LANSING, Kan. — The shuttered Kansas prison where the killers chronicled in Truman Capote ‘s “In Cold Blood” were executed is now a tourist attraction. Starting Friday, former wardens and corrections officers will lead two-hour tours of the stone-walled building in Lansing that first began housing inmates in the 1860s, The Kansas City Star reported. … Read more
In 2016, the Democratic Party became the country’s first major political party to formally call for abolishing the death penalty. The party’s platform that year, released in the aftermath of a high-profile botched execution, called the punishment “cruel and unusual,” “arbitrary and unjust,” expensive to taxpayers and ineffective in deterring crime. The document also nodded … Read more
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina can execute death row inmates by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair, the state’s high court ruled Wednesday, opening the door to restart executions after more than a decade. All five justices agreed with at least part of the ruling. But two of the justices said they felt … Read more
Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales on Wednesday despite a stunning reversal from a psychiatrist who helped send him to death row 17 years ago. Gonzales, 41, was killed by lethal injection at 6:50 p.m. Central time as punishment for kidnapping, raping and murdering Bridget Townsend when they were both 18. At the time, Gonzales was struggling … Read more
A 50-year-old man on Texas’ death row who has maintained his innocence for more than two decades was executed on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. Ivan Cantu, who was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury in the 2000 killing of his cousin and the cousin’s fiancée, was killed by lethal injection at 6:47 … Read more
JERUSALEM — An American porn actor who has advocated for Palestinians online during Israel’s war on Hamas traveled to Iran and visited the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, which was abandoned after the 1979 hostage crisis. The visit by Whitney Wright as Iran imprisons Nobel Peace Prize laureate and women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi sparked … Read more
Ohio lawmakers introduced a bill Tuesday that would allow the state to execute people using nitrogen gas. The legislation, introduced by state Reps. Brian Stewart (R) and Phil Plummer (R) and backed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R), “is aimed at kickstarting the state’s stalled capital-punishment system,” Yost’s office said in a press release. … Read more
