This major survey on social trends shows how far the UK has come in terms of attitudes towards homosexuality, casual sex and divorce. Views on the death penalty remain conservative, however.
Kenya last executed a prisoner in 1987 but continues to hand down the death sentence.
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Research finds that the threat of being sentenced to death has no bearing on how people contemplate violent crime.
An illustration of a deserter being executed by a firing squad at the Federal Camp in Alexandria during the American civil war.
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South Carolina has had trouble securing enough lethal injection drugs for executions. So it has turned to an old form of killing: the firing squad, last used in the Civil War.
Iranian man Mohammad Mahdi Karami at a court hearing on January 5, 2023. Karami was executed on January 7 for allegedly being involved in anti-government protests.
Iranian state TV/EPA/AAP
Criminal trials in these courts often occur behind closed doors presided over by clerics, and there’s often no evidence beyond a confession extracted by means of torture.
Around 14,000 protesters in Iran have been arrested.
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In 1972, justices handed down a decision that attacked discriminatory and capricious death sentences. But it left the door ajar for states to continue the practice.
People need time and space to grieve at their own pace.
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An expert on grief says give people space and time to come to terms with loss and don’t expect them to need – or want – ‘closure.’
There’s an interesting evolutionary benefit for some women if the consequences of casual sex are high.
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Some reasons people oppose abortion seem to be at odds with other positions they hold. Evolutionary social science points to a surprising motivation for anti-abortion attitudes.
Voters in Johannesburg queue to vote in South Africa’s May 2019 national elections.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Referenda may well have a place in the country’s democracy, but if the form of an electoral system can be referred to a referendum, why not capital punishment, abortion or LGBT rights?
Right to die activist Sean Davison (left) speaks to the press after three years of house arrest.
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People make decisions throughout their lives about their health. But when they are terminally ill they are not allowed to decide when they want to die.
A justice representing a kinder political age?
AP Photo/Steven Senne
There was little controversy when President Bill Clinton nominated Stephen Breyer to the bench in 1994. His tenure on the Supreme Court reflects those less partisan times.
Physical touch at the end of life has a special significance in many cultures and offers solace.
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A video of Ahmaud Arbery was widely seen and shared by the citizens who could be called on to judge the accused killers. The issue was recently argued before the Supreme Court.
A vigil in protest against the death penalty in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2016.
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Lisa Hajjar, University of California, Santa Barbara
A scholar who has visited Guantanamo 11 times to observe legal proceedings in the 9/11 terrorism case explains why the conflict continues to delay the case going to trial.