Man on death row wants to donate liver to dying sister. I think this opens up many questions and mucks up the waters if you are both pro life(viva Terri), and also support the death penalty. (first fpp)
posted by MrMulan on May 16, 2005 - 115 comments

Woman stoned to death for adultery ... ... in Afghanistan.
posted by magullo on Apr 26, 2005 - 63 comments

Convicted killer wins stay. The 9th Circuit Court feels that justice would be better served by being more sure that Cooper is actually guilty of the 4 murders he was sentenced to die for (followed from here). Considering the amount of controversy over evidence handling in this case, I think that they're right.
posted by Dipsomaniac on Feb 9, 2004 - 9 comments

Here are some ideas for Thanksgiving dinner, though not a circumstance I'd like to participate in. If ever there was a time to say Grace before dining, this certainly is one of those times. Pumpkin pie anyone?
posted by bluedaniel on Nov 27, 2003 - 10 comments

The Exonerated
Want to see some great theater and learn a bit about our great system of justice and capital punishment? Then The Exonerated may be the show for you.

The other night I went to see The Exonerated, which has been playing Off Broadway since last fall and is also appearing in theaters around the country this year. Composed wholly from court records and interviews by playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, this documentary drama recounts true tales of horror from the American criminal-justice system. The actors sit downstage and read their parts as the stories of six innocent citizens condemned to death row unfold. If this sounds like a worthy endeavor, it is; if it sounds dull or didactic, it isn’t.
posted by nofundy on Jul 3, 2003 - 2 comments

God's Justice and Ours. Justice Antonin Scalia writes on capital punishment in First Things: "In my view, the major impetus behind modern aversion to the death penalty is the equation of private morality with governmental morality. This is a predictable (though I believe erroneous and regrettable) reaction to modern, democratic self–government."
posted by Ty Webb on Jun 12, 2002 - 28 comments

Killer to be executed even though victim's mother requested a commuted sentence to life imprisonment. Shouldn't family members of the victim have some sort of say in whether a convicted killer should be executed or not? Especially when they are against the execution of the perpetrator?

Just an add-on toThe Texas Conveyor Belt of Death thread from yesterday.
posted by da5id on May 21, 2002 - 18 comments

England vs. USA Over the death penalty. Initially I felt like saying "butt out" but America tends to get involved in other countries when our citizens are in trouble (like that kid in Singapore way back).
posted by owillis on Sep 10, 2001 - 7 comments

Not in favor of the death penalty? How about a gulag in Alaska? It sounded ludicrous to me at first, but after reading the article I'm a little more open to the idea.
posted by RylandDotNet on Jun 18, 2001 - 56 comments

McVeigh - it's over....
Mass murderer executed by lethal injetion.... I'm not sheddding any tears over it...
posted by tomcosgrave on Jun 11, 2001 - 223 comments

Novelist Vidal to watch McVeigh die McVeigh “put his reason (for the bombing) upon a sense of justice,” Vidal said. “This guy’s got a case — you don’t send the FBI in to kill women and children,” he said, a reference to the government’s deadly raid on the Davidians’ complex at Waco. Vidal said, however, he wants people to know how horrified he is by the bombing. The author said he told McVeigh in a letter that if the bomber had blown up FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., “at midnight when no one was in it, ‘you’d be a national hero.’”
posted by matteo on May 5, 2001 - 25 comments

U.S. Supreme Court to review death penalty for retarded. Regardless of what you think of the death penalty for people of normal(?) mental capacity, can you believe that they are just starting to reconsider this now?
posted by jasonshellen on Mar 26, 2001 - 1 comment

statistics on the death penalty Statistics which suggest that the death penalty does not accomplish what we expected of it. Unless, perhaps, we like revenge.
posted by Postroad on Feb 13, 2001 - 76 comments

Judge oks McVeigh execution request
I understand the ACLU is fighting to keep him alive, but I cannot find a link.
posted by thirteen on Dec 29, 2000 - 22 comments

Pregnant women on death row. I don't understand why this is an issue. I'm not commenting on capital punishment here, a problem in itself, but what's the rush? Why not just wait until the child is born?
posted by evilmaryellen on Jul 26, 2000 - 70 comments

Final meal requests . Is the Texas Department of Criminal Justice a bit sadistic or what?
posted by tremendo on May 30, 2000 - 18 comments