Skip to main content
Georgia Public Broadcasting Logo
  • TV

    Featured Specials and Programs

    • All Creatures Great and Small
    • Miss Scarlet & The Duke
    • Antiques Roadshow
    • PBS Newshour
    • Finding Your Roots
    • The U.S. and the Holocaust
    All Programs

    GPB Originals

    • Georgia Outdoors
    • View Finders
    • A Fork in the Road
    • The Steeple
    • Lawmakers
    • Football Fridays in Georgia
    GPB Originals

    Browse by Genre

    • Arts & Music
    • Culture
    • Drama
    • Food
    • History
    • News & Public Affairs
    • TV Schedule
    • GPB Programs
    • PBS Passport
    • TV Highlights this Week
    • PBS KIDS
    • Find Your Station
    • Newsletters
    • Contact GPB
  • Radio

    Featured Programs

    • Political Rewind
    • The Daily
    • Morning Edition
    • All Things Considered
    • Serendipity
    • John Lemley's City Cafe
    • Fresh Air
    • Here and Now
    • Code Switch/Life Kit
    • Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
    All Programs

    Podcasts

    • GA Today
    • Salvation South
    • Battleground: Ballot Box
    • Football Fridays in Georgia
    • Classroom Conversations
    • Radio Schedule
    • GPB Classical
    • Radio Programs
    • Podcasts
    • GPB News
    • Find Your Station
    • Contact GPB
    • Newsletters
  • News

    Featured Programs & Series

    • Political Rewind
    • Lawmakers
    • Lawmakers: Beyond the Dome
    • 1A
    • Battleground: Ballot Box
    • What You Need to Know: Coronavirus
    • Southern Reading List
    • Powering Georgia
    • Food Access

    More GPB News

    • Politics
    • Georgia News
    • Justice
    • Arts & Life
    • Health
    All GPB News
    • Radio Schedule
    • Radio Stations
    • GPB Apps
    • Contact GPB News
    • Follow Us on Apple News
    • Newsletters
  • Education

    Browse by Subject

    • CTAE
    • English Language Arts
    • Mathematics
    • Physical Health and Wellness
    • Professional Learning
    • STEAM
    • Science
    • Social Studies
    • The Arts
    • World Languages

    Browse by Grade

    • Preschool-PreK
    • K-2
    • 3-5
    • 6-8
    • 9-12

    Featured

    • Classroom Conversations Podcast
    • Georgia Studies Collection
    • Econ Express
    • VR in the Classroom
    • Lights, Camera, Budget!
    • Georgia Home Classroom
    • Chemistry Matters
    • Physics in Motion
    • Virtual Field Trips
    • Writers Contest
    • PBS LearningMedia
    • PBS KIDS
  • Sports
  • Events

    Browse by Type

    • Community
    • Donor
    • Kids & Family
    • Screenings
    All Events

    Browse by Category

    • Education
    • News
    • Sports
    • Television

    Sign up to receive GPB Event announcements via Email.

    Sign up

    • on Twitter
    • on Facebook
    • on Instagram
  • Kids & Family

    For Kids

    • Video
    • Games

    For Parents & Caregivers

    • Kids & Family Blog
    • Kids & Family Events
  • Support Us

    Support GPB

    • Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Sustainers
    • GPB Passport
    • Leadership Giving
    • Corporate Sponsorship
    • Vehicle Donations
    • GPB Next
    • Matching Gifts
  • Search
GPB Passport icon GPB Passport icon Passport
GPB donate icon GPB donate icon Donate
Listen Live Listen Live Watch Live Watch Live
GPB News

GPB Newsletter CTA

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

News Topics

  • Georgia
  • National
  • Election
  • Lawmakers
  • Battleground: Ballot Box

Don't Miss

Don't Miss:

  • Watch: GPB's Lawmakers
  • TV Highlights This Week
  • GA Today daily podcast

News Articles: Death Penalty

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs speaks at her state of the state address in Phoenix on Jan. 9, 2023.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Arizona executions are on hold until a review ordered by the governor is completed

The review will examine Arizona's procurement process for lethal injection drugs and gas, execution procedures, news organizations' access to executions and training of staff to carry out executions.

January 21, 2023
|
By:
  • The Associated Press

Tagged as: 

  • National

Alabama is pausing executions after a 3rd failed lethal injection

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey sought a pause in executions and ordered a "top-to-bottom" review of the state's capital punishment system Monday after an unprecedented third failed lethal injection.

November 21, 2022
|
By:
  • The Associated Press
This image provided by Georgia Department of Corrections shows Virgil Presnell. The life of Virgil Presnell, a Georgia man set to be executed Tuesday, May 17, 2022 for killing an 8-year-old girl should be spared, his lawyer argues, explaining that her client has significant cognitive impairments that likely contributed to his crimes and has suffered horrific abuse in prison.

Tagged as: 

  • News

Georgia high court won't hear appeal from death row prisoner

Georgia's highest court on Wednesday declined to hear an appeal filed for a man on death row claiming that his execution would be unconstitutional because he has cognitive impairments that cause him to function like a young child.

June 01, 2022
|
By:
  • Associated Press
In an undated photo, Melissa Lucio is pictured with one of her young children.

Tagged as: 

  • National

Melissa Lucio is scheduled to be executed for a crime that may not have occurred

Lucio is scheduled to be executed for the death of her 2-year-old daughter. Her supporters say she was forced into a false "confession" and that new evidence exists that proves her innocence.

April 22, 2022
|
By:
  • Laurel Wamsley
The state's death chamber in Columbia, S.C., includes the electric chair (right) and a firing squad chair (left).

