“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.”
death penalty
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.
Posted inCurrent Events, History, Nonfiction, Quotes
Arkansas’ Capital Punishment Spree: ‘It Ain’t Gonna Work on Some of Them’
The state prepares to kill seven men this month with a soon-to-expire supply of lethal injection drugs.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Arkansas’ Tradition of Assembly-Line Killing
Arkansas plans to execute seven people by lethal injection this month — with an untested, nearly-expired drug.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Nonfiction, Quotes
The Death Penalty on Display
At The Texas Observer, Robin Ross writes on the rise of dark tourism — the macabre fascination with the Huntsville’s Texas Prison Museum — site of America’s first lethal injection.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Death Penalty on Display
At The Texas Observer, Robin Ross writes on the rise of dark tourism — the macabre fascination with the Huntsville’s Texas Prison Museum — site of America’s first lethal injection.