Articles
Items: 151 — 160
Dec 21, 2009
EDITORIAL: “There is No ‘Humane’ Execution”
A recent New York Times editorial commented on the new one-drug lethal injection protocol used in Ohio for the first time on December 8, but concluded that “the execution only reinforced that any form of capital punishment is legally suspect and morally wrong.” The Times agreed with the late Justice Harry Blackmun who called such manipulations “tinker[ing] with the machinery of death.” The editorial also noted the risks of exeucting the…
Read MoreDec 16, 2009
EDITORIALS: Is An Execution Worth the Price?
A recent editorial in the Virginian-Pilot called for eliminating the death penalty as a good way to address the $3.5 billion gap in the state’s budget. “Doing away with the option of a death sentence makes sense on several levels,” the editors wrote. “It would save the state from having to pay fees associated with lengthy trials and years of appeals. It would end the agony of repeated court hearings for the families of victims. It would eliminate the four perpetually understaffed…
Read MoreDec 07, 2009
ARTICLES: “Selective Empathy” at Issue in Recent Supreme Court Opinion
Linda Greenhouse, former Supreme Court writer for the New York Times, recently wrote about the reversal of a death sentence by the U. S. Supreme Court. The Court overturned George Porter Jr.‘s death sentence because of the inadequate representation he received and the powerful mitigating evidence in Mr. Porter’s life that his attorney failed to investigate and present to the jury considering his client’s life. The Court’s opinion noted, “Our nation…
Read MoreNov 04, 2009
EDITORIALS: “Death penalty just too costly”
A recent opinion piece by the Editorial Director of the Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi points to the high costs of the death penalty as a way in which arbitrariness enters into the application of capital punishment: “When is a crime a crime deserving of death?,” David Hampton asks. “When the county can afford it, of course.” The paper supports the death penalty but the Editorial Director offered the example of Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith, who…
Read MoreOct 31, 2009
EDITORIALS: The Price of Death
A recent editorial in America Magazine entitled The Price of Death reviewed the growing problems with the death penalty and stated, “It is time for the nation to conclude once and for all that in our civilized society there is no place for capital punishment.” The national Catholic weekly cited the recently botched execution in Ohio, racial disparities, and the possibility of executing the innocent as reasons why public support for capital punishment has declined.
Read MoreOct 29, 2009
EDITORIALS: “Time for America to Move Past Capital Punishment”
A recent editorial from the Aurora Sentinel in Colorado commented on the botched execution of Romell Broom. The paper entitled its position as “Time for America to move past capital punishment.” In addition to citing the problems with lethal injection, the paper noted the risk of executing the innocent and the U.S.‘s increasing isolation on the death penalty in the world. The editorial continuted, “Even for those who believe that such heinous…
Read MoreSep 28, 2009
EDITORIALS: “High Cost of Death Row”
In an editorial on September 28 in the New York Times, the paper called the death penalty “an economic drain on governments with already badly depleted budgets.” Citing figures from the Death Penalty Information Center, the Times noted that “States waste millions of dollars on winning death penalty verdicts, which require an expensive second trial, new witnesses and long jury selections. Death rows require extra security and maintenance…
Read MoreSep 03, 2009
Reaction to Execution of a Probably Innoncent Man Grows
Recent scientific reports indicating that Texas likely executed an innocent man have spurred wide coverage and commentary. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for the arson murder of his three children. Fire experts now say the blaze was likely an accident. Excerpts from…
Read MoreAug 31, 2009
INNOCENCE: “Trial by Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?”
In a thorough and penetrating article published in The New Yorker on August 31, David Grann offers further evidence that Texas probably executed an innocent man in 2004. Grann carefully examines all the evidence that was used in the two-day trial in 1992 to convict Cameron Todd Willingham of murder by arson of his three young children. It is now well established through a series of investigations by other fire experts that the…
Read MoreJun 30, 2009
NEW RESOURCES: DPIC’s 2008 Article Index is Available
Each year, DPIC collects relevant death penalty articles that have appeared in print and on media Web sites. Our collection certainly does not contain all such articles, nor do we claim that it represents the “best” articles. It is only a representative sample of the extensive coverage given to capital punishment in print in a particular year. For those interested in examining this coverage, we have prepared an index of the articles from 2008 in Excel format. Note that we are…
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