Tagged as: 

  • National

A South Carolina death row inmate picks a firing squad over the electric chair

Richard Bernard Moore is the first prisoner in South Carolina to face the choice of execution methods since the state made electrocution the default and gave inmates the option to face rifles instead.

April 16, 2022
|
By:
  • The Associated Press
In this undated photograph, Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio is holding one of her sons, John. Lucio is set to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah.

Tagged as: 

  • National

Lawyers hope new evidence can stop Texas woman Melissa Lucio's execution

Lawyers say an ambiguous statement by Lucio during questioning was wrongly interpreted by prosecutors as a murder confession, during the investigation into her daughter Mariah's 2007 death.

April 03, 2022
|
By:
  • The Associated Press
This undated file photo provided on July 11, 2019, by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the death row at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Death row executions by firing squad can now be carried out in South Carolina

South Carolina's governor signed a law last year forcing death row inmates to choose the manner of their execution: either by firing squad or electric chair if lethal injection is not possible.

March 18, 2022
|
By:
  • Jaclyn Diaz
The sun sets behind Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala., on Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution of Matthew Reeves, convicted of killing a man during a robbery in 1996.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Alabama executed man after divided Supreme Court sided with the state

A poor reader, Matthew Reeves is intellectually disabled and wasn't capable of making a decision on the method of execution without assistance, his lawyers argued.

January 28, 2022
|
By:
  • The Associated Press
Georgia Supreme Court

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Ga. Supreme Court Upholds State's Strict Death Penalty Disability Standard

In 1988, Georgia banned the executions of intellectually disabled people and now is the only state that has a more substantial burden than “by clear and convincing evidence.”

June 02, 2021
|
By:
  • Stanley Dunlap
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that forces death row inmates to choose between the electric chair and a firing squad if lethal injection drugs aren't available.

Tagged as: 

  • National

With Lethal Injections Harder To Come By, Some States Are Turning To Firing Squads

Unable to obtain lethal injection drugs, some states have turned to outmoded alternatives, which also includes the electric chair, to execute prisoners on death row.

May 19, 2021
|
By:
  • Laurel Wamsley
Shanaye Poole (left) next to her father, Toforest Johnson, during a family visit to see him in prison in the early 2000s.

Tagged as: 

  • National

New Eyes On Alabama Death Row Case After Integrity Review Raises Questions

Former prosecutors and judges say Toforest Johnson's murder conviction was based on shaky evidence. The case is getting a new look as district attorneys review the integrity of past prosecutions.

April 05, 2021
|
By:
  • Debbie Elliott
Takahiro Shiraishi said he targeted those with suicidal thoughts: "It was easier for me to convince people with worries and other issues and manipulate them to my way of thinking."

Tagged as: 

  • Asia

Japan's 'Twitter Killer' Sentenced To Death In Killing Of 9

Takahiro Shiraishi murdered and dismembered eight women and one man in his apartment near Tokyo. He used Twitter to lure most of his victims, promising he could help them kill themselves.

December 15, 2020
|
By:
  • Jaclyn Diaz
The Justice Department plans to execute five people in the coming weeks. The planned executions pose a challenge to Attorney General Bill Barr's adherence to Catholic teachings, which oppose the death penalty.

Tagged as: 

  • Religion

Federal Executions Pit The Trump Administration Against The Catholic Church

Opposition to the death penalty is "a teaching that deserves our respect," says Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley. "I don't think it can be simply disregarded."

December 10, 2020
|
By:
  • Tom Gjelten
Flowers are placed at the memorial to the victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings on April 20.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Appeals Court Tosses Out Death Sentence For Boston Marathon Bomber

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.

July 31, 2020
|
By:
  • David Welna
The entrance to the U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, Ind., is seen Wednesday. Wesley Purkey, convicted of the 1998 kidnapping and killing of a 16-year-old girl, was executed there Thursday morning.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Federal Government Executes 2nd Man After Supreme Court Denies Appeals

Wesley Purkey was executed by lethal injection on Thursday, the second federal execution this week after a 17-year hiatus. The high court's 5-4 decision allowed the execution to proceed.

July 16, 2020
|
By:
  • Scott Neuman and
  • Laurel Wamsley
  • Load More

Newsletter Signup

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

Connect with GPB

  • Connect with GPB on Facebook
  • Connect with GPB on Instagram
  • Connect with GPB on Twitter
  • Connect with GPB on YouTube
  • Connect with GPB on Apple News

Footer

Footer First Nav (Main Menu)

  • TV
  • Radio
  • News
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Events
  • Kids & Family
  • Support Us
  • Search

Footer Second Nav Menu

  • Help Center
  • About GPB
  • Contact Us
  • Closed Captioning
  • Directions
  • Studio Production
  • Program Submissions

Footer Third Nav Menu

  • Support Us
  • Careers
  • Accessibility
  • FCC Public Files
  • Drawing Rules
  • News Media Request
  • Open Records Policy
  • Privacy Policy

Georgia Public Broadcasting

260 14th St. NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
United States

(404) 685-2400 In Atlanta
(800) 222-4788 Outside Atlanta
ask@gpb.org

Newsletter Signup

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

Connect with GPB

  • Connect with GPB on Facebook
  • Connect with GPB on Instagram
  • Connect with GPB on Twitter
  • Connect with GPB on YouTube
  • Connect with GPB on Apple News
© Copyright 2023, Georgia Public Broadcasting. All Rights Reserved. Georgia Public Radio® GPTV®