NEW RESOURCES: Recent Events in the Death Penalty

The Chicago Tribune Investigates the Execution of a Likely Innocent Man in
​“Did this man die…for this man’s crime?”

In 1989, defen­dant Carlos DeLuna was exe­cut­ed in Texas for the fatal stab­bing of Texas con­ve­nience store clerk Wanda Lopez. The three-part series by reporters Maurice Possley and Steve Mills can be found here.



A news piece on ABC’s ​“World News Tonight” also cov­ered this sto­ry. Watch it here. (Requires Real Player. For oth­er media ver­sions includ­ing Quicktime, click here).

See also Innocence.




Missouri Executions Stayed

A fed­er­al District Court found many prob­lems with the way exe­cu­tions are car­ried out in Missouri after review­ing their process. The Court halt­ed exe­cu­tions and stat­ed that the present pro­ce­dures are not car­ried out con­sis­tent­ly because there is no writ­ten pro­to­col for admin­is­ter­ing the drugs for the exe­cu­tions. The court con­clud­ed that Missouri’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure sub­jects con­demned inmates to an unnec­es­sary risk of pain and suf­fer­ing. Among the changes rec­om­mend­ed by the court is the use of anes­the­si­ol­o­gists dur­ing lethal injec­tions (More).

Read the District Court’s Order.

See the Statement of the President of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (June 30, 2006).

See also Methods of Execution.