capital punishment news stories on Newser

How Texas Executed an Innocent Man

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:56:38 CDT

Carlos DeLuna was executed in 1989 for the murder of Wanda Lopez, but a 400-page article in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review asserts that Texas actually put the wrong man to death, while the real killer bragged about the murder and the fact that DeLuna took the fall. Lopez,...

Connecticut Kills Death Penalty

Rob Quinn — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:53:17 CDT

Life without the possibility of parole has replaced lethal injection as the harshest punishment Connecticut's courts can hand down. Gov. Dan Malloy signed a bill to repeal capital punishment, making the state the 17th to do so, and the fifth in the last five years, ABC reports. The new law...

Landmark Racial Ruling Takes Inmate Off Death Row

John Johnson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:32:53 CDT

A black inmate in North Carolina came off death row today thanks to a controversial new law in the state. A judge reduced the sentence of Marcus Reymond Robinson to life without parole after ruling that prosecutors purposely sought to keep blacks off his jury, reports the News & Observer...

Experts Can't Figure Out If Death Penalty Deters Murder

Kate Schwartz — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:17:48 CDT

Ohio executed one death-row inmate yesterday and has 11 executions on the books over the next 20 months. The AP notes that could once again make the state one of the country's busiest executioners. So is all that capital punishment deterring murders there? Who knows? That's basically the finding of...

Connecticut to Kill the Death Penalty

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:12:35 CDT

The death penalty is a dead man walking in Connecticut. The state is almost certain to become the 17th one to do away with capital punishment, following a 20-16 vote in the state Senate. That—the 10 hours of debate and the 2:05am vote—was the hard part, explains...

US World's No. 5 Executioner: Amnesty

Kevin Spak — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:11:02 CDT

Fewer countries than ever are executing people, but those countries are doing so with gusto, according to a new report from Amnesty International. Just 20 nations still use the death penalty. The US executed 43 people last year, making it 5th globally, and the only Western democracy on the list,...

China's Execution Show Axed After West Takes Notice

Rob Quinn — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:01:36 CDT

Hit Chinese TV program Interviews Before Execution has been abruptly canceled—after five years on the air and just about a week of attention from the West. The show, which reached 40 million viewers every Saturday night, featured glamorous host Ding Yu speaking to condemned criminals days, hours, or even...

Iran: We Might Still Stone Adulteress

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:26:01 CST

The dizzying saga of Sakineh Mahammadi Ashtiani took another turn today, with Iran saying that it was going forward with plans to execute the convicted adulteress by stoning—unless, of course, it decides to just hang her instead, reports the AP . "There is no haste," said Malek Ajdar Sharifi, a...

New Death Sentences Hit 35-Year Low

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:53:28 CST

The number of death sentences handed down this year dropped 30% compared to last, hitting the lowest level in 35 years, according to a new report. Just 78 people were sentenced to death this year—marking "the first time we've had fewer than 100 new death sentences in a year...