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Nation Topics - Death Penalty | The Nation

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Nation Topics - Death Penalty

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Cook County Department of Corrections

As an investigative journalism student, I helped uncover proof that should have cleared Anthony McKinney’s name. Instead, he died in prison.

Warren Hill

When a prisoner faces the execution chamber four times in one year, is it not cruel and unusual punishment?

Anti-death penalty posters

As Kimberly McCarthy was put to death—the 500th Texas prisoner executed since 1982—protesters and crime victims alike came to bear witness.

Shujaa Graham

“I killed the thing that almost killed me,” said Kirk Bloodsworth, who faced execution in Maryland, the latest state to outlaw capital punishment.

Prison cell

Witnesses say they saw Timothy McKinney shoot an off-duty police officer in 1997. But their stories have changed—and the DA’s office has been caught hiding evidence in death penalty trials.

A decade after Illinois Governor George Ryan emptied death row and pardoned four innocent men who were tortured by police under Commander Jon Burge, the city of Chicago has not admitted to its collective crimes.

As a death row lawyer who fights to keep his clients alive, I believe life without parole denies the possibility of redemption every bit as much as strapping a murderer to the gurney and filling him with poison.

Illinois has shuttered a commission formed to examine the cases of prisoners who say they were abused under Chicago’s former Police Commander Jon Burge years ago. But a truth-telling play—by the journalist who broke the story—will not let us forget.

Trina Garnett

Why did the Court limit its ruling to cases with mandatory sentences, instead of banning juvenile life without parole altogether?

Rodney Reed

Sentenced to die after his DNA was found on murder victim Stacy Stites, Reed insists it was proof of an illicit affair—and that her police officer fiancé is the real killer.

Blogs

Just hours after Wendy Davis’s filibuster of a repressive anti-abortion bill, the state executed its 500th inmate since 1976.

June 27, 2013

Lincoln ordered the execution of thirty-eight Dakota Indians for rebellion—but never ordered the execution of Confederate officials or generals.

December 26, 2012

For family members of death row prisoners, including those who have been executed, gatherings like the March for Abolition are a critical lifeline, and a link to a desperately needed community.

November 16, 2012

When a Pennsylvania jury sentenced Terrance Williams with the death penalty, they didn't know he had suffered years of violent sexual abuse at the hands of his victim. 

September 12, 2012

The Supreme Court waved forward the execution of Marvin Wilson despite a 2002 ban on executing people with intellectual disabilities.

August 6, 2012

Why did the Court limit its ruling to cases with mandatory sentences, instead of banning juvenile life without parole altogether?

June 26, 2012

Should we as a society act like the murderers that we punish?

September 23, 2011

After mourning, fight back by helping these four groups redouble their efforts to abolish capital punishment in the US.

September 22, 2011

Rejecting international pleas, domestic protests and evidence that Troy Davis was innocent, the state of Georgia put him to death under a process that former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has referred to as “unconstitutional.”

September 21, 2011

Here's my stab at a list of the top ten songs ever written in opposition to capital punishment.

September 20, 2011
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