Death Penalty on Trial

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Tookie Williams executed

Crips founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams was executed after Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied him clemency less than 12 hours earlier.

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Schwarzenegger denies clemency

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Williams' fate in Schwarzenegger's hands

Calif. Supreme Court refuses stay

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Scott Peterson sent to death row

The highly publicized trial of Scott Peterson ended in his death sentence for the murders of his pregnant wife, Laci, and her unborn son. Peterson now sits on the same death row, at San Quentin, as Stanley Williams.

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Danielle van Dam's murderer gets death sentence

Despite last-minute pleas for mercy from his defense team, David Westerfield was sentenced to death in 2003 for the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, his neighbor.

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Texas Seven ringleader granted his wish

After pleading with jurors for death so that he wouldn't have to "live like an animal in prison," George Rivas was sentenced to die in 2001 for breaking out of a Texas prison with six other inmates and murdering a police officer.

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Execution of an American terrorist

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, was put to death on June 11, 2001, marking the first federal execution in 38 years.

Full Timothy McVeigh case coverage

Self-professed serial killer Aileen Wuornos executed

Prostitute Aileen Wuornos killed seven men in Florida, earning her the infamous (but inaccurate) distinction of being the first female serial killer. Wuornos was executed in 2002.

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No pardon for Karla Faye Tucker

Was the apparent rehabilitation and religious conversion of convicted murderer Karla Faye Tucker enough reason for a pardon? After much controversy surrounding the issue, Tucker was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 3, 1998.

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College campus carnage yields death sentence

Born the son of a police officer Danny Harold Rolling admitted brutally killing five students and raping three of them — crimes that ultimately sent him to Florida's death row.

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