The constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment has shaped legal discourse around failed executions, but courts have not stopped states from attempting to execute the same person again.
Articles on Executions
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The constitutional prohibition of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ has shaped legal discourse around failed executions, but courts have not stopped states from attempting to execute the same man again.
Florida leads the nation in executions in a year that has seen an increase in the number of inmates put to death nationwide.
Despite claims of being humane and painless, the use of nitrogen gas for executions and assisted suicide causes air hunger, panic and violent physiological distress.
A death row inmate in South Carolina chose firing squad over lethal injection and the electric chair.
Learning about the history of public executions offers insight into our contemporary appetite for – and apathy towards – the suffering of others.
Criminal trials in these courts often occur behind closed doors presided over by clerics, and there’s often no evidence beyond a confession extracted by means of torture.
Alabama has paused the carrying out of death sentences after a series of cases in which the state struggled with the procedure.
In 1972, justices handed down a decision that attacked discriminatory and capricious death sentences. But it left the door ajar for states to continue the practice.
Myanmar’s military junta is losing some control over the country, but its execution of four high-profile leaders and prisoners sends a warning to Myanmar citizens and the rest of the world.
One year after the military coup, a possible return to executions threatens the lives of dozens of political prisoners.
The most commonly used justification for capital punishment is not actually supported by evidence.
The Justice Department has approved alternatives to lethal injections for federal executions. But no method of capital punishment has been without gruesome stories of what went wrong.
The promised benefits of lethal injection – a quick, painless death – have never come true. There’s not even agreement about which drugs are best for executions.
Many recent executions in the US by lethal injections have resulted in prolonged suffering before death. A historian asks: Could the guillotine be a preferable method?
Nevada plans to use a new drug protocol for executing Scott Dozier, who murdered a 22-year-old. A scholar explains why this is problematic.
State killings are the latest demonstration of the country’s regression.
Victorians revelled in images and descriptions of murder and mutilation which would today be regarded as shocking.
To understand Rodrigo Duterte’s rise to power and the public support for killing drug dealers and users, we need to distinguish the empirical from the normative – the ‘what is’ from ‘what should be’.
Not only does the death penalty violate human rights, executions in Indonesia are carried out under a deeply flawed justice system.
Top contributors
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William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
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Research Fellow, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
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Associate Professor, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra
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Lecturer and Teacher, Department of Politics and International Relations, Cardiff University
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Professor of Criminology, University of Sussex
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Term Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology Law and Society, George Mason University
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Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Criminology and Sociology, Middlesex University
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Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of Newcastle
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Visiting Professor, War and Security Studies/International Genetics, King's College London
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C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law, Stanford University
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Professor of History, The Open University
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Senior Lecturer, School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University
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Associate Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights, Universitas Gadjah Mada
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Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Washington
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Associate Professor of World Cultures and Languages, Northern Illinois University