We periodically run letters from death row inmates. Today we bring you a letter from Greg Esparza, who is awaiting execution on Ohio's death row.

First things first: The crime that brought Clayton Lockett to Oklahoma's death chamber did not present a hard case, as violent murders go. Lockett was sentenced to death almost 15 years ago for the murder of 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman, who he shot and then, with friends, buried alive off a country road. His guilt was not in dispute in his final set of appeals. The arguments were all focussed on the way he was going to die, about the sources and kinds of drugs that were going to kill him.

An Oklahoma inmate who recently lost a legal battle to find out exactly which drugs would be used to kill him died of a heart attack tonight after the state botched his execution.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences uses statistical techniques to estimate that one in every 25 death row inmates in America would be exonerated, given enough time and attention.

In a month that has seen the exoneration of both the world's and our nation's longest-serving death row inmates, it is worth asking: where the hell does all the support for the death penalty come from? The answer may not surprise you.

After 48 years on Japan's death row, Iwao Hakamada has been freed. A court "concluded investigators had likely fabricated evidence" in his trial. This month, both America's and the world's longest-serving death row inmates have been exonerated.

Texas death row inmate Ray Jasper was executed by lethal injection last night. He wrote to us twice as part of our "Letters from Death Row" series. You can read his letters to us here, and a letter from the brother of his victim here. He is the fourth one of our death row correspondents to be executed.

Two weeks ago, Texas death row inmate Ray Jasper wrote us a letter. Tomorrow, barring any last minute miracles, Ray Jasper will die.

Louisiana prisoner Glenn Ford has been exonerated and released after 30 years on death row, a fact that should make our entire nation queasy.

Angela Corey is the state attorney in Florida's fourth district. You may know her for her failure to convict George Zimmerman, and her failure to convict Michael Dunn of first degree murder. She is, however, excellent at sending black people to death row.

Yesterday, we shared a letter from Texas death row inmate Ray Jasper, who is scheduled to be executed this month. Jasper was convicted of participating in the 1998 murder of a man named David Alejandro. Today, David Alejandro's brother Steven shares his own perspective on Ray Jasper, the trial, and the death penalty.

Texas death row inmate Ray Jasper is scheduled to be put to death on March 19. He has written us a letter that, he acknowledges, "could be my final statement on earth." It is well worth your time.

In 2004, the state of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham for the crime of setting fire to his own house, killing his three children. Today, evidence is stronger than ever that his conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

The governor of Washington has suspended the death penalty in his state, citing "too many flaws in this system."

For reasons unfathomable to mortal man, the United States is unable to secure a supply of drugs to use to lethally inject into its own citizens. Therefore, one of our states may now bring back the electric chair as a mandatory punishment. The year is 2014.

Last month (as we did last year), we sent letters to all of the U.S. death row inmates who have execution dates in the upcoming year. Today, we have our first reply: Ray Jasper, who is scheduled to be put to death in Texas in March.

America's embrace of the death penalty makes us a gross anomaly in the developed world. The good news is that we seem to be growing less and less fond of it. The newest numbers are (relatively) encouraging.

Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist who paralyzed Larry Flynt and murdered at many as 22 people, was executed in Missouri on Wednesday morning after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal appeals court ruling.

The Supreme Court is set to review the case of Freddie Lee Hall, a mentally retarded man in Florida who was sentenced to death for participating in a rape, robbery, and two murders. They tackle two main questions: How high an IQ should be necessary for capital punishment? And is IQ measurement even precise enough to be used in cases like this?

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi apologized yesterday for delaying a man's execution because it conflicted with a reelection fundraiser she'd planned.