Appeals Court Revives Inmate’s Claim in Murder for Hire Case
Posted: Aug 03, 2012 9:56 AM EDT Updated: Aug 03, 2012 10:25 AM EDT
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – A federal appeals court has revived a Virginia death-row inmate’s innocence claims.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Thursday that a judge failed to thoroughly analyze new evidence in Ivan Teleguz’s case. The court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge James P. Jones in Roanoke for a closer look.
Mother of Slain Va. Inmate Claims Guard Conspiracy
Guards and security officials at Virginia’s most secure prison conspired with an inmate to give him the opportunity to kill another prisoner, the slain man’s mother claims in a lawsuit.
Aaron Cooper, 26, was killed on July 28, 2010, when Robert Gleason strangled him through a separate cage on the recreation yard at the supermax Red Onion State Prison. Gleason, who was serving a life sentence for a 2007 slaying and had killed his cellmate in 2009, had vowed before Cooper’s death to keep killing unless he was sentenced to death. Gleason received the death sentence last year.
Gary Haugen, Oregon Death Row Inmate, Fighting Reprieve; Wants To Be Executed
By NIGEL DUARA 07/24/12 05:55 PM ET 
SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon death row inmate and the state’s governor are at the center of an unusual legal battle – the governor has granted the twice-convicted murderer a reprieve, even though the inmate did not ask for it and does not want it.
Gov. John Kitzhaber blocked Gary Haugen’s scheduled execution last fall, saying no executions would be carried out on his watch.
Haugen has sought to reject the governor’s clemency. He’s voluntarily waived legal appeals that could delay his execution for years and has fought to speed his punishment in protest of a criminal justice system that he says is broken.