Executed Today offers "each day the story of an historical execution that took place on this date, and the story behind it."
posted on Aug 12, 2008 - View this thread

Texas executes Mexican national who was denied consul visit.
posted on Aug 6, 2008 - View this thread

Iranian man stoned to death for adultery after serving 11-year prison sentence. Unsuccessful, unofficial investigation here. Amnesty International pleads for life of his partner.
posted on Jul 20, 2007 - View this thread

Thirty years ago today, Gary Gilmore was executed at the Utah State Prison, the first prisoner to be put to death since the moratorium on executions was established four years prior, and the first execution in Utah in sixteen years. His refusal to appeal his death sentence confounded his lawyers and attracted the attention of the ACLU, among others, who fought to keep Gilmore alive, against his wishes. His frustrations with the uncertainty of his sentence led him to attempt suicide in prison twice.

His life and death have been recounted in several books, films, inspired a few songs, and even an SNL skit. His final words, “Let’s do it,” led to a major marketing campaign.
posted on Jan 17, 2007 - View this thread

Saddam has been executed, Iraqi media reports
posted on Dec 29, 2006 - View this thread

Elijah Page to be executed in South Dakota. On March 12, 2000, Page and two other brutally tortured and killed Chester Poage near Spearfish, SD.(very graphic description of events). It took Page, Briley Piper, and Darrell Hoadley nearly 3 hours to finally kill Poage. This will be the first execution in South Dakota in 59 years. (more inside)
posted on Aug 25, 2006 - View this thread

A Conversation with Stanley Tookie Williams - Amy Goodman had a conversation with Stanley Williams days before he was executed using lethal injection at San Quentin's death chamber. It was good to listen to the audio and following along with the transcript. In listening I kept in mind Williams' violent past, his long incarceration, and his "redemption". I learned something from this. And it was redemption which Ahnold said [PDF] was the reason for no slack. In the end it was Conan the Barbarian who singularly determined Tookie's fate.
posted on Dec 14, 2005 - View this thread

Woman stoned to death for adultery ... ... in Afghanistan.
posted on Apr 26, 2005 - View this thread

The Lancet publishes a research letter that finds inadequate anaesthesia is used in executions by lethal injection
posted on Apr 15, 2005 - View this thread

Life and Death: an extraordinary post from Chris Clarke about his connection to serial killer Stephen Peter Morin. His family chimes in meaningfully in the comments. Morin's execution is often pointed to as proof of the cruelty of lethal injection.
posted on Apr 4, 2005 - View this thread

Another Fan Of Torture Reveals Himself Eugene Volokh, a former clerk to Justice O'Connor and a leading voice in conservative legal circles has some interesting opinions on punishment:

[T]hough for many instances I would prefer less painful forms of execution, I am especially pleased that the killing — and, yes, I am happy to call it a killing, a perfectly proper term for a perfectly proper act — was a slow throttling, and was preceded by a flogging. The one thing that troubles me (besides the fact that the murderer could only be killed once) is that the accomplice was sentenced to only 15 years in prison, but perhaps there's a good explanation.
posted on Mar 17, 2005 - View this thread

A 16 year-old girl was hanged in Iran for having a "sharp tongue," i.e. back-talking the judge.
posted on Aug 23, 2004 - View this thread

Décolleté takes you on a fascinating guided tour of decapitation through the ages that covers biblical head severers Judith and Salome, the hapless victims of the Tudor axe, as well as the dreaded guillotine. Site contains some mild artistic gore, but nothing too horrendous.
posted on Sep 29, 2003 - View this thread

Mary, Queen of Scots (warning: music) is one of British royalty's most adored and most reviled figures, putting her in the select company of arch-rival Elizabeth I (sigh: music again) and Charles I. (The latter is an Anglican saint, although not everybody is quite so enthused.) Wince at the description of her execution, read some poems about her--or, indeed, some of her own poems--or visit her grave in Westminster Abbey.
posted on Jun 14, 2003 - View this thread

"Mr. Banks, a man with no prior criminal record, is most likely innocent of the charge that put him on death row. Fearing a tragic miscarriage of justice, three former federal judges (including William Sessions, a former director of the F.B.I.) have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block Wednesday's execution.

"So far, no one seems to be listening." [via atrios]
posted on Mar 11, 2003 - View this thread

Is forcing a prisoner on death row to take antipsychotic medication to make him sane enough to execute cruel and unusual punishment? (NYT link) A federal appeals court ruled that officials in Arkansas can force a prisoner on death row to take antipsychotic medication to make him sane enough to execute. The problem is that the American Medical Association's ethical guidelines prohibits precisely that. To make the case more surreal, a representative of the Arkansas attorney general's office who argued for the state later said: "The ethical decisions involving doctors are difficult ones, but they are not ones for the courts". Does this mean that COs -Correction Officers- are to figure out for themselves which medication to administer? Do they also call the shots when deciding if the "waiting" patient is sane enough???
posted on Feb 11, 2003 - View this thread

Three Supreme Court Justices publicy oppose executing teenage criminals. In a rare move, Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Stevens made a public statement in a delay request to state their opposition to executing someone who committed murder before the age of 18. With the Court already banning the execution of the mentally retarded this year, is this another sign of a soon-to-be next step in the abolishment of the death penalty? Or does the average American still believe that regardless of what time, when you do the crime you walk the line?
posted on Aug 30, 2002 - View this thread

Supreme Court says no to executions of mentally disturbed people. Wow.
posted on Jun 20, 2002 - View this thread

