Should child rapists face death penalty?

4-16-2008 • Christian Science Monitor

30 years ago the US Supreme Court issued a landmark decision, declaring sentencing someone to death for the crime of rape was cruel and unusual punishment. The decision referred to the rape of an adult woman, but it left an issue unresolved.

New Jersey bans the death penalty

12-17-2007 • AP

Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law Monday a measure that abolishes the death penalty, making New Jersey the first state in more than four decades to reject capital punishment.

Texas defies federal court with plan to execute man who did not kill

8-20-2007 • The Guardian

Texas is poised to execute a man for a crime he did not commit. While the perpetrator of the murder in San Antonio was executed last year, Kenneth Foster, was sitting in a car 25 yards away at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to death under th

Gonzales Could Get Say in States’ Executions

8-14-2007 • LA Times

The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmat

Studies say death penalty deters crime

6-10-2007 • AP

What gets little notice, however, is a series of academic studies over the last half-dozen years that claim to settle a once hotly debated argument - whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. The analyses say yes. They count between th

AZ puts convict to death

5-23-2007 • Arizona Republic

Robert Comer died with a steady gaze and a defiant smile on his face, the first person to be executed in Arizona since November 2000. Comer brought a picture of his daughter with him to the death chamber and used his last words to say, "Go, Raid

Execution 1st in Ariz. in years

5-22-2007 • Arizona Republic

When Robert Comer is laid on a gurney in Florence today, he will be the first person executed in nearly seven years - and only because he went to court to earn the right to die. Why have there been so few executions this decade and what takes so l

Study: Lethal injection method flawed

4-24-2007 • AP

Inmates put to death by lethal injection may get less anesthetic -- pound for pound -- to knock them unconscious and deaden pain than do animals euthanized in lab experiments, the study concludes.

Indefensible? Lawyers in key death penalty states often fall short

2-11-2007 • McClatchy News (link to parts 2 & 3)

With little money to unearth details about his client's past, Jackson did not chronicle the mitigating circumstances that could have helped his client's cause. The jury learned almost nothing about the import of King's low IQ, his childho

Wider death penalty sought

2-7-2007 • USA Today

Lawmakers have proposed legislation that would increase the range of crimes eligible for execution. In Texas and Tennessee, for example, legislators want to include certain child molesters who did not murder their victims.

Warden says inmate felt no pain

1-29-2007 • AP

A convicted killer whose execution was botched last year was never in any pain, and appeared to be straining to see a clock, not grimacing as some witnesses claimed, the warden told a panel reviewing Florida's lethal injection procedures.

U.S. death sentences drop to 30-year low

1-4-2007 • AP

But above all is the possibility of a mistake, made dramatically clear in recent years. Since the death penalty was reinstated, 123 people have been freed from death row after significant questions were raised about their convictions

Legal flap brews in Illinois over noose

12-18-2006 • AP

Folks in this hardscrabble town still cling to the legend of Charlie Birger, the bootlegging gangster who moments before meeting his maker on the gallows flippantly remarked how lovely the world was.

2-dose Fla. execution sparks criticism

12-14-2006 • AP

Death penalty opponents criticized the execution of a convicted murderer who took more than half an hour to die and needed a rare second dose of lethal chemicals. "They had to execute him twice," Mark Elliot said. "If Floridians could

County Attorney not happy snuffing people takes so long

11-17-2006 • Arizona Republic

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas unveiled sweeping proposals that he says will speed up death penalty cases, which take years to crawl through the legal system. Arizona hasn't executed anyone since 2000 and there is a backlog of roughly 118

Convicted killer freed on DNA evidence

9-21-2006 • NY Times

A man who was convicted in 1990 of raping and murdering a high school classmate when he was 16 was freed from prison after DNA evidence implicated another man who authorities said confessed to the crime.

Death penalty out in car crash

9-16-2006 • EastValley Tribune

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced that he withdrew his office’s notice of intent to seek the death penalty in a vehicular homicide case stemming from an April 2005 crash on Loop 101 in Scottsdale.

Death sentence overturned in killing of Sikh after 9-11

8-14-2006 • Arizona Republic

[I oppose the death penalty, but this ruling from the AZ Supremes is weird.] The Arizona Supreme Court overturned a man's death sentence and instead sentenced him to natural life in prison for the murder of an Indian immigrant just days after the

Missouri execution doctor has troubled past: paper

7-31-2006 • Reuters

A doctor who oversaw dozens of Missouri executions until his questionable practices led a judge to suspend executions in the state, has been sued for malpractice more than 20 times and has a history of making medical mistakes.

Doctors not obligated to assist state in executions

7-4-2006 • AP

Doctors shouldn't help put inmates to death by lethal injection or work with the legal system to ensure condemned inmates feel no pain at execution, the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists is telling his colleagues.

China makes ultimate punishment mobile

06-16-2006 • USA Today

The switch from gunshots to injections is a sign that China "promotes human rights now," says Kang Zhongwen, who designed the Jinguan Automobile death van