Oklahoma death row inmate John David Duty was executed Thursday using a drug commonly used to euthanize animals because of a nationwide shortage of the sedative normally employed in Oklahoma's lethal injections.
Samuel Bustamante, convicted of the 1998 fatal stabbing of a man, was put to death in Texas on Tuesday.
Use of capital punishment by states continues its steady decline, with fewer death sentences handed down in 2009 than any year since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976.
A province in northeastern China has become the first to execute convicts by injection, rather than gunshot, state-run media reported Friday.
At 678, California has the nation's largest death row population, yet the state has not executed anyone in four years.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill Wednesday repealing the death penalty in his state, his office confirmed.
The number of executions in U.S. prisons hit a 14-year-low in 2008, continuing a downward trend and coinciding with a drop in juries handing out death sentences, according to a year-end report.
A man scheduled to be executed on Friday was issued a stay just minutes before he was to be electrocuted
A day after New Jersey banned executions, newly released figures show that capital punishment dropped this year to a 13-year low.
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signs legislation that bans the death penalty in his state. CNN's Heidi Collins reports.
The man who raped and killed 7-year-old Megan Kanka -- the 1994 crime that inspired "Megan's Law" -- is one of eight men whose sentences were commuted to life in prison this week as part of New Jersey's new ban on execution.
New Jersey lawmakers have voted to abolish the death penalty in the state, sending the governor a bill he has already said he will sign. The measure will make New Jersey the first state in more than 40 years to outlaw capital punishment.
The following is information provided by the Death Penalty Information Center on the death penalty in the United States.
Use of the death penalty by states continued a five-year decline in 2004, according to an annual report by a nonprofit group that opposes capital punishment.
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