, File)
February 18, 2020 - 7:52 pm

Ultimate choice: Tennessee inmates wrestle with how to die

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — After more than three decades on death row, Don Johnson weighed the options for his own demise: He could keep a promise to his daughter that he wouldn't die in the electric chair. Or, he could opt for the chair and avoid a method that he had heard might make him feel like he...
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February 15, 2020 - 10:00 pm

California death row inmate dies; prisoner killed in attack

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) — A death row inmate died Saturday at a hospital, while the previous day another prisoner was killed after two inmates attacked him, California officials said. John Abel — who was sentenced to death row for killing a man in 1991 during a robbery at a bank in Orange County...
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FILE - This Oct. 9, 2014, file photo shows the gurney in the the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla. Oklahoma is planning to resume executing death-row inmates, five years after lethal injections were put on hold following a series of death-chamber mishaps, state officials announced Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
February 13, 2020 - 2:32 pm

Attorney general says Oklahoma to resume executions

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma plans to resume executing death-row inmates, five years after lethal injections were put on hold following a series of death-chamber mishaps, state officials announced Thursday. Gov. Kevin Stitt, Attorney General Mike Hunter and Oklahoma Department of Corrections...
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Republican Gov. Tate Reeves speaks with reporters about the state prison system, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in Jackson, Miss. Reeves also gave an update on the search for a Mississippi Department of Corrections commissioner. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
February 10, 2020 - 9:36 pm

Mississippi inmate death toll rises amid emergency extension

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Another Mississippi inmate died Monday, the same day the governor extended an emergency order allowing the state to quickly spend money to try to resolve problems in a prison system beset by violence and poor living conditions. The two developments were announced separately,...
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FILE - This is a July 12, 2002 file photo of the entrance to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Miss. The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Mississippi prison system after a string of inmate deaths in the past few months, officials said Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio Solis, File)
February 05, 2020 - 8:32 pm

Feds investigate Mississippi prisons after string of deaths

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Mississippi prison system after a string of inmate deaths in the past few months, officials said Wednesday. Federal prosecutors are looking into conditions at four state prisons after the deaths of at...
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February 05, 2020 - 3:24 am

Denmark jails 3 men suspected of spying for Saudi Arabia

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Three men who are members of an Iranian separatist group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, have been jailed in pre-trial custody in Denmark until Feb. 27, suspected of spying for an unnamed Saudi intelligence service. The three members of the London...
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