For centuries, societies have searched for a way to execute criminals without cruelty, believing progress could make death humane. We trace how the United States moved from hangings and electric ...

After Alabama carried out the country's first known execution by nitrogen gas last year, the state's attorney general delivered a message to other states: "Alabama has done it, and now so can you." So ...

Alabama, unless stopped by the courts, intends to strap inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith to a gurney and use a gas mask to replace breathable air with nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen needed to stay alive ...