For the time in 20 years the execution of a prison inmate in the U.S. was videotaped, when Georgia executed Andrew DeYoung last night by lethal injection for killing his parents and sister in 1993. A legal fight between the state's prosecutors and the Georgia Supreme Court delayed DeYoung's execution by a day, but last night the camera rolled.

Tomorrow, the state of Texas will kill Mark Stroman by means of lethal injection. Today, a man he tried to murder, Rais Bhuyian, is praying Texas will spare Stroman's life.

The verdict is in. After a tabloid-monopolizing murder trial, Casey Anthony has been found "not guilty" of killing daughter Caylee in 2008, which is odd, because the trial-by-press was pretty unanimous about her guilt.

"Taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment in California since it was reinstated in 1978, or about $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out since then," the LA Times reports.

A set of cursed car rims brought about the death of one Texas man, and perhaps will result in the death of another. It it all very senseless and sad.

46-year-old Cary Kerr was found guilty of raping and killing mother of four, Pamela Horton in Texas in 2001. And last night, he became the first man in Texas to be executed with the same sedative commonly used to euthanize pets, pentobarbital.

The trickle down from the financial crisis continues to wreak havoc on America, and the latest victim is our collective blood lust. The governor of broke ass California decided that building a $356 million, awe-inspiring new Death Row at San Quentin wasn't fiscally responsible. As it turns out, the construction costs, on top of just running the place, got way out of hand. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Everyone knows that the only country that loves killing its own citizens more than the U.S. is China. But on Friday, the Chinese decided it loved killing its citizens just a little bit less: The government "ruled out" the death penalty as a punishment for thirteen "economic" and "nonviolent" offenses, including financial fraud, theft, tax fraud and smuggling cultural products out of China. The thing is—according to the AP—people rarely are executed for these crimes right now, so it's unlikely to make a dent in China's massive execution rate. The U.S. has so much to learn, when it comes to capital punishment! [AP]

Bloodthirsty states are desperate for sodium thiopental—part of the lethal injection cocktail, and may be getting it illegally. Georgia allegedly bought some from an "unlicensed British company that operates from the back of a London driving school." Nice.

Under pressure from Italy, Hospira—the U.S. company that produces a drug used in lethal injections, sodium thiopental—is going to stop producing it, forcing states to look for other drugs to kill people with (like this one). [WaPo]

Oklahoma today will execute a man with the same drug used to euthanize cats and dogs.

A nationwide shortage of key execution drug sodium thiopental has put several death row cases on hold this year. Documents show that California prison officials obtained some from Arizona, making them very happy: "You guys in AZ are life savers."

So much for the whole "Texas is reevaluating the way it kills people" thing.

Convicted murderer Stephen Michael West was due to be executed tomorrow in Tennessee by lethal injection, but the state's Supreme Court put it on hold until a lower court figures out if authorities are killing prisoners the right way.

What do you do if you're a state executioner facing a shortage of drugs for lethal injections? You improvise. That's what Oklahoma is trying to do, by using pentobarbital — the same drug used to euthanize animals — on humans.

Here's the latest horror story about Texas' justice system, where the same tale never ceases to shock: A convicted murderer executed in 2000, after being denied a crucial last-minute DNA test by Gov. George W. Bush, may have been innocent.

The California Department of Corrections somehow managed to get enough sodium thiopental — a drug used in lethal injections — to kill four people, even though the supply has run out across the country. So much for this lucky break.

The alternate juror in the death-penalty trial of the man convicting of slaughtering a family in Connecticut may have spoiled the proceedings by passing a note to the bailiff: "Sunday 5 p.m. Side Street Grille." She was asking him out.

Google helped create an ad calling for California's "worst criminals" to get the death penalty, with "no exceptions." But it was inadvertent; Google doesn't even support sentencing people to death. Whoops.

Arizona executed Jeffrey Landrigan by lethal injection yesterday even though the anaesthetic used may have been obtained illegally.