A death row inmate in Atlanta, Georgia has asked the court to execute him by firing squad. He argues that the pain medication he’s been on for the past decade would make him less susceptible to a fast death by lethal injection. And even people who aren’t taking pain medication have died in horrifying ways over the…

Today, the crimes of Hannah Ocuish would be readily explained, if not outright forgiven. Her childhood incorporated all the clichés and every demographic of the youthful offender: poverty, neglect, ignorance, discrimination. Taken together, they ensured that Hannah would be a naughty little girl indeed.

American tragedy: Glenn Ford, who spent 29 years on Death Row at Louisiana’s Angola prison for a murder he didn’t commit, died July 3. He was released last March, but his happiness at finally being free was short-lived, thanks to his cancer diagnosis; he was also denied restitution.

Perhaps if young Thomas Granger had been more discreet, more circumspect, his name would have long since vanished in the mists of history. But in Puritan times, his unusual crime so offended his community that it warranted the harshest of punishments.

Last week’s post on Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the UK, got us thinking about other executions that drew crowds to the prison walls. Most times, as in the Ellis case, the assembled are protesting the death penalty. Other times, the atmosphere is weirdly festive.

Ruth Ellis had a difficult life leading up to the night she shot her on-and-off boyfriend, David Blakely, in 1955. Variously described as a “model” and “nightclub hostess,” she was literally apprehended holding a smoking gun, and refused to alter her bleached-blonde locks to make a good impression during her trial.

Utah lawmakers are prepared to strap condemned criminals to this horrible chair and shoot them if they need to. They've just approved a bill that would allow the state to execute people by firing squad if there's a shortage of lethal injection chemicals needed to kill people the socially acceptable way.

Virtually every rich nation in the world has abolished the death penalty. But since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976, courts have sentenced over 7,000 people to die. Shockingly, about 56 percent of death sentences currently come from just 2 percent of U.S. counties.

Capital punishment is legal in 32 states in the US, and the primary method of execution in each of them is lethal injection. But that hasn't always been the case.

Tuesday night was horrific. After weeks of controversy, Oklahoma had planned to execute two convicted murders with untested lethal injection drugs. As many had feared, the drugs didn't work like they were supposed to, and one lethal injection drugsof the prisoners suffered in front of an audience.

Tuesday night was horrific. After weeks of controversy, Oklahoma had planned to execute two convicted murders with untested lethal injection drugs. As many had feared, the drugs didn't work like they were supposed to, and one lethal injection drugsof the prisoners suffered in front of an audience.

Virtually all of the 32 American states that allow the death penalty rely on a deadly chemical cocktail to slowly and quietly kill the condemned. But America has found itself running dangerously low on sodium pentothal, the injection's primary ingredient, after the only US supplier stopped making it. So how are we…

When most people think of beheadings they probably think of events far away in time and place, such as Marie Antoinette's 1793 guillotine execution during the French revolution.

This stark, almost peaceful looking room is actually Japan's execution room. The ring on top holds the noose, the red square outlines the trapdoor and this is the first time Japan has ever shown these rooms off.

Capital punishment. Sends a chill down your spine, doesn't it? Hopefully none of our readers will ever see first-hand the following methods of execution in the following states of the US.