China's highest court has issued new guidelines on the death penalty that instruct lower courts to limit its use to a small number of "extremely serious" cases. The Supreme People's Court told courts to use a policy of "justice tempered with mercy" that takes into ...

After a relative lull in the number of executions Ohio carries out annually, it appears poised to sharply increase lethal injections in the months to come, possibly setting a state record for most in a year. The state executed condemned killer Mark Brown on Thursday, the ...

Chinese state media say one person has been sentenced to death and 24 sentenced to prison in nine kidnapping cases. The state-run Xinhua News Agency says two courts in the capital of the southern province of Guangdong handed down the sentences Thursday. Xinhua at first reported that ...

A state government in Australia agreed Thursday to turn over documents to U.S. authorities seeking a capital murder charge against an Alabama man jailed in Australia for the drowning death of his wife during a honeymoon scuba dive. Gabe Watson, 32, is serving an 18-month jail term ...