death row

A divided court ruled against a Missouri man who said that because of a rare medical condition, death by lethal injection would constitute "cruel and unusual punishment."

Both executions and death sentences have declined dramatically since their peak in the late 1990s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

After having trouble obtaining drugs needed for lethal injections, state officials plan to change the primary method of execution to nitrogen gas inhalation. It would be a first for a U.S. state.

And hours before his scheduled execution, lawyers for death-row inmate Kenneth Williams continued to try to stop it in court. He is the fourth and final inmate scheduled to die in Arkansas this month.

Arkansas had sought to execute eight men before its supply of a lethal injection drug expires. The state Supreme Court stayed the executions of two inmates set for Monday night.

Arkansas was preparing to execute the inmates before one of its lethal-injection drugs expired. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. said one inmate's clemency bid requires the state to wait 30 days.

It has been nearly 30 years since the high court set new rules to counter race discrimination in the seating of juries. But in some jurisdictions, the propensity to bar black jurors persisted.

The death penalty in the U.S. is under scrutiny after a series of botched executions. Some death row lawyers and activists say the repeated delays are torture for prisoners like Richard Glossip.