WASHINGTON

Last fall, the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern capital justice system almost 50 years ago, pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it.

There were other important death penalty developments last year: the number of death sentences continued to fall, Ohio switched to a single chemical for lethal injections and New Mexico repealed its death penalty entirely. But not one of them was as significant as the institute’s move, which represents a tectonic shift in legal theory.

2009-02-14 BBC

The oldest death row inmate in the US has died of natural causes aged 94.

The Arizona Department of Corrections said Viva Leroy Nash died late on Friday at the state prison in Florence.

Nash had a criminal record dating back to the 1930s, and was deaf, mostly blind, mentally ill and had dementia, his lawyer said.

He was sentenced to death in 1983, for shooting a salesman after escaping from jail. But he managed to stave off his execution with a series of appeals.

【編按】好消息！蒙古總統Elbegdorj Tsakhia於2010年1月14日宣佈該國暫停施行死刑（moratorium）。他說，世界上大多數國家都選擇廢除死刑，我們也應該走向乾淨沒有血腥的道路。對於定讞的死刑犯，他會特赦死刑犯，減為30年的有期徒刑。

Mongolia president says no to death penalty（the Washingtion Post 請點選這裡）

蒙古总统呼吁废除死刑(新唐人電視)

（中央社記者黃貞貞倫敦29日專電）53歲患有精神疾病的英國男子夏克（Akmal Shaikh），被查獲攜帶毒品，遭中國判處死刑，並於今天處決；歐洲聯盟表示，堅決反對以任何理由使用死刑。

目前擔任歐盟輪值主席國的瑞典外交部長畢爾德（Carl Bildt）說，如果任何人因為走私毒品被定罪，他們應該被判入獄服刑。

畢爾德說，也許毒犯的刑期時間很長，這必須由各國自行決定，但不論何種情況，死刑是絕對不能接受的。