Death Penalty

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  • The redemption of Gov. Ryan

    Facing a possible indictment for corruption, the veteran political deal-maker shut down death row in Illinois. Is he trying to save lives -- or his own legacy?
    By Patrick Arden January 16, 2003

  • The death penalty: "Arbitrary and capricious"

    Outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan provoked bitter controversy Saturday when he commuted the sentences of 157 death row inmates. In a speech, he explains his decision.
    January 14, 2003

  • The Salon Interview: Steve Earle

    The radical country rocker and composer of "John Walker's Blues" blasts the war on Iraq, denounces the death penalty and explains why ex-druggies believe in God.
    By Andrew O'Hehir November 13, 2002

  • A cool cowpoke gets political

    Steve Earle, a new disc under his belt, talks about his tumultuous career -- a hair-raising ride that has included many wives, an ugly romance with heroin, and watching a man die.
    By Mark J. Miller August 29, 2002

  • Another strike against the death penalty

    The U.S. Supreme Court lifted the death sentence on more than 100 cases, but some critics say court conservatives may only be trying to fine-tune the machinery of capital punishment.
    By David Lindorff June 25, 2002

  • Antonin Scalia's crisis of conscience

    In a case that could free hundreds from death row, the conservative Supreme Court justice finds that his support for the rights of juries clashes with his staunch advocacy of the death penalty.
    By Dave Lindorff June 12, 2002

  • "The Execution of Wanda Jean"

    Director Liz Garbus talks about the death penalty and her documentary on a woman executed for murder.
    By Dimitra Kessenides March 18, 2002

  • Too late to stop the hangman?

    Missouri is determined to execute Joseph Amrine for murder even though every prosecution witness and the jury foreman now say he's innocent and new witnesses point to another man. Why? A federal law says the evidence came in too late.
    By Dave Lindorff February 20, 2002

  • Are you ready to dance on Osama's grave?

    The apparent architect of our worst nightmare is seen celebrating our losses. Will we do the same when he comes to a violent end?
    By Gawain Charlton-Perrin December 14, 2001

  • Executioner's song

    The ravaged lives of two men hired to pull the switch testify to the hidden costs of America's death penalty.
    By Paul Festa December 4, 2001

  • The mind of a killer

    A neurologist who studies murderers' brains talks about factors that make someone kill, the difficulty of predicting violence and why most murderers can never be rehabilitated.
    By Suzy Hansen July 27, 2001

  • Mumia's all-or-nothing gamble

    In a stunning switch, the convicted murderer's new lawyers now passionately claim he's completely innocent and that the real culprit was a mobster hired by corrupt Philly cops to kill one of their own. If the judge doesn't buy it, their client could die.
    By David Lindorff June 15, 2001

  • Botched!

    "If the government can't get it right in this case, how can we rely on it to get it right in any case?" Experts react to the FBI blunder.
    By Alicia Montgomery and Fiona Morgan May 12, 2001

  • Killing as "closure"

    John Ashcroft says the closed-circuit TV broadcast of Timothy McVeigh's execution will help victims heal. But will what they see look too brutal -- or not brutal enough?
    By Kerry Lauerman April 14, 2001

  • Killing McVeigh

    Vengeance, not justice, will be televised with the execution of the convicted Oklahoma City bomber.
    By Bruce Shapiro February 24, 2001

  • An innocent Texas inmate is freed

    But if George W. Bush's office had not ignored a murder confession and DNA evidence, Christopher Ochoa might have been freed much sooner.
    By Salon Staff January 17, 2001

  • Hardest hit by the prison craze

    Oklahoma executes black woman Wanda Jean Allen at a time when black women have become the new menace to society.
    By Earl Ofari Hutchinson January 12, 2001

  • The death penalty's other victims

    When prosecutors eliminate jurors opposed to capital punishment, they also weed out women and minorities and stack the deck against defendants.
    By David Lindorff January 2, 2001

  • Janet Reno's fatal decision

    The attorney general must soon decide whether to try to save a possibly innocent man from the electric chair -- or leave the case for an incoming administration unlikely to do so.
    By Alan Berlow December 22, 2000

  • One last debate

    Salon's young readers make Bush and Gore answer questions that Jim Lehrer neglected to ask.
    November 6, 2000

  • Texas justice

    What made timid honors student Christopher Ochoa confess to a rape and murder that he almost certainly did not commit?
    By Alan Berlow October 31, 2000

  • Meet the press, with David Letterman

    The talk-show host proves to be twice as tough on George W. Bush as many reporters on the campaign trail.
    By Jake Tapper October 20, 2000

  • Deadly lies

    George W. Bush and Al Gore both believe capital punishment deters violent crime. They're wrong.
    By Bruce Shapiro October 20, 2000

  • Inside the Texas death machine

    Last meals and last words are just part of the daily routine for death-row employees featured in an NPR documentary.
    By Suzy Hansen October 20, 2000

  • The exonerated

    Wrongly convicted, they sat on death row for years. Extraordinary legal measures saved their lives. A new play confronts us with their nightmares.
    By Amy Goldwasser October 20, 2000
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