Is this Israel's Rodney King video? Warning: graphic depiction of an execution. Mahmoud Salah was subdued, stripped and then executed by Israeli soldiers who must have not realized they were being taped. Also reported here. This article makes the assertion that the regular police opposed the killing and Special Forces committed this act.
posted on Apr 23, 2002 - View this thread

In 1948 Caryl Chessman was awarded two death sentences on two counts of attempted rape. He was probably innocent, yet he was executed in 1960 for more or less "being a smartass." In the years between his sentencing and death, he wrote three memoirs and a novel, which sold well. After the first memoir the prison forbade him to write about anything other than the legalities of his case, so he developed an elaborate code to get his work out to his lawyer. His spirit never broke, as strange as it was. This is his story.
posted on Nov 3, 2001 - View this thread

China is on an 'execution frenzy' executing more people 1750+ over the past 3 months then the rest of the world combined over the past 3 years.. according to Amnesty International. The parades and stadiums add a nice Roman-era twist.
posted on Jul 6, 2001 - View this thread

Death with Commercials is how the ever apposite Frank Rich sums up the media-saturated McVeigh execution, the ultimate reality show. Rich thinks all the hoopla my have served to turn more people away from punishment by death.
posted on Jun 23, 2001 - View this thread

juan garza was executed in indiana this morning, in the same room where timothy mcveigh died. why no hullabaloo this time?
posted on Jun 19, 2001 - View this thread

Policy or Parody? A group calling itself "Citizens for Capital Punishment" ran an ad in the Terre Haute paper (both the NYT and the WP rejected it) showing a family watching the McVeigh execution on television and cheering. This seems too far over the top to be a real pro-death-penalty piece, but if it's satire, the creators are playing it straight. [via Media News]
posted on Jun 19, 2001 - View this thread

U.S. Embassy bomber given life sentence. This is kind of the flipside of the McVeigh execution; Saudi man helps bomb the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi which kills 213 people. Jury cannot agree to execute him, as some believe he would become a martyr for the cause, and others believe this wouldn't "alleviate the suffering of the victims or family members". Why is this any different from the McVeigh situation?
posted on Jun 13, 2001 - View this thread

"We have executed Guillermo Sobero as a gift to the country on independence day," he said. The most popular phrase to describe guerilla civil war in the past century has probably been sectarian violence. Look, here's more now. Hard to understand how this poor SOB's death advances their cause, but maybe I'm missing something.
posted on Jun 12, 2001 - View this thread

botched executions:
warning: gruesome descriptions of bungled executions ahead.

also: the execution tapes - audio recordings in real player format.

whether for or against the death penalty, take a look.
posted on May 13, 2001 - View this thread

"..this vengeance, this rage, isn't helping us one bit." The father of one of the victims of the Oklahoma bombing speaks out about why he's forgiven Tim McVeigh. The article also talks about the social pressure on Oklahomans who are against the death penalty and a Colorado politician who's upset because the killer of his aunt failed to apologize before his execution.
posted on May 7, 2001 - View this thread

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 on May 5, 2001 - View this thread

TV to Air Death Chamber Tapes "The tapes were recorded by prison staff and document the events taking place in the execution chamber as narrated by prison officials witnessing the event. The descriptions follow the procedure from the securing of the prisoner to the electric chair to the pronouncement of the time of death and the removal of the prisoner's body from 23 executions. All the tapes are public record".
posted on May 2, 2001 - View this thread

And now for something really depressing - the Texas Department of Criminal Justice maintains a database including the 'last statements' of all inmates executed since 1982.
posted on May 2, 2001 - View this thread

Mom and Dad went to the Execution and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. Timothy McVeigh execution on your t-shirt. I am buying three. They'll make great stocking stuffers. Seriously, this may be the tackiest thing I have seen since Grandma's potholder dress.
posted on Apr 23, 2001 - View this thread

Execution for Dummies, special McVeigh edition. The Bureau of Prisons has thoughtfully printed up a 56-page how-to guide for those in charge of putting Tim McVeigh to death. Now you can follow along in the comfort of your own home!
posted on Apr 11, 2001 - View this thread

Surely the final TV taboo - Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh has requested for television coverage of his own execution.
posted on Feb 23, 2001 - View this thread

Execution on closed circuit television? 8 seats in the death chamber where Tim McVeigh will be executed May 16. 250 want to be present. But is broadcasting the execution really a good idea?
posted on Feb 8, 2001 - View this thread

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

Mentally retarded man to be executed in Texas. Discuss.
posted on Nov 12, 2000 - View this thread

A retarded man in Texas is set to be executed tomorrow. Is this what "compassionate conservatism" is all about? Bush does not support laws that prohibit the execution of retarded people, even though such laws exist currently in 12 other states. Oliver Cruz commited a heinous crime, but isn't killing him tomorrow pre-meditated murder? Are we a better society after we kill Oliver Cruz? Does it send a message to other would be mentally-retarded killers that they will hear and will it convince them not to commit similar crimes?
posted on Aug 8, 2000 - View this thread

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 on Jul 26, 2000 - View this thread

Final meal requests . Is the Texas Department of Criminal Justice a bit sadistic or what?
posted on May 30, 2000 - View this thread

The United Killers of Benetton It seems that the italian clothing company Benetton recently used death row inmates in a rather distasteful ad campaign that featured death row inmates and thier clothing. Check it out. Quite a groundswell of protest is mounting against this. The matter seems to be equally offending to both pro and anti death sentence folks.
posted on Mar 18, 2000 - View this thread