Articles

Following the release of the report from the New Hampshire Commission to Study the Death Penalty, New Hampshire​’s Concord Monitor called for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. The Commission con­clud­ed a year of pub­lic hear­ings and care­ful study and chose by a 12 – 10 vote to rec­om­mend nei­ther expand­ing nor abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. However, the Monitor point­ed out that the evi­dence pre­sent­ed to the commission was…

In an edi­to­r­i­al, the Los Angeles Times has called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California to com­mute Kevin Cooper​’s death sen­tence before leav­ing office in ear­ly January 2011. The Times not­ed that con­sid­er­able doubt has been cast upon the evi­dence used to con­vict Cooper of four mur­ders that occurred in San Bernadino County in 1983. In par­tic­u­lar, they cite the analy­sis offered by federal Judge…

La apli­cación de la pena de muerte sigue su ten­den­cia a la baja en EE.UU. En 2010 fueron eje­cu­tadas 46 per­sonas, un 12% menos que el año pasa­do y casi la mitad de la can­ti­dad de ajus­ti­ci­a­dos que hubo al comienzo…

Following the release of the report from the New Hampshire Commission to Study the Death Penalty, New Hampshire​’s Concord Monitor called for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. The Commission con­clud­ed a year of pub­lic hear­ings and care­ful study and chose by a 12 – 10 vote to rec­om­mend nei­ther expand­ing nor abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. However, the Monitor point­ed out that the evi­dence pre­sent­ed to the commission was…

An op-ed by Bob Herbert of the New York Times high­lights issues raised by for­mer Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens that changed his mind on the death penal­ty in the U.S. Herbert cites infor­ma­tion col­lect­ed by the Death Penalty Information Center and points to shod­dy defense and state mis­con­duct in the delib­er­ate with­hold­ing of evi­dence as promi­nent abus­es in the sys­tem.​“Executions have been upheld in cases…

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al, the Chicago Sun-Times sup­port­ed the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in Illinois dur­ing the cur­rent leg­isla­tive ses­sion. The paper not­ed its past sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment:​“In the past, we’ve sup­port­ed the death penal­ty as long as the legal sys­tem gives the accused a fair tri­al that results in a ver­dict of guilt beyond res­on­able doubt. Sadly, in light of expe­ri­ences in recent years, that goal…

On October 29, a New York Times edi­to­r­i­al raised many con­cerns regard­ing the recent exe­cu­tion of Native American Jeffrey Landrigan in Arizona. The Times said​“the sys­tem failed him at almost every lev­el, most dis­turbing­ly at the Supreme Court.” Landrigan’s exe­cu­tion gar­nered nation­al atten­tion because a nation­wide short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal forced the state to seek the drug from foreign suppliers.

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Connecitcut Post called for the end of the death penal­ty in the state even as the tri­al began in a cap­i­tal case cncern­ing hor­rif­ic mur­ders in Cheshire in 2007. In 2009, the Connecticut General Assembly vot­ed to repeal the death penal­ty but Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill, cit­ing the Cheshire crimes. The edi­to­r­i­al cit­ed a vari­ety of rea­sons for repeal­ing the death penal­ty, including its…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Greensboro, NC, News & Record indi­cat­ed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment may be​“on its last legs” in North Carolina.​“In prac­tice,” the edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed,​“the death penal­ty near­ly is erad­i­cat­ed. It is com­pli­cat­ed, cost­ly and no longer trust­ed.” According to the paper, use of the death penal­ty has been in steady decline. In 1999, 25 defen­dants were sen­tenced to death and anoth­er 16 were added the following year.

In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that his admin­is­tra­tion plans to bor­row over $64 mil­lion from the state’s gen­er­al fund for the con­struc­tion of a new death row at San Quentin. At the same time, the governor’s lawyers have recent­ly sought approval from the courts to fur­lough state work­ers and reduce their pay. Teachers, police offi­cers and fire­fight­ers are los­ing jobs because of the bud­get cri­sis. The…