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NEW VOICES: "How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penalty"
Posted: May 9, 2008
In 1982, as a second term Assemblyman, Raymond Lesniak voted to reinstate the death penalty in New Jersey. In December 2007, New Jersey voted to abolish the death penalty, becoming the first state in 40 years to accomplish this. Senator Lesniak was one of the sponsors and legislative leaders of the abolition bill. He has written a new book: "The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penatly." [ More ]
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EDITORIALS: "A Death Sentence Voided"
Posted: May 8, 2008
In May 2008, the California Supreme Court threw out the death sentence of convicted murderer Adam Miranda and ordered a new sentencing trial, ruling that Los Angeles County prosecutors failed to disclose key information that likely affected the sentencing of Miranda. A Los Angeles Times editorial highlights the arbitrariness of this case, noting that many defendants without dedicated representation might not have fared so well. This editorial asks about the other inmates on California's death row. [ More ]
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Exonerations from Death Row Linked to Inadequate Defense
Posted: May 7, 2008
Recent exonerations from death row, such as the release of Levon Jones in North Carolina on May 3, have been linked to the poor quality of representation some of these inmates received. This raises particular concern as the nation resumed executions on May 6. William Lynd of Georgia was the first person executed since Sept. 25, 2007. But Georgia's new public defender system has had its budget cut back and has been forced to eliminate more than 40 positions. Robin Maher of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Representation Project commented, “I wish I could say that things have gotten a lot better, but in fact I can say with confidence that things have changed not much at all. We are seeing the same kinds of egregiously bad lawyering that we saw 10 or 15 years ago, for a variety of reasons, including inadequate funding.” [ More ]
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First Execution in Seven Months Raises Many Concerns
Posted: May 6, 2008
Georgia is planning to excute William Earl Lynd at 7 PM on May 6. If the lethal injection goes forward, this would be first execution in the U.S. since September 25, 2007. On that day, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the lethal injection process in Baze v. Rees. On April 16, 2008, the Court upheld the process of lethal injection as practiced in Kentucky, signalling a probable end to the 7-month moratorium on executions. However, the possible resumption of executions comes at a time when serious concerns about the accuracy and fairness of the death penalty have also become more prominent.
UPDATE: William Lynd was executed in Georgia on May 6, the first execution of 2008.
[ More ]
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Exonerations in Texas Force State to the "Tipping Point"
Posted: May 5, 2008
Eighteen people have been exonerated of serious violent crimes from a single Texas county through DNA-testing in recent years. James Woodward was the latest person to be freed from confinement from Dallas County. He spent 27 years in prison for the wrongful conviction of raping and murdering his girlfriend in 1981. Statewide in Texas there have been 30 such exonerations. As a partial response, state Senator Rodney Ellis has called for a summit on innocence to take place on May 8, beginning in the Texas Senate chamber. Sen. Ellis said, "We've reached a tipping point on wrongful convictions in Texas. Nobody can seriously doubt that there's a problem, and next week leaders from across our criminal justice system will come together to start solving it." [ More ]
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INNOCENCE: NORTH CAROLINA DEATH ROW INMATE WALKS FREE-129TH EXONERATION
Posted: May 2, 2008
The state of North Carolina dropped all charges against Levon Jones, and he was freed today (May 2) after spending 13 years on death row. U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle overturned Jones's conviction two years ago, but he was held in prison awaiting a possible retrial until prosecutors announced that they were dismissing all charges. Judge Boyle criticized Jones's defense attorneys for "constitutionally deficient" performance, noting their failure to research the history and credibility of Lovely Lorden, the prosecution's star witness. The judge noted, "Given the weakness of the prosecution's case and its heavy reliance on the testimony of Lovely Lorden, there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different." [ More ]
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NEW RESOURCES: In Missouri, Death Sentence May Depend on Geography
Posted: May 1, 2008
According to a recent study by Prof. David Sloss of the St. Louis University School of Law, and others, only a small percentage of eligible murder cases in Missouri are prosecuted as death penalty cases, and even fewer result in a death sentence. Only 2.5 percent of defendants prosecuted for intentional homicide are sentenced to death. In another 2.5 percent of cases, juries reject the death penalty. Ninety-five percent of intentional homicide cases are never presented to the jury as capital cases. But rather than depending on which are the worst crimes, the chance of a death sentence appears to rest more on what part of the state the crime was committed in. [ More ]
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Death Penalty Dropped for Lack of Resources
Posted: April 30, 2008
The state of New Mexico agreed to drop its pursuit of the death penalty against two defendants because the state legislature did not provide the money necessary for adequate representation of the defendants, who were accused of killing a prison guard. The trial of Reis Lopez and Robert Young will proceed as a non-capital murder prosecution. The prosecution's decision was spurred by the trial court's ruling barring the seeking of the death penalty because the legislature had adjourned without sufficiently funding the capital defense system. The state legislature finished its session in February and will not return until January 2009. A previous ruling had said the state legislature should allocate another $200,000 to the defense office after attorneys for the defendants complained about lack of money to meet their fees.
[ More ]
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NEW RESOURCES: Study Finds Evidence of Race-of-Defendant Bias in Texas Death Penalty
Posted: April 29, 2008
A new study by Professor Scott Phillips of the Univeristy of Denver found that black defendants in Houston, Texas, are more likely to be sentenced to death than white defendants, even when other variables are accounted for. The research, to be published in a forthcoming edition of the Houston Law Review, looked at cases eligible for the death penalty in the county that is the source of the highest number of executions in Texas, which itself is responsible for more executions than any other state. The study, which looked at 504 defendants indicted for murder, also found that a person is more likely to be sentenced to death if they killed a white victim than if they killed a black victim, a finding consistent with over 20 race studies around the country. Race-of-defendant bias has not been shown as often in other studies. [ More ]
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EDITORIALS: Proposed Law Would Harm Younger Victims
Posted: April 28, 2008
The governor of Missouri, Matt Blunt, has proposed that his state expand the death penalty to include cases of sexual assault against children where the victim is not killed. However, according to an editorial in the Springfield News-Leader, such a law would not protect children. Instead, it could make it less likely that these offenses would be reported, would put the child in danger of even worse crimes, and would involve the child and the family in years of death penalty litigation. The editorial cites the opinions of a leading child advocate and a prosecutor in urging caution about such a law. In addition to the significant policy considerations, the U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether such a law would be constitutional. [ More ]
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Excerpts from the Supreme Court Opinion in Baze v. Rees
April 16, 2008
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Opinion of the Chief Justice announcing the judgment of the
Court
"Some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution—no
matter how humane—if only from the prospect of error in following the
required procedure. It is clear, then, that the Constitution does not
demand the avoidance of all risk of pain in carrying out executions."
Concurring Opinion of Justice Alito
"The issue presented in this case—the constitutionality of a
method of execution—should be kept separate from the controversial
issue of the death penalty itself. If the Court wishes to reexamine the
latter issue, it should do so directly, as JUSTICE STEVENS now
suggests."
Concurring Opinion of Justice Stevens
"The risk of executing innocent defendants can be
entirely eliminated by treating any penalty more severe than life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole as constitutionally
excessive."
Concurring Opinion of Justice Scalia
"I take no position on
the desirability of the death penalty, except to say that its value is
eminently debatable and the subject of deeply, indeed passionately,
held views—which means, to me, that it is preeminently not a matter to
be resolved here. And especially not when it is explicitly permitted by
the Constitution."
Concurring Opinion of Justice Thomas
"[A] method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment only if it is deliberately designed to inflict pain. . . ."
Concurring Opinion of Justice Breyer
"The
death penalty itself, of course, brings with it serious risks, for
example, risks of executing the wrong person, risks that unwarranted
animus (in respect, e.g., to the race of victims), may play a role,
risks that those convicted will find themselves on death row for many
years, perhaps decades, to come. These risks in part explain why that
penalty is so controversial. But the lawfulness of the death penalty is
not before us."
Dissenting Opinion of Justice Ginsburg
"Kentucky’s protocol lacks basic safeguards used by other States to
confirm that an inmate is unconscious before injection of the second
and third drugs. I would vacate and remand with instructions to
consider whether Kentucky’s omission of those safeguards poses an
untoward, readily avoidable risk of inflicting severe and unnecessary
pain."
Read the entire opinion. See Lethal Injection.
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