Death Penalty

Activists who oppose the death penalty said the Justice Department's temporary stop of federal executions is a step in the right direction, but not enough.

"The Phantom," a new documentary on a capital murder case gone awry, is being released in theaters amid a Catholic Mobilizing Network campaign asking President Joe Biden to abolish the federal death penalty.

Arizona bishops are “very concerned” that the state could resume executions this fall – including the possibility of executions by gas chamber.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill requiring death-row inmates to choose between the electric chair or the firing squad for their executions if lethal injection drugs are not available.

Lisa Brown, the mother of federal death-row inmate Christopher Vialva, speaks during a Sept. 24, 2020, news conference near the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind. Her son was executed less than eight hours later that day.

"This means that the federal government will likely execute four people using an untested lethal injection protocol ... without any real oversight from the Supreme Court," tweeted Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille.

"The federal government's decision to pursue executions is wrongheaded. It is profoundly disappointing to see our federal government take such great pains to restart executions"