BBC World Service Online

The Real Story

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Politics

Global experts and decision makers discuss, debate and analyse a key news story.

The Real Story: Is America's Death Penalty Dying?

Factual

Is America's Death Penalty Dying?

05/06/2015

BBC World Service - The Real Story, Is America's Death Penalty Dying?

Are campaigners winning the battle against state execution in the US?

Campaigners for the for abolition of the death penalty in the US believe they have the best chance in decades to remove capital punishment from the statute books across America.

The state of Texas carried out an execution this week for a murder committed over thirty years ago.  Lester Bower was America’s longest-serving death row inmate, and in that time he’d had seven stays of execution. It has been a highly controversial case, and follows Nebraska’s decision last week to abolish capital punishment - the first conservative state to do so in forty years.  With growing concern about the methods used for carrying out the death penalty, campaigners for abolition believe they have the best chance in decades to remove capital punishment from the statute books across America. But are they right?

Photo credit: Firing squad execution chamber at Utah State Prison, AP

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Real Story

Is America's Death Penalty Dying?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service