MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama is waging a last-minute legal fight to execute a man with nitrogen gas on Thursday night, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to set aside a judge’s findings that the method violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Alabama’s nitrogen protocol is unconstitutional … Read more
A federal judge has banned Alabama from executing a death row inmate by nitrogen hypoxia, reversing a previous opinion and concluding that the controversial and relatively new execution method is unconstitutionally cruel. The ruling, issued Tuesday, permanently prevents the state from putting Jeffrey Lee, 49, to death using nitrogen gas. Lee was scheduled to die … Read more
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s use of nitrogen gas to put people to death needs more study of whether it violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, a federal appeals court decided Monday. The state first used nitrogen for capital punishment in 2024, and the ruling could upend Alabama’s next scheduled execution on Thursday. … Read more
Montgomery, Ala. — A federal judge ruled on Thursday that execution by nitrogen gas doesn’t violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, rejecting an Alabama inmate’s claim that it causes excessive suffering. The ruling came after the first bench trial in the country to examine the constitutionality of the execution method that has … Read more
Iranian authorities on Tuesday executed a man after convicting him of alleged cooperation with, and espionage for, Israel’s Mossad spy agency, the judiciary said. “Gholamreza Khani Shakarab was executed on charges of intelligence cooperation and espionage in favor of the Zionist regime,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported, adding that his sentence was upheld by the … Read more
Mixed with somber messages, too, are moments when prisoners reach for levity. Inmates have referred to their favorite sports teams, cheering on the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers. Others have turned to gallows humor. “I’ve been hanging around this popsicle stand way too long,” said Douglas Roberts, who was executed in 2005 after he … Read more
The use of the death penalty skyrocketed last year, with documented executions reaching a worldwide high not seen since 1981, a new report found. A majority of the increase came from Iran, where the annual execution rate doubled, according to the report by human rights organization Amnesty International. At least 2,707 people were executed globally … Read more
Iran on Tuesday executed a man convicted of armed rebellion, the judiciary said, the latest in a wave of hangings since war broke out with the United States and Israel. “The death sentence for Abdoljalil Shahbakhsh, son of Jalal, a trained member of the Ansar al-Furqan terrorist group, was carried out this morning,” the judiciary’s … Read more
The Justice Department also reauthorized single-drug lethal injections in an effort to expedite capital punishment cases. Source link
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department will adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases, officials said Friday. The Justice Department is also reauthorizing the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital that were used to carry out 13 executions during the … Read more