Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

In an edi­to­r­i­al in its Sunday, November 6 edi­tion, the Birminham News announced that ​“After decades of sup­port­ing the death penal­ty, the edi­to­r­i­al board no longer can do so.” The paper cit­ed both prac­ti­cal and eth­i­cal rea­sons for the change in its stance: “[W]e have come to believe Alabama’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem is bro­ken. And because, first and fore­most, this news­pa­per’s edi­to­r­i­al board is com­mit­ted to a cul­ture of life.… We believe all life is sacred. And in embracing a…

A recent Dayton Daily News video edi­to­r­i­al urged Ohio Governor Bob Taft to grant clemen­cy to John Spirko, an Ohio death row inmate sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on November 15. The video states that Spirko’s case was plagued with gaps and incon­sis­ten­cies, and that he may actu­al­ly be inno­cent. The video was part­ly shot inside Ohio’s ​“death house” in Lucasville prison. To view the video on the Web, click…

In an arti­cle about the approach­ing 1,000^th exe­cu­tion in the U.S., Tarrant County pros­e­cu­tor Alan Levy and Harris County District Attorney Charles Rosenthal addressed the cur­rent state of the death penal­ty and the impact of grow­ing con­cerns about the issue of inno­cence: Levy, who heads the crim­i­nal divi­sion of the Tarrant County D.A.‘s office, said that he often won­ders whether the exe­cu­tions that have tak­en place have been worth the expense, con­tro­ver­sy, and time: ​“It’s a pretty clumsy…

The Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project report­ed that only 5 of the 22 juries that heard fed­er­al cap­i­tal cas­es imposed death sen­tences in the past year. During John Ashcroft’s term as Attorney General from 2001 to 2005, 18 of the 63 juries in cap­i­tal cas­es returned death sen­tences. Some mem­bers of Congress have pro­posed eas­ing the rules for obtain­ing death sen­tences in fed­er­al cas­es, allow­ing the gov­ern­ment to seek the death penal­ty repeat­ed­ly if the jury is not unanimous for…

An Appeal Court of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico recent­ly held that it would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to extra­dite Juan Melendez Cruz to Pennsylvania if he faces a pos­si­ble death sen­tence. The court referred to the issue as one involv­ing the fun­da­men­tal right to life. In July 2003, Philadelphia District Attorney spokes­woman Cathie Abookire con­firmed that Melendez Cruz, a Puerto Rican native, could face the death penal­ty in Pennsylvania. Melendez Cruz’s attor­ney, Eileen Diaz, argued that…

An October 2005 Gallup Poll found that only 64% of Americans favored the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. The last time the poll found a low­er sup­port was in 1978 when 62% favored the death penal­ty. The high point for pub­lic endorse­ment of the death penal­ty came in 1994 when 80% sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. This most recent poll result is con­sis­tent with Gallup Polls tak­en in October 2004 and 2003, both reg­is­ter­ing a 64% sup­port of the death penal­ty. (See Gallup Poll…

North Carolina House Speaker Jim Black has appoint­ed 20 House mem­bers to a study com­mis­sion that will exam­ine how the death penal­ty is car­ried out in the state. The com­mis­sion will also rec­om­mend pos­si­ble cap­i­tal pun­ish­­ment-relat­ed pol­i­cy reforms for their col­leagues to con­sid­er dur­ing their ses­sion next spring. The com­mis­sion will be chaired by Representatives Joe Hackney of Chapel Hill and Beverly Earle of Charlotte. Members of the com­mis­sion will con­sult with vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, law…

A new documentary, ​“After Innocence,” by Jessica Sanders and Marc Simon, is open­ing in cities around the coun­try. This award-win­n­ing film (Sundance and oth­er film fes­ti­vals) tells the sto­ries of wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed defen­dants who were exon­er­at­ed through DNA evi­dence, and about what hap­pens to them after their release as they attempt to rebuild their lives. The film opens in Washington, D.C. at the Landmark’s E St. Cinema, 555 11^th St. NW, on Friday, Nov. 4. A dis­cus­sion will follow…

In an edi­to­r­i­al on October 27, the Los Angeles Times called for an end to the death penal­ty in California. The Times stat­ed that the pun­ish­ment should end not because of the mer­its of indi­vid­ual death row inmates, such as Stanley Williams, sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on December 13, but because of ​“who we are” as a civ­i­lized soci­ety:EDITORIAL Shut down death rowOctober 27, 2005STANLEY ​“TOOKIE” WILLIAMS is a charis­mat­ic sym­bol of what’s wrong with the death penal­ty — and of what’s wrong with the…