Americans have long been divided over the death penalty, with nearly half of states banning capital punishment outright and just a handful of others carrying out most of the nation's executions each year.
The longstanding but uneasy relationship with executing the nation's worst criminals has been on clear display in recent weeks, first following a botched lethal injection in Tennessee and later after the military announced plans to livestream a death by firing squad. Both have prompted fresh calls for abolition from death penalty opponents and led supporters to publicly grapple with how to humanely carry out government executions.
