Submitted by Paige Thie White on October 21, 2011
Two recent polls indicate that Americans’ support for the death penalty is on the decline. In fact, support is the lowest it’s been since 1972 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down death penalty laws across the country in Furman v. Georgia. Now 61 percent support the death penalty (a drop of almost 20 percent from the mid-nineties) but when given an alternative of life without parole, only 48 percent stick with death.
May 8, 2008
The ACLU of Nevada was notified on May 7, 2008, that inmate William Castillo has filed a motion with the Nevada Supreme Court to intervene in the ACLU's existing challenge to the state's lethal injection protocols. This is a momentous change, because when the ACLU filed its initial challenge last October, Castillo was a "volunteer" for the death penalty, and had ordered his attorneys to drop all appeals. He has now changed his mind.
