John William King sought to terrorize blacks in east Texas by murdering James Byrd Jr., but his vicious crime instead (eventually) provided federal law enforcement with additional tools to punish perpetrators of hate crimes.
A man who helped carry out the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. -- one of the most horrific hate crimes in modern American history -- was executed by injection on Wednesday evening in a Texas prison.
A controversial execution of a Muslim inmate in Alabama appears to have set off a rare public debate between Supreme Court justices over how the death penalty is enforced.
The executions of three Ohio death row inmates have been delayed as the state continues to develop a new execution-drug protocol, the governor's office said Thursday.
A Muslim inmate who argued his religious rights were violated because Alabama would not allow his imam by his side at his execution was put to death Thursday night.
Domineque Ray wants an imam by his side when the state of Alabama puts the murderer to death.
A federal judge Friday denied a motion by a German health care company that, if granted, would have delayed a Nebraska execution scheduled for next week.
The man suspected of killing a prominent Houston doctor in broad daylight two weeks ago fatally shot himself in the head as two police officers confronted him on Friday morning, Police Chief Art Acevedo said.
Nevada's plan to execute a convicted murderer with a never-before-used combination of drugs is on hold for at least 60 days.
A man convicted of a series of rapes and murders in Texas had asked authorities to carry out his execution using gas or a firing squad before he was put to death on Wednesday.
Alabama has executed Walter Leroy Moody, 83, who had been convicted of murder for the mail bombing death of a federal judge in 1989.
The life of a Texas man who conspired to kill his family in 2003 was spared minutes before he was set to be executed on Thursday.
The video is chilling. James Edgar Lewis is sleeping under a Las Vegas freeway when a dark-colored SUV passes by. Seconds later, a man wearing a dark top emerges from the vehicle and shoots Lewis twice in the head before fleeing.
A man who was convicted of killing his two daughters while his wife listened on the phone was executed Thursday night in Texas, the state's Department of Criminal Justice said.
The US Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for an Alabama inmate whose dementia, his lawyers say, prevents him from remembering the murder he was convicted of committing decades ago.
Texas on Thursday executed a man who admitted to killing three girls and a woman in the 1980s and 90s, the state's Department of Criminal Justice said.
Alabama has executed 46-year-old Robert Melson, who was convicted for the 1994 shooting deaths of three fast food restaurant employees, the Associated Press reports.
Alabama executed death row inmate Tommy Arthur early Friday after a lengthy court battle that included multiple lethal injection delays.
Georgia has carried out its first execution of 2017 with the lethal injection of 45-year-old J.W. Ledford Jr., who was pronounced dead at 1:17 a.m. Wednesday in Jackson.
White supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was executed in Missouri early Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition seeking a stay.
