Articles

Items: 91 — 100


May 17, 2012

EDITORIALS: The Fallibility of Forensic Evidence Argues Against the Death Penalty

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Lincoln Journal Star of Nebraska con­clud­ed that expe­ri­ence with inac­cu­rate evi­dence from crime labs shows that the death penal­ty can­not be trust­ed in the tak­ing of life. The paper called for the repeal of the death penal­ty based on a case in which the state’s CSI direc­tor tam­pered with evi­dence in a mur­der case. Recently, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the con­vic­tion of for­mer CSI chief David…

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May 16, 2012

NEW VOICES: Texas’s Baptist Standard Advocates Ending Death Penalty

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Baptist Standard, pub­lished in Texas, recent­ly called for repeal­ing the death penal­ty in the next leg­isla­tive ses­sion. Among the rea­sons cit­ed by the paper for end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment were prin­ci­ples of reli­gious faith, the risk of exe­cut­ing inno­cent defen­dants, its inef­fec­tive­ness in deter­ring crime, the high costs of pros­e­cu­tion, and its unfair­ness in affect­ing the poor and peo­ple of col­or. The edi­to­r­i­al quot­ed the recent…

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May 11, 2012

EDITORIALS: Shortage of Key Drugs May Suspend Death Penalty in Missouri”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch urged Missouri to end its death penal­ty as the sys­tem has ground to a halt because of con­tro­ver­sies involv­ing its method of exe­cu­tion. On May 8, a fed­er­al appeals court declined to rule on a chal­lenge to the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col because the Department of Corrections could no longer obtain one of the three drugs spec­i­fied in the pro­to­col. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said,…

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May 02, 2012

COMMENTARY: Death Penalty Climate Changing

Commentary from nation­al­ly syn­di­cat­ed colum­nist E.J. Dionne (pic­tured) and the New York Times reflect­ed on the chang­ing state of the death penal­ty in the U.S. in light of recent devel­op­ments. Dionne cit­ed the repeal of the death penal­ty in Connecticut as an exam­ple of a remark­able piv­ot in the pol­i­tics of the death penal­ty, the pre­mier issue on which an over­whelm­ing con­sen­sus favor­ing what’s tak­en to be the con­ser­v­a­tive side has…

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Apr 26, 2012

RACE: Commentary on the Anniversary of McCleskey v. Kemp

In an op-ed writ­ten for the 25th anniver­sary of the U.S. Supreme Courts deci­sion in McCleskey v. Kemp, nation­al­ly acclaimed death penal­ty expert James Acker (pic­tured) called for a reassess­ment of how race is affect­ing death penal­ty deci­sions. Prof. Acker ques­tioned the Court’s refusal to find bias in the wake of the strong sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence pre­sent­ed in that case. He wrote, The time has sure­ly come for a sober reassess­ment of…

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Apr 13, 2012

EDITORIALS: New York Times Recommends All States to Follow Connecticut’s Lead

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the New York Times called Connecticuts deci­sion to repeal the death penal­ty part of a grow­ing move­ment against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” The edi­to­r­i­al attrib­uted the trend away from the death penal­ty to new research that shows gross injus­tice in its appli­ca­tion and enor­mous costs in con­tin­u­ing to impose it.” The prob­lem of arbi­trari­ness recent­ly came to light in Connecticut, where a pow­er­ful, com­pre­hen­sive study pro­vid­ed evi­dence that…

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Mar 19, 2012

EDITORIALS: ABA Report Finds Serious Problems with Missouri’s Death Penalty

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called upon lead­ers in Missouri to make numer­ous changes to the state’s death penal­ty in light of a recent American Bar Association report pro­duced by a bipar­ti­san pan­el of lawyers, judges, pros­e­cu­tors and law pro­fes­sors. The edi­to­r­i­al high­light­ed many of the ABA’s rec­om­men­da­tions, includ­ing improv­ing evi­dence stan­dards, increas­ing pub­lic defend­er fund­ing and cre­at­ing more account­abil­i­ty for prosecutors.”…

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Mar 13, 2012

OP-ED: Abolishing Death Penalty Was Right Choice for State”

Charles Hoffman, an assis­tant defend­er in the Office of the Illinois State Appellate Defender, recent­ly wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times, mark­ing a year since the death penal­ty was repealed in Illinois. Hoffman, who has argued more than 30 death penal­ty cas­es before the Illinois Supreme Court, says that repeal­ing the death penal­ty was the right choice for the state: The right­ness of that deci­sion is more…

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Mar 13, 2012

EDITORIALS: Maryland’s Broken Death Penalty”

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Washington Post high­light­ed ongo­ing prob­lems with Marylands death penal­ty despite leg­is­la­tion passed in 2009 meant to reform the sys­tem. According to the edi­to­r­i­al, the legislature’s reform fixed noth­ing; if any­thing, it cod­i­fied a sys­tem even more arbi­trary than the one it replaced. Now the nature of the evi­dence, rather than the bar­bar­i­ty of the crime, is the crit­i­cal fac­tor. So a mur­der con­vic­tion based on DNA evidence…

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Feb 01, 2012

EDITORIALS: Mistakes are made”

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in Nebraskas Journal Star urged sup­port for a bill to replace the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life in prison. Among the rea­sons cit­ed for its posi­tion was the risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed that advance­ments in DNA test­ing have shown the fal­li­bil­i­ty of the cur­rent sys­tem: Seventeen peo­ple who were on death row have been set free after DNA test­ing proved they were wrong­ly con­vict­ed.” The edi­to­r­i­al also point­ed to…

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