Killing Death Row

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Gangster

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Factual: Crime & Justice: True Crime

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The boxer turned bouncer who was gunned down on Tyneside in 1993

Viv Graham ran a pub and club protection empire which spanned Newcastle and beyond.

How did he build his fearsome reputation, and what led to his brutal, unsolved murder?

A new series of Gangster tells the story of Viv Graham, a man who ran a protection empire which spanned Newcastle and beyond.

Viv Graham, a 17-stone man mountain, a man feared and revered in equal measure, came to dominate Tyneside’s nightlife through brutal and uncompromising violence.

His murder, in an organised hit on New Year’s Eve 1993, sparked recriminations and repercussions which echo to this day. It remains one of the country’s most notorious unsolved murders.

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Gangster: Killing Death Row: Killing Death Row: 2. How to Kill the Killers

Killing Death Row: 2. How to Kill the Killers

BBC Radio 5 Live - Gangster, Killing Death Row, Killing Death Row: 2. How to Kill the Killers

Livvy Haydock considers the future of the US death penalty. She meets a murderer with three weeks to live, and learns the history of the lethal injection that will kill him.

Welcome to the Allan Polunsky unit in Huntsville, Texas, where Livvy Haydock meets a murderer with three weeks to live. This killer will die by lethal injection; we talk to the inventor of that jab, and learn how it was hailed by some as a humane solution for a modern death penalty. 

Join Livvy Haydock as she takes us deep into Death Row in the USA. While support for the Death Penalty in the US remains at over 50 per cent, there’s been a steady decline in the number of executions – from the modern era peak of 98 in 1999 to just 20 in 2023 so far. Only a handful of states actually carry out the killings. It’s even become more difficult for executioners to get hold of the drugs used in lethal injections, which is what led Livvy Haydock to a surreal story about a man in Acton, West London, who was supplying these lethal drugs to state penitentiaries in the US, and on to the macabre world of Death Row – and the people who live, work, and die on it. 
 
Whether it’s the bizarre hunt for new lethal injection supplies, or the tip of the glasses that mark an executioner’s signal, Livvy goes right behind the scenes into the chamber itself to examine the pressures on the system that have left just 5 US states actively carrying out executions this year and around 2,400 Death Row prisoners in limbo.  We’ll hear from an inmate waiting to die, and one saved at the last moment. We’ll chat to the wardens who make it happen, and the campaigners who want to stop it. And throughout it all, we’ll discover the possible future for Death Row in the only western democracy still carrying out capital punishment.

Presenter: Livvy Haydock 
Series producer: Anna Meisel 
Sounds design and mix: Richard Hannaford 
Editor: Clare Fordham 
Production coordinator: Janet Staples

Gangster: Killing Death Row

BBC Radio 4

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Could the US death penalty ever die out? Livvy Haydock investigates.

Could the US death penalty ever die out? A surreal story about a man in Acton, London, who supplied the USA with lethal drugs tips Livvy Haydock into the macabre world of Death Row

Join Livvy Haydock as she takes us deep into Death Row in the USA. While support for the Death Penalty in the US remains at over 50 per cent, there's been a steady decline in the number of executions - from the modern era peak of 98 in 1999 to just 20 in 2023 so far. Only a handful of states actually carry out the killings. It's even become more difficult for executioners to get hold of the drugs used in lethal injections, which is what led Livvy Haydock to a surreal story about a man in Acton, West London, who was supplying these lethal drugs to state penitentiaries in the US, and on to the macabre world of Death Row - and the people who live, work, and die on it. 
 
Whether it's the bizarre hunt for new lethal injection supplies, or the tip of the glasses that mark an executioner's signal, Livvy goes right behind the scenes into the chamber itself to examine the pressures on the system that have left just five US states actively carrying out executions this year and around 2,400 Death Row prisoners in limbo. We hear from an inmate waiting to die, and one saved at the last moment. We chat to the wardens who make it happen, and the campaigners who want to stop it. And throughout it all, we discover the possible future for Death Row in the only western democracy still carrying out capital punishment.

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Killing Death Row

Killing Death Row: 2. How to Kill the Killers

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