Why the End of Capital Punishment Is Near

The lethal injection facility at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif. on Sept. 21, 2010.

T he case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev absorbed Americans as no death-penalty drama has in years. The saga of his crime and punishment began with the shocking bloodbath at the 2013 Boston Marathon, continued through the televised manhunt that paralyzed a major city and culminated in the death sentence handed down by a federal jury on May 15 after a two-phase trial…

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