There are plenty of ways to kill yourself, but Steven Hayes may have come up with the most creative.

Earlier this year, we sent letters to all U.S. death row inmates with execution dates in the near future. Today, we hear from Harry Mitts, who was convicted of murdering two men, including a police sergeant, in 1994. Mitts is scheduled to be executed September 25, 2013.

Earlier this year, I sent letters to every American death row inmate scheduled to be executed in the near future, asking about their life and their thoughts on various issues. Today, we have a second letter from condemned Ohio inmate Brett Hartmann, who is scheduled to be executed on November 13.

Last week, we brought you a letter from Ohio Death Row inmate Abdul Awkal. He was scheduled to die earlier this month for the 1992 murders of his wife and brother-in-law. That execution date was postponed two weeks in order to mentally evaluate Awkal. Today, a judge ruled that he is not mentally competent to be executed.

Earlier this year, I wrote to every American death row inmate scheduled for execution in the near future. I asked them about their personal history, their lives in prison, and their thoughts on America and its justice system. Today we hear from Abdul Awkal—a man who was scheduled to be executed by the state of Ohio last week, before receiving a last-minute reprieve.

A few weeks ago, I sent letters to every American death row inmate scheduled for execution this year. I asked them about their own survival prospects, their day-to-day lives, and their thoughts on America, its media, and its justice system. Today, a death row inmate replies.

Thanks to a juror who tweeted some nonsense about shitty coffee, broken hearts, and—most importantly—being a juror, convicted Arkansas murderer Erickson Dimas-Martinez will escape lethal injection, at least for a while longer. Twitter saves lives!

On Wednesday, Texas is scheduled to execute Hank Skinner for the murders of three people. For years, his lawyers have sought DNA testing of unanalyzed evidence, the results of which could prove his innocence—but the courts have rejected their requests every time. The "ultimate justice" machine stops for no one!

Republican Florida state Rep. Brad Drake entered a Waffle House and emerged a man with ideas. Bold ideas, about breakfast. But also some ideas on how to kill Florida's death row inmates with firing squads. Regular Florida folks might be tapped to help shoot some of these condemned critters, because government employees shouldn't have all the fun.

It's just not good enough to kill them, in Texas. Because following last night's execution of Lawrence Brewer, a white supremacist who killed a black man by dragging his body from the back of his pick-up truck and eventually severed his head, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has decided to stop granting special "last meals" to those being executed. Brewer's meal, see, was over-the-top!

Texas shouldn't be the only U.S. state that gets to execute innocent people, right? That's what the jealous state of Georgia seems to be saying in planning to execute Troy Davis, convicted of murdering a police officer in 1991 and possibly innocent of the crime.

John Thompson (pictured) was convicted of a 1984 armed robbery, and later of murder. He spent 18 years in prison, including 14 years on death row. Problem: the prosecutors who sent him to jail withheld some evidence—including eyewitness reports describing a perpetrator who looked nothing like Thompson, and a blood test that proved Thompson's innocence.

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.

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."

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.

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.

Good news for death row inmates: The company that produces one of the three drugs used in lethal injections, sodium thiopental, has run out until next year. Well, except for Gregory Wilson, who will get Kentucky's last dose this month.

23-year-old Pakistani Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only surviving gunman from the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, was today sentenced to death by hanging on charges of murder and waging war against India. [Guardian, pic]

In your tribute-laden Tuesday media column: John Roberts in follicle change caper, the Supreme Court hates reporters and death row inmates equally, Rupert Murdoch's birthday, and MSNBC is made of air.

The Texas Court of Appeals ruled that a condemned man's execution should go forward even though the judge in his case was sleeping with the prosecutor. And the judge in question has an unintentionally comical rebuke, for her detractors!