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In a video tape he made of himself raping and torturing a 9-year-old boy, Joseph Edward Duncan III yelled at the boy, “The devil is here, boy, the devil himself. The demon couldn’t do what the devil sent him to do so the devil came himself. The devil likes to watch children suffer and cry.”

Today, in Boise, Idaho, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge sentenced Duncan to death on the recommendation of a jury who watched the video Duncan made of his crime.

Duncan, a convicted pedophile, still faces another death penalty for the murder of the boy’s mother, her fiance, and the boy’s 13-year-old brother, and for the kidnapping and rape of the boy’s 8-year-old sister.

He’s also charged with the 1997 murder of a young boy in Riverside County, California, and is suspected in the murders of two girls from Seattle, Washington.

Jerry Buck Inman is ready to die for raping and murdering Tiffany Marie Souers.

Inman has spent about 18 years in prison for various other rapes. He was only out for nine months before he was arrested for the attack on Souers in May, 2006 when he left her body with her bikini top still tied around her neck.

A defense psychiatrist testified at Inman’s trial that Inman, who has confessed to the crime, has also stated he wants to die for what he’s done. Inman’s confession is corroborate by DNA evidence found in Souer’s apartment.

Inman will find out when he’s sentenced on September 6th whether he’ll get what he wants.

In 1992, Michael Rodriguez became infatuated with a Texas State University co-ed and arranged to have his wife killed. While in prison for that crime he met George Rivas, a thief serving 18 life terms. Led by Rivas, Rodriguez and five other inmates broke out of prison in South Texas in December, 2000.

The group then went on a crime spree Rodriguez says was thrilling, until it went wrong; they shot and killed a police officer. In January 2001, they were surrounded by a police SWAT team at a trailer park in Colorado. One of them committed suicide. Two others escaped but surrendered two days later. Rodriguez and the others were captured and returned to prison.

The six surviving members of the gang have all been sentenced to death, with Rodriguez scheduled to go first. Michael Rodriguez is ready. In fact, he’s volunteered to be executed.

“I’m glad we got caught,” he told reporters, “so no one else would get hurt. … I have a lot of people here telling me how unfair the system is,” Rodriguez says, but he disagrees. “At some point in our lives, you have to have some sort of accountability. … I’m guilty of what they said — everything. … I think it’s a fair sentence. … I need to pay back. I can’t pay back monetarily. This is the way.”

Michael Rodriguez will pay for his crimes later this week.

26 years ago, Judy Wicker hires a man to kill her husband, Troy Wicker Jr. She serves 10 years of a life sentence. Thomas Arthur is convicted of carrying out the actual murder and is sentenced to death. But Arthur insists he’s innocent and claims DNA testing will prove his innocence. He requests the tests be performed.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley refuses to order the tests.

Twice Thomas Arthur’s execution is put on hold.

Today, Thursday, July 31, was to be the day the execution would finally be carried out. But on Monday, July 28, another man, Bobby Ray Gilbert, makes a sworn statement confessing to the murder of Troy Wicker. Gilbert is already serving a life sentence for a different murder.

In the light of Gilbert’s confession, the Alabama Supreme Court postpones Arthur’s execution again. But they did so by a narrow margin, in a 5-4 vote.

Another man confesses to the murder and four of those “Justices” still want to go ahead with the execution?!

Tommy Arthur has been on death row in Alabama for nearly 25 years. In two days his long wait could end. Tommy is scheduled to be executed on Thursday night, July 31.

Critical evidence in Tommy’s case still has not be subjected to DNA testing and it’s looking less and less likely that it will. Alabama Governor Bob Riley has so far refused all requests that he order DNA testing. While Riley’s aides have said the Governor doesn’t have the authority to order such tests, that apparently isn’t true. Other state governors, including George W. Bush when he was Governor of Texas, have ordered such testing.

Across the US, 16 other people have been exonerated by DNA evidence while they were on death row.

It’s still not too late to change Riley’s mind. The Innocence Project has provided an online form you can use to send a message to Governor Riley, asking for DNA testing for Tommy Arthur:

http://www.innocenceproject.org/testing-for-tommy

Without these tests it’s quite possible an innocent man may die.