Death Penalty

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

• By David M. Perry

With this ruling, Washington joined 20 other states and the District of Columbia that consider juvenile life without parole unconstitutional

• By Jack Herrera

America's courts still don't have clear protections for defendants with severe mental illness.

• By David M. Perry

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.

• By Jack Herrera

Officials in Nebraska used fentanyl to execute a death row inmate on Tuesday, marking the first time the powerful opioid has been used to carry out the death penalty in the United States.

• By Kate Wheeling

In only the second-ever case of its kind, a pharmaceutical company sued Wednesday to stop the state of Nevada from using an untested drug in a lethal injection.

• By Emily Moon

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.

• By Morgan Baskin

What happens when suicide forestalls any possibility of justice?

• By Hanif Abdurraqib

Seventeen inmates in Oklahoma are awaiting set execution dates.

• By Candace Butera

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• By Pacific Standard Staff
• Member Exclusive

Research has identified embedded racism in IQ tests. Now, prosecutors in at least eight states are using that research—to legalize more executions.

• By David M. Perry

When her brother is sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit, one woman takes on the corrosive culture of capital punishment.

• By Sabine Heinlein

Judges in Alabama frequently override jury’s sentences of life without parole to impose capital punishment.

• By Kate Wheeling

Even as it's grown increasingly rare.

• By Francie Diep

Is lethal injection the most humane method of execution? Is there another way? Should we eliminate the death penalty altogether? Here’s some of the best reporting on the practice.

• By Adam Harris

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

• By Tom Jacobs

The death penalty isn't just a part of the criminal justice system where racial disparities become visible—it may also be a cause.

• By Kate Wheeling

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

• By Annie Waldman

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

• By Francie Diep

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

• By Annie Waldman

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

• By Gregory Ferenstein

A new Supreme Court case could affect thousands of prisoners serving life sentences without parole for crimes they committed as teens.

• By Lauren Kirchner

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

• By Francie Diep

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

• By Annie Waldman