Home ›

death penalty

  • 22 Jun 2009
    Religious concerns highlighted as California resumes executions

    California is to resume executions after a three-year hiatus. Campaigners have responded to the proposed lethal injection regulations with a series of concerns placing a strong focus on religious and spiritual freedoms.

  • 27 May 2009
    Texas governor blocks limited move against the death penalty

    Amid pressure from both sides, the governor of Texas has blocked part of a bill which would have prevented the death penalty being used for a particular category of people convicted under a provision called the Law of Parties.

  • 22 May 2009
    Legal and legislative challenges to death penalty in the USA

    Worldwide vigils have been held for Troy Davis, a death row prisoner in Georgia, USA, who is believed to be innocent, and is still trying to get a court to hear evidence collected since his original trial 18 years ago, which could prove his innocence.

  • 24 Mar 2009
    New figures show rise in global executions

    Amnesty International today revealed that the number of executions in 2008 rose significantly compared to the previous year, while more countries in Asia made use of the death penalty than any other region of the world.

  • 19 Mar 2009
    Catholic bishops call for repeal of New Mexico death penalty

    Catholic Bishop William F Murphy has written to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to urge him to sign a repeal of the death penalty recently adopted by the New Mexico legislature.

  • 22 May 2008
    Killer of archbishop receives death penalty despite church opposition

    An al-Qaeda leader in Iraq has been sentenced to death for the killing of the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho - despite the church's opposition to the death penalty. The Iraqi government said the criminal court had imposed the death sentence on Ahmed Ali Ahmed.

  • 12 May 2008
    Kirk set to express outright opposition to death penalty

    The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is set to express its outright opposition to the death penalty for the first time. It has never previously resolved to oppose capital punishment ‘unequivocally’.

  • 29 Feb 2008
    'Christian' societies and the death penalty

    Radio shock-jock and Sun tabloid pundit John Gaunt has been bigging up the death penalty on TV this week. His millions of followers can't be wrong, he reckons.

  • 16 Jan 2008
    The death penalty shows its true colours

    Ex-Conservative MP Michael Portillo was on TV last night, documenting his attempts to discover whether there is a "humane" way for the state to kill people found guilty of heinous crimes.

  • 16 Jan 2008
    Amnesty launches campaign against stoning in Iran

    The global human rights group Amnesty International has called on the government of Iran to immediately abolish the "grotesque and horrific" practice of publicly stoning people to death.