capital punishment

The federal government has announced plans to resume capital punishment. But the order will likely face challenges.

The director discusses his new film about wrongful conviction and the death penalty—and why audiences sometimes hold "issue" movies to a higher standard.

New Hampshire could become the 21st state in the nation to repeal the death penalty, a practice that is in decline both in the United States and around the world.

Texas has been trying to execute Bobby Moore for decades. The Supreme Court once again said "no."

The total number of executions is declining, but we're not executing the worst criminals—just the criminals with the worst lawyers.

After hearing the last appeal from a man on death row, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the death penalty, as applied in the state, is unconstitutional.

In colonial Virginia, authorities could hang settlers for a crime as small as stealing grapes or killing a neighbor's chicken. The penal code in America's first colony was, in fact, so harsh its governor eventually reduced the number of capital offenses out of fear that settlers would refuse to live there. Since then, the number and severity of crimes punishable by death in the United States have fluctuated; today, the death penalty is still legal in 31 states. Here are some of the critical turning points in the history of capital punishment in America.

Marcellus Williams maintains his innocence, and his supporters argue racial discrimination also played a role in his trial outcome.

Even as it's grown increasingly rare.

New research finds a convict is more likely to be sentenced to death if he has an untrustworthy face.

The expert ended up prompting a back-and-forth between Supreme Court justices, who narrowly upheld use of a lethal injection drug.

Today's Supreme Court ruling on a lethal injection drug represents a confluence of several modern challenges to capital punishment.

It’s becoming nearly impossible to find experts to defend the practice.

Years of polling show that Democrats and Republicans are increasingly turning away from the death penalty.

A look inside the minds of those who have participated in firing squads and lethal injections.

The Supreme Court is reviewing lethal injection for the first time in seven years. Here’s what it means for the death penalty.

How technicalities, not morals, are bringing down the death penalty.

A report advocating death penalty reforms finds that false confessions in capital cases can be limited by recording the questioning of suspects.

A new study finds that prisoners who deny their guilt are more likely to hold out on eating before execution.