*Leal's execution was protested by President Obama and the U.S. State Department but went ahead anyways under orders from Governor Perry of Texas. Leal had lived illegally in the U.S. since he was a young child but was not a U.S. citizen. Since he was a Mexican national, under international law he should have been returned to Mexico which doesn't have the death penalty.

**Smith received a stay of execution. His lawyers are saying that the state of Ohio does not treat each execution in exactly the same manner which could cause an unequal and unfair type of execution. Specifically, the lawyers say Ohio does not always have the same number of doctors present to oversee the execution and does not always properly document the protocol of drugs it uses. A federal judge, U.S. District Judge Frost, has now halted all executions in the state of Ohio until a ruling can be made, no earlier than the end of October.

***Stroman is the white supremacist who, in the days after 9/11, went into 3 convenience stores in Texas and shot the dark-skinned clerks who he thought were Muslim. One clerk, Rais Bhuiyan who is originally from Bangladesh and is Muslim, survived the gunshots and is now asking for clemency. He would like Stroman to instead spend life in prison without parole. He says this will show that Islam is a religion of peace.

For more info on any of these cases, just search Google News with the inmate's name in quotation marks, example: "John Johnson."