Articles

Items: 161 — 170


Jun 05, 2009

NEW RESOURCES: Lapham’s Quarterly – Crimes and Punishments”

The lat­est edi­tion of Lapham’s Quarterly fea­tures essays from a wide vari­ety of authors reflect­ing on crime and pun­ish­ment. At least one of the arti­cles, by Christopher Hitchens, focus­es on the death penal­ty. In Staking a Life,” Hitchens draws on his back­ground in reli­gion, moral­i­ty, and gov­ern­ment to explore why the United States con­tin­ues to uti­lize cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment while many of our allies have aban­doned it. I have heard a num­ber of sug­gest­ed answers: two in particular…

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May 05, 2009

Texas Judge Recommends New Trial in Death Penalty Case where Judge and Prosecutor Had Secret Affair

A judge in Texas has rec­om­mend­ed that the claim of an unfair tri­al brought by death row inmate Charles Hood should go for­ward because the tri­al judge and pros­e­cu­tor had a secret roman­tic rela­tion­ship that they hid from the defen­dant before, dur­ing, and after his tri­al. CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen report­ed on the sto­ry, writ­ing, Hood’s judge and pros­e­cu­tor lied, over and over again, to hide their affair. Any blame for the delay in bring­ing jus­tice to…

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Apr 27, 2009

EDITORIAL: Can Oregon Afford the Death Penalty?’ – as School Funding is Reduced

An edi­to­r­i­al The Daily Astorian, con­trasts the state’s use of funds for the death penal­ty to the state’s reduc­tion in fund­ing for edu­ca­tion. The glar­ing con­trast to our unques­tion­ing spend­ing on the death penal­ty — which Judge Lipscomb called this large­ly futile attempt’ — is our dis­in­vest­ment in edu­ca­tion,” the paper not­ed. Investment in edu­ca­tion is about the future, and it is about hope. Investment in pris­ons and espe­cial­ly in the death penal­ty is about a final…

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Apr 24, 2009

The Angolite Reviews Developments in Capital Punishment

The Angolite, an award-win­ning mag­a­zine pro­duced by the inmates at Angola Prison in Louisiana, recent­ly pub­lished an exten­sive review of the devel­op­ments in the death penal­ty in 2008. The arti­cle by Lane Nelson addressed nation­wide trends, Supreme Court deci­sions, the issues of cost, the risks of exe­cut­ing inno­cent peo­ple, and the prob­lem of inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. The arti­cle con­clud­ed, “[N]ational debates, leg­isla­tive stud­ies, court rul­ings and blue-rib­bon commission…

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Apr 13, 2009

EDITORIALS: Hartford Courant Calls for End to Connecticut’s Death Penalty

The Hartford Courant has called for an end to the death penal­ty in Connecticut, cit­ing its costs and risks. The paper called a leg­isla­tive committee’s work toward abol­ish­ing Connecticut’s death penal­ty brave,” and said the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem was unwork­able, not to men­tion expen­sive, unfair, and risky.” They quot­ed State Sen. Mary Anne Handley who said: The death penal­ty is nei­ther swift nor cer­tain. It may even be cer­tain that it’s…

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Feb 25, 2009

EDITORIALS: Death Row Futility

The Los Angeles Times recent­ly edi­to­ri­al­ized about the futil­i­ty of keep­ing the death penal­ty in California. Let’s end this bru­tal, anachro­nis­tic prac­tice,” of the death penal­ty, the paper wrote. Inefficiency and cost­li­ness are obvi­ous­ly only a small part of what’s wrong with the death penal­ty.” The edi­to­r­i­al con­tin­ued, “[C]apital pun­ish­ment strikes dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly at dis­ad­van­taged groups, and capri­cious­ly at oth­ers,” adding, We doubt its…

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Jan 23, 2009

EDITORIALS: Room for Doubt” about Upcoming Texas Excution

The Houston Chronicle is call­ing on Texas Governor Rick Perry to delay the exe­cu­tion of Larry Swearingen, which is sched­uled for January 27. The Chronicle notes that the foren­sic sci­en­tist who tes­ti­fied about the time of death of the vic­tim at Swearingen’s tri­al now believes the death occurred lat­er, a time at which Swearingen was in police cus­tody on anoth­er mat­ter. Five oth­er physi­cians and foren­sic experts con­curred that the murder…

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Jan 14, 2009

RESOURCES: The Angolite Explores Capital Punishment Internationally

The prison news mag­a­zine The Angolite fea­tures an in-depth piece on the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment around the world in its recent iss­sue. Citing a 2008 Amnesty International report, the arti­cle notes