Death Penalty

Although the Supreme Court justices chose not to take up two petitions for review submitted by death-row inmates from Alabama and Tennessee May 13, they didn't do so with a simple one-sentence rejection.

Don Johnson, set to be executed May 16 by the state of Tennessee for the brutal 1984 murder of his wife Connie Johnson, has several people in his corner advocating clemency for him.

The U.S. Supreme Court is bedeviled by never-ending questions about capital punishment that underscore the practice’s capriciousness and cruelty.

Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates into the room where they'd be executed, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics.

In two recent actions, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed its death penalty decisions are hardly cut and dried.

Everything about the death penalty system seemed to be designed to deny hope.