“The Rev. Jeff Hood has made a career of fighting to save men the state wants to kill — and it doesn’t matter if they’re innocent.”
death penalty
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Human Cost of Jeff Landry’s Drive to Resume Executions
“Chris Duncan’s death sentence—built on the testimony of two discredited doctors—illustrates just how faulty the system can be.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row
“Sisters from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited the prisoners—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Will Speer Found Hope Enough to Share on Texas’s Death Row
“He’s one of the first faith-based coordinators for Texas inmates facing the death penalty. He’s scheduled to be executed this week.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Mercy Workers
“For three decades, a little-known group of ‘mitigation specialists’ has helped save death-penalty defendants by documenting their childhood traumas. A rare look inside one case.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Trump’s Killing Spree: The Inside Story of His Race to Execute Every Prisoner He Could
“Before 2020, there had been three federal executions in 60 years. Then Trump put 13 people to death in six months.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Death Chamber Doctor’s Dilemma
A law went into effect in South Carolina last year allowing people on death row to choose their method of execution, including by firing squad. Last week, the state supreme court issued a temporary stay on government-sponsored killing, in advance of executions scheduled for April 29 and May 13. As we wait to learn whether […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
They Executed People for the State of South Carolina. For Some, It Nearly Destroyed Them.
“The tools of death could next be electric volts, bullets or a drug cocktail. Regardless of the method, executions are likely to return to South Carolina. When they do, state workers will again be the ones tasked with handling the weapons — and the consequences.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Case That Made Texas the Death Penalty Capital
“As one of the first death sentences under the new law, Jurek’s case would become a test case, playing a key role in both the nationwide rise of the death penalty and Texas’s place at the center.”
Posted inCrime, Nonfiction, Quotes
You’re On Death Row, You’ve Asked to Die, But the State Won’t Kill You
Despite their hard-stance bluster, death penalty states rarely impose the ultimate sentence, even if you’re the prisoner and you ask them to.