death penalty

The state of Tennessee executed Oscar Franklin Smith Thursday morning. It was the first lethal injection since 2019, and comes on the heels of a third-party investigation into the state’s protocol that found failures in testing the drugs used during executions.

Ahead of Oscar Smith’s execution Thursday morning for the murder of his wife and two of her children, people close to the case have expressed a wide span of thoughts and emotions leading up to this day.

Tennessee will execute Oscar Franklin Smith this week, while a lawsuit challenging the state’s new lethal injection protocol makes its way through the court system.

David Sanders not only wants a judge to overturn his death penalty conviction, but to declare a law unconstitutional. The decision could open the door for defendants across the country.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has approved legislation allowing the death penalty in child rape convictions, a change the Republican-controlled Statehouse championed amid concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court has banned capital punishment in such cases.

A review of the state’s death row system shows delays, disparities and costs that many say need to be addressed.

Kentuckians who have some serious mental illnesses won’t be subject to the death penalty under a bill that passed out of the state House of Representatives on Wednesday. The measure now heads to the state Senate, which hasn’t supported similar proposals in recent years.

The Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill Monday banning the death penalty for people with some severe mental illnesses.House Bill 148 would ban…

A three-judge panel sends Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's case back to a lower court for resentencing, saying the jury that sentenced him to death had not been adequately vetted.

The Kentucky Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday over whether 18 to 21 year-olds should receive the death penalty. This was during a special hearing in…