The Kentucky Derby Decision Might Avert Disaster
The stewards’ ruling disqualifying Maximum Security wasn’t a “nightmare scenario”—and it could well prevent one.
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Brian Spurlock / USA Today Sports via Reuters How White Users Made Heroin a Public-Health Problem
In the past, when users of the drug were disproportionately black, they faced severe punishments.
David Ryder / Reuters Jean Beliveau's Astonishing Grace
The legendary hockey player, dead at 83, lived life with the same elegance he showed on ice.
Christinne Muschi/Reuters The Ambiguities of Prison Gangs
Guards aren't all heroes, and inmates aren't all villains.
Ted Drake/Flickr The Court's Emphatic Ban on Executing the Intellectually Disabled
A divided court doubled down on its 2002 Atkins decision, ruling that Florida can't kill Freddie Lee Hall just because his IQ has sometimes passed an arbitrary mark.
Serge Melki/Reuters Will Russell Bucklew's Execution Be the Next Death-Penalty Disaster?
Missouri plans to kill a convicted murderer Wednesday, but his health and the state's secrecy about lethal-injection procedures raise serious constitutional issues.
Jeff Roberson/Associated Press The Tortured Statistical Debate Over the Death Penalty
A productive policy conversation after a botched Oklahoma execution depends on rigorously supported claims. Those can be tough to come by.
Wikimedia Commons How Evolution Explains the Conflicted Death-Penalty Debate
A new book suggests that humans' urge to mercy evolved alongside our urge for vengeance. Has the practice of hiding prisoners and executions away stifled the mercy?
Library of Congress The Problems With the Death Penalty Are Already Crystal Clear
The president has commissioned yet another study of lethal injections. He'd be better off lobbying the Supreme Court and Congress to make changes.
Wikimedia Commons Great Odds You'll Love the Kentucky Derby Winner This Year
This week, Churchill Downs will be full of great storylines about the good people and great causes represented at this year's big race.
