Washington state’s Supreme Court abolished the death penalty on Thursday on the grounds that it was applied randomly and “in a racially biased manner,” thus violating the state’s constitution. With the decision, Washington is now the 20th U.S. state to ban capital punishment.
Updated: Monday, July 17, 2018; 3:53 EDT: When I wrote this piece, I was not aware that, according to court records, Chris Young sexually assaulted a woman in front of her three children at gun point the morning before the murder.
More than a year ago, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals violated the Constitution in rejecting the claim by an inmate, Bobby Moore, that he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty.
In 2005 the United States became the last country to end the death penalty for offenders under 18 years old. Adolescent neuroscience research played a huge part in changing this policy. However, there are still approximately 2,500 prison inmates in the United States serving life sentences without the possibility of…
If President Donald Trump had his way, he would “love to have a law” that sentences major drug dealers to death.
The Washington state Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would ban the death penalty, leading the state one step closer to ending the practice for good.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for an Alabama death row inmate whose dementia, his lawyers argue, renders him unable to remember the murder of which he was convicted.
Keith Tharpe should have been dead.
On Tuesday, Sept. 26, if the U.S. Supreme Court does not intercede, the state of Georgia will execute Keith Tharpe.
At no point in modern history has Florida executed a white man for killing a black victim. But that may change Thursday as the state prepares to execute 53-year-old Mark Asay, and with a drug that has never been used before in any U.S. execution.
Updated: Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017; 3:30 p.m. EDT: Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has issued a stay of execution in the case of Marcellus Williams, who was scheduled to to die Tuesday, possibly saving the life of an innocent man, for now.
Two police officers in Kissimmee, Fla., a suburb of Orlando, have died after a shootout Friday night.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Florida is investigating after a noose was mailed to the office of State Attorney Aramis Ayala, who announced last month that she won’t pursue the death penalty in any case she handles during her tenure.
Florida prosecutor Aramis Ayala on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Gov. Rick Scott after he stripped her office of some 23 first-degree murder cases because she refused to pursue the death penalty.
White supremacist Dylann Roof has pleaded guilty to state murder charges in the Charleston, S.C., church massacre of nine black worshippers; in doing so, he is forgoing a second death-penalty trial.
Dylann Roof—the white supremacist who was convicted earlier this year of several federal charges, including hate crimes, and sentenced to death for the murder of nine black worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C.—will plead guilty to state murder charges in April, forgoing the second death penalty…
Florida Gov. Rick Scott removed State Attorney Aramis Ayala from the case of accused cop killer Markeith Loyd on Thursday after she announced that she would not pursue the death penalty in this case or any other case she handles during her tenure.
In what only can be described as a mad rush toward death, the state of Arkansas plans to execute eight inmates in April because of a looming expiration date for a drug the state uses in executions.
Duane Buck may get justice yet. On Wednesday the Supreme Court of the United States ordered a new hearing for Buck, a black Texas inmate who has sat for years on death row, after hearing claims that improper testimony about his race got him sentenced to death.
Mississippi lawmakers are pushing forth a proposal to add firing squad, electrocution and the gas chamber as methods of execution in case a court blocks the use of the drugs that are used in lethal injections, the Associated Press reports.
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