Court review slows number of executions
681090
The Supreme Court's decision to review the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures has slowed the annual number of executions to the lowest level in a decade amid renewed concerns about whether it's too cruel.
49190
WASHINGTON - The number of people sentenced to death reached a 30-year low in 2003, when the Death Row population fell for the third year in a row, signaling the continuation of a slow trend away from state- and federally ordered executions, according to
482106
Convicted murderers are being sentenced to death half as often as they were five years ago, and the population of death row is declining as a result, an anti-capital punishment information organization reported Tuesday.
444006
A federal judge Monday postponed the execution of a serial killer who had tried to end his appeals and was set to become the first person put to death in New England in nearly 45 years.
337333
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Wednesday struggled to assess the morality and propriety of states' executing murderers who killed at age 16 or 17 - the ultimate punishment carried out in few places outside the United States.    The court has outlawed executions for those 15 and under when they committed their crimes...
89992
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal judges have been improperly adding time to criminals' sentences, a decision that puts in doubt longtime sentencing rules.
105054
A Supreme Court decision makes it easier to remove potential jurors who express ambivalence about the death penalty.
164545
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday stopped the execution of a Texas convict scheduled to be put to death for the 1998 killing of his parents, two days after the court said it will consider whether lethal injection violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
414293
The use of the death penalty dropped this year for the fifth year in a row, as questions grow about the guilt of the condemned and more states take a hard look at their use of executions, says a report by a group critical of the punishment.
619464
The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to take a hard look at the method of lethal injection most states use to put inmates to death in a case that could further slow the pace of executions.
290347
In another 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Texas double murderer whose attorneys argue he is so mentally ill he doesn't understand his punishment.
514208
Botched executions in California and Florida that required more than 30 minutes to kill condemned prisoners prompted a moratorium of the lethal injection procedure in both states on Friday.
379324
Texas remained the most active death penalty state in 2004 with 23 executions, down from a year ago and about average for the past decade. But legal experts and death penalty opponents suggest there are signs that increased judicial scrutiny is giving pause to juries and prosecutors considering capital punishment.
180472
A month after the US Supreme Court agreed to wade into the lethal injection debate, executions are effectively on hold across the nation as courts and politicians sit tight amid a legal limbo.
647878
Maryland's highest court ruled today that the state's protocol for carrying out executions was adopted improperly, a defect that the court said must be addressed before any other condemned inmates may be put to death.
53635
A federal appeals court on Monday opened the way for Missouri to resume executing condemned inmates, ruling the state's lethal injection procedure is not cruel and unusual punishment.
106212
Just a few years ago, Missouri trailed only Texas and Virginia in the number of convicted killers put to death. Today, Missouri's death row is gradually being emptied out by the courts.