Capital Punishment

Proposition 34 Death Penalty Repeal: Absentee Ballot and Early Returns

See also: Proposition 34: Campaign to Repeal the Death Penalty is Gaining Traction, According to Poll The absentee ballot results are in and, so far, it's not good news for supporters of Proposition 34, the ballot measure that would repeal the death penalty in California.

Proposition 34: Campaign to Repeal the Death Penalty is Gaining Traction According to Poll

Good news today for supporters of Proposition 34, the initiative that would end executions in California and see the sentences of the state's 725 death row inmates automatically commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. According to a Field Poll released this morning, for first ... More >>

Friends Wrongfully Imprisoned for Nearly Two Decades — Until the Innocence Project Won Their Freedom

Imprisoned nearly two decades for murder, it took another brutal slaying to free them

James Fayed Gets Death Penalty: L.A. Gold Trader Who Plotted Wife's Murder Could Cost Taxpayers Over $300 Million

KTLAJames Fayed is sentenced to death.​James Fayed's crime was as heinous as they come: Last summer, the wealthy businessman admitted to a Los Angeles jail mate that he'd paid several men to murder 44-year-old Pamela Fayed, his estranged wife, in a Century City parking garage in 2008. (The cou ... More >>

Don Heller, Same Lawyer Who Wrote California Death Penalty, Now Fighting to Abolish It

calwatchdog.comThe California death chamber: Even more expensive than it is terrifying.​The court of public opinion was in an uproar yesterday, both in the hours before and after Georgia man Troy Davis was executed by the government for a crime he maintains he didn't commit. By this morning, # ... More >>

California Death Penalty Could be Overturned With Your Vote: L.A. Police Union Says No to Statewide Ballot Measure

Richard Ramirez is still alive.​To kill or not to kill, that is the question that could be coming to a voting booth near you. Will you pull the trigger? The state Assembly's Public Safety Committee approved Berkeley state Senator Loni Hancock's SB 490 last week, setting off a firestorm of cri ... More >>

Barbie Doll Electric Chair Science Project: Let Her Fry!

via Jessyratfink via Instructables​ This is pretty close to being the best science fair project ever. Most kids make exploding volcanoes. Jessyratfink make a fully functional electric chair for her Barbie doll to demonstrate how currents and conductivity work. Her project "completely disgusted ... More >>

Albert Greenwood Brown Execution And Six Others On California Death Row Put Off By Judge -- Now, Months Of Wrangling Over Killer Poison

​Updated with Attorney General's office calling off the execution. First posted at 11:46 a.m. That California death row execution of Albert Greenwood Brown, Jr., scheduled for Wednesday, then Thursday, looks like its it might not happen any time soon. Update: California Attorney General Jerr ... More >>

San Yun King's killer, one-man crime machine Larry Stewart, escapes California's Death Row thanks to a single juror holdout, D.A. decides

Stewart won't get the tour​Larry Stewart, the vicious crime machine who murdered the quiet, innocent, liquor store owner Sang Yun "Sam" Kim, severely beating and choking the South Los Angeles shopkeeper with his own belt -- then chemically burning him with bleach -- has escaped Death Row. Ste ... More >>

Steve Cooley: Son of an Eagle Scout

Parole Denied For Ailing 'Onion Field' Killer

CDCRGregory Powell.​Onion Field killer Gregory Powell was denied parole this week after nearly 47 years behind bars, despite his plea for more freedom before he dies from terminal prostate cancer. The 76-year-old reportedly told a parole board in San Luis Obispo, "I've done enough time. I'm a ... More >>

Death Row Records, Post-Suge Knight, Returns with Petey Pablo to Say What's Up from Canada

It's hard to even write this: Toronto-based Death Row Records announced today that the company will be issuing a sampler in conjunction with National Record Store Day, which takes place around the country on April 18. The label, founded in LA by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight, released some of the most i ... More >>

Death Row's G-Funk Fire Sale

Death Row Records Auctions Off Its History in Fullerton

(All photos by Brandon Perkins. For full gallery, check out the Death Row Auction slideshow.) It was perfect. The portrait of Nate Dogg in itself was tacky, but Suge Knight's alleged tweaks to the painting -- black eye and multiple bullet holes -- were priceless. The frameless artifact wasn't th ... More >>

Gang Leader Sent to Death Row

As the L.A. Times' Jack Leonard reported, Timothy McGhee, the charismatic but deadly leader of the Toonerville street gang, had his death sentence for three murders confirmed by Superior Court Judge Robert Perry on Friday. Last August's L.A. Daily story about the jury's sentencing recommendation ( ... More >>

Time’s Up, Clarence

Why the crowds aren’t shouting to spare an aged death-row inmate

Tookie’s Inhumanity

An argument for sparing a cold-blooded killer

Saved by a Hair

Kevin Cooper likely gets another month of life

An Unexpected Stay of Execution

Supreme Court reaffirms inmates’ right to fair trial

Ignoble Sentence

Death row's nominee for peace prize might be helped by high-court ruling on racial bias

Death Mansion

What’s really behind Gray Davis’ push for a 1,000-bed death row?

The Accidental Hero

Illinois Governor Ryan and the death penalty

Mercy on Death Row

Test Phobias

IQ tests for all San Quentin’s death-row inmates worry attorneys

A Third Reprieve

One of California’s most notorious death-row inmates wants to be spared — again

A Killer’s Plea

Clarence Ray Jr.’s defense wants California’s highest court to spare his life because he’s mentally retarded

Letters

Ashcroft’s Song

The Attorney General’s trigger-happy record on the death penalty

The Ultimate Test

Deciding whose life to spare on death row

Who Should Die?

Excerpts

In the words of the justices

A Blasphemer Dies

Lessons from a Lahore prison

Justices Face IQ Test

Likely ruling could spare mentally retarded on California’s death row

Indecent Executions

Considering death row's mentally retarded inmates

The Killing Routine

Stephen Wayne Anderson’s final 15 minutes

A Killer Job

How a lousy lawyer landed Stephen Wayne Anderson on Death Row

Death Penalty Archive

The following are articles Sara Catania has previously written for the LA Weekly on the death penalty:

Rampart East

Media from the other coast bungle the story of LAPD’s scandal

To Protect and to Serve Political Art

A Death in Texas

An 'ordinary' execution gets completely out of hand

''Crimes We Abhor''

The state prepares to kill a killer

Remembering Rose

Rose Bird, 1936–1999

Death Row Ink

South Bay publisher cashes in on the condemned

Last Wishes

Harry Blackmun’s struggle with the death penalty

Death Watch

Gov. Davis to rule on execution appeal

Death Row Reprieve

Ruling stalls execution for Kelly, dozens more

The Avengers

Sanity Check

Court weighs Kelly's mental state; Lungren presses execution date

A Matter of Life or Death

Condemned prisoner’s sanity trial begins

Last Rights

Convicted murderer Horace Kelly is scheduled to be put to death in less than two weeks despite a Supreme Court ban on executing the insane. Why? His lawyers failed to file his federal appeal.