07 October 2026
Firing Squads and Botched Executions
On Monday, October 5, President Donald Trump approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan. If Hasan is put to death by that method, it would be the first use by the military since 1945. That announcement came on the heels of a deeply embarrassing moment for death penalty supporters when Christa Pike survived an execution attempt in Tennessee on September 30. Beyond those two shocking developments, we will see that the death penalty is dying in the United States. Continue reading >>
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23 January 2026
Capital Punishment Revivalism
Israel has long been considered abolitionist, having executed only one individual in its history. While past attempts to reinstate the death penalty have proven unsuccessful, the horrendous scale of the October 7 attack and the ensuing traumatic war have been used to generate political momentum. A new bill, which passed its first reading in the Knesset in November 2025, would impose the death penalty for terrorism-related offenses. The bill should be understood as part of a broader capital punishment revivalism trend in populist regimes, with Israel potentially setting a dangerous precedent for attempts to reinstate the death penalty in Europe and beyond. Continue reading >>
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21 October 2025