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death penalty

Posted inEditor's Pick

The Mercy Workers

by Cheri Lucas Rowlands March 8, 2023March 8, 2023

“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

by Seyward Darby January 30, 2023January 30, 2023

“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

by Seyward Darby April 27, 2022October 19, 2022

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.

by Cheri Lucas Rowlands November 8, 2021October 19, 2022

“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

by Cheri Lucas Rowlands February 1, 2021October 19, 2022

“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

by Krista Stevens January 25, 2018October 19, 2022

Despite their hard-stance bluster, death penalty states rarely impose the ultimate sentence, even if you’re the prisoner and you ask them to.

the table in the lethal injection room at san quentin prison in california
Posted inCurrent Events, History, Nonfiction, Quotes

Arkansas’ Capital Punishment Spree: ‘It Ain’t Gonna Work on Some of Them’

by michelleweber April 11, 2017October 19, 2022

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

by michelleweber April 11, 2017October 19, 2022

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

by Krista Stevens April 22, 2016October 19, 2022

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

by Krista Stevens April 22, 2016October 19, 2022

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.

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