Crikey live blog: Despite a last minute delay by the US Supreme Court this morning, the execution of Troy Davis, who his supporters argue was wrongly convicted of murder, went ahead this afternoon.
Death penalty
Govt moves to repair the cybercrime bill — but not improve it
The government’s amendments to the controversial cybercrime Bill are in, but they do little to repair it.
graph pr0n 
China’s secret death penalty shame
China executes more citizens than every other nation in the world combined, with thousands getting the death penalty in 2009 alone. Iran is a distant second in the execution stakes.
Firing squads: more ethical than lethal injections?
Utah allows death row prisoners to elect to be killed by a firing squad, and it may not be a bad choice. Death by firing squad takes one minute to kill a prisoner, while death by lethal injection takes nine minutes.
Amnesty’s 2009 death penalty report
Amnesty International has released its annual report into death sentences and executions: at least 714 people were executed in 18 countries last year — but that doesn’t include the thousands of “secret” executions in China.
China fails to live up to its aspirations
If China wants to be regarded as a civilised and important nation than it shouldn’t execute foreign citizens who are suffering mental illness, like it did with Akmal Shaikh, writes George Pitcher.
Texas Governor Rick Perry stalls investigation into an innocent man’s execution
In 2004, prison guards carried Todd Willingham into the death chamber, strapped him onto a gurney and injected him with sodium thiopental to paralyse him, pancuronium bromide to collapse his lungs, and potassium chloride to stop his heart. One problem: Willingham was probably innocent.
busted 
The cruel craziness of Japan’s death row
It’s not just innocent people on death row that has Amnesty giving the Japanese legal system a swerve. Prisoners are being driven clinically insane and then executed anyway.
The death penalty: clumsy, costly and morally dubious
Stories of grotesque bungles abound in death penalty literature, writes Lizzie O’Shea. So, why does the US continue to hand it out?
A bad month on death row
It’s been a bad time for executioners in America in the last month with revelations of a botched execution in Ohio and innocent men dying. But it’s been worse still for inmates.
Where the real death panels are
Sarah Palin may have sounded batty accusing Obama of creating “death panels” to determine whether the sick and elderly should live or die, but they do exist, in one form or another, all over the world. Even in the US.
Australians and the death penalty: 50 years of public opinion
A new Roy Morgan poll tracks public opinion on death penalty and imprisonment all the way back to 1947. Have we softened in our views, or capitulated to a climate of fear? Possum Comitatus crunches the numbers.
What the weekend executions mean for the Bali 9
Australia has a leading role to play in regional discussions on the death penalty, writes Greg Barns.
Could US courts lethally inject the death penalty?
A recent US Supreme Court judgment has been reported in some quarters as a green light for executions. In fact, the opposite is true, writes barrister Stephen Keim.
Bush’s A-G says no to death penalty for terrorists
US Attorney-General Michael Mukasey believes the death penalty shouldn’t be utilised in terrorist cases because “many of them want to be martyrs,” writes Greg Barns.
Bali Nine: Three saved, three to go?
The Indonesian Supreme Court’s ground-breaking decision to overturn the death sentences on three of the so-called “Bali Nine” heroin smugglers is a remarkable twist in the sometimes convoluted Indonesian legal process, writes Damien Kingsbury.
A follower not a leader be
When he talks about the war in Iraq, John Howard sounds like a true Burkean conservative. Prime Ministers of course should listen to the views of the people they represent but in the end they should have the courage to do what they think is right, writes Richard Farmer.
As Labor flip-flops, Indonesia could be softening on the death penalty
While Australia’s attention is focused on the Labor Party’s death penalty flip-flop, Indonesia may also be shifting ground on the death penalty, writes Damien Kingsbury.
