lethal injection

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey sought a pause in executions and ordered a "top-to-bottom" review of the state's capital punishment system Monday after an unprecedented third failed lethal injection.

Alan Eugene Miller is scheduled for execution in Alabama on Sep. 22. He has asked for nitrogen hypoxia instead of lethal injection due to a fear of needles, but claims officers lost his request.

In a federal trial earlier this year, attorneys for 28 death row inmates argued the method could violate the amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

A poor reader, Matthew Reeves is intellectually disabled and wasn't capable of making a decision on the method of execution without assistance, his lawyers arg93ued.

Lisa Montgomery was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday, and would be the U.S. government's first execution of a female inmate in more than 67 years.

"Nearly three decades after [Dustin Lee] Honken coldly ended the lives of five people, including two young girls ... he has finally faced justice," a spokeswoman said in a statement.

Billy Jack Crutsinger, 64, was the 14th inmate executed in the U.S. this year and the fifth in Texas. That state has 10 other executions scheduled for 2019.

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."

A federal three-judge panel denied a drug company's request to halt the execution of Carey Dean Moore over concerns about whether the state obtained the drugs improperly.

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.