Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Billy Sothern : Civil Rights & Liberties
As executions resume in the wake of a Supreme Court decision, we are reminded that a life cannot be willfully ended without violence.
2007
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Killing Time
After years of performing executions at a pace that scares the bejesus out of the civilized world, Texas has put the brakes on its machine as the Supreme Court considers lethal injection.
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Sacco and Vanzetti Today
Moshik Temkin : Human Rights & Civil Liberties
History sheds no new light on their guilt or innocence. But it does make clear that their trial and execution was an unjust and intolerable act of barbarism.
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Divining Demeanor
Patricia J. Williams : Supreme Court
The latest Supreme Court ruling on the death penalty will give prosecutors huge latitude to pick jurors who enthusiastically embrace capital punishment.
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A Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Billy Sothern : Domestic Violence
Why does Louisiana law allow people who are convicted of raping minors to receive the death sentence?
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Attorney General, Capital Punishment
Liliana Segura : Attorney General
As the US Attorney purge scandal intensifies, new light is shed on federal prosecutors' struggles with the Justice Department over the death penalty.
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Kill the Death Penalty
The time has come for the US to join the rest of civilized nations and abolish capital punishment.
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New Jersey Could Kill the Death Penalty
The Garden State has become the center of gravity in the fight to abolish capital punishment.
2006
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Questioning Capital Punishment
As doubts grow about the humanity and constitutionality of lethal injection, California, Florida and Maryland have shut down executions. America's flight from the death penalty continues.
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A Killing Machine Turns 30
This summer marks a grim anniversary of a Supreme Court decision to affirm the death penalty and create a bureaucratic killing machine that puts American justice at odds with the Constitution's underlying values.
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The Moussaoui Paradox
Bruce Shapiro : Civil Rights After 9/11
Justice triumphed over blood vengeance Wednesday as jurors declined to sentence a marginal 9/11 conspirator to death, while one of the real culprits languishes in a secret prison, unlikely to ever come to trial.
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Georgia's King Tribute Rings Hollow
Patrick Mulvaney : Civil Rights & Liberties
Abolishing the death penalty was one of Coretta Scott King's signature issues. The irony is that Georgia remains one of the leading practitioners of the death penalty.
2005
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Waiting for 'Roper v. Simmons'
Patrick Mulvaney : Supreme Court
A forum on the juvenile death penalty.
2003
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Ryan's Courage
Governor George Ryan's commutations change death-penalty politics forever.
2002
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Aiming for a Conviction
David Lindorff
A "death qualified" jury cannot be representative of the defendant's community.
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A Troubling Sentence
Charlie Alston's one holiday wish this season was simply that the criminal justice system uphold his legal rights.
2001
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Dead Reckoning
Bruce Shapiro : Foreign Affairs
A global effort to force an end to capital punishment in the US is gaining strength.
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No Vengeance, No Justice
Patricia J. Williams : Media Analysis
It is precisely the dimension of McVeigh's evil that presses us to consider most seriously the limits of state force.
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McVeigh's Last Message
If the FBI can "misplace" documents in the most notorious death-penalty case since the Rosenbergs, is it any wonder that nearly 100 innocent people have ended up on death row in recent years?
2000
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Death Trip: The American Way of Execution
Robert Sherrill : Supreme Court
If you tried to sell death-penalty stock on Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission would have you prosecuted for fraud.
This week: Political shifts in the U.K.; Roberto Lovato and Jeanvieve Williams talk about "Juan Crow," a matrix of anti-immigration laws; and Ross Tuttle and Scott Horton look at the chaos in Guantanamo, as the first detainees head to trial. (13mb mp3)
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