In prison death chambers, the state is willing to quite literally reenact a practice from some of the country’s bloodiest history, writes Mark M. Smith.
South Carolina’s Firing Squad as Civil War Reenactment
Tag: Capital Punishment
US Supreme Court Tacitly Approves Execution of Innocent People
Marjorie Cohn discusses the ramifications of a Supreme Court decision that flies in the face of recent precedents protecting the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
Capital Punishment in the Final Days of Trump
Another federal execution was just carried out early Wednesday. Two more are scheduled for this week after both stays were lifted. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg reports on these last three cases and declining U.S. support for the death penalty.
Finding a Way to Execute
From the Archive: After getting a judge’s stay reversed, Oklahoma officials pressed ahead with Clayton Lockett’s lethal injection, only to have the botched execution leave him writhing in pain before finally dying of an apparent heart attack. In March, Richard L. Fricker…
‘Pro-Life’ Government Kills Troy Davis
People around the world were gripped by the grim drama of Troy Davis’s execution by authorities in Georgia, after the state clemency board brushed aside grave doubts about his murder conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed his final appeal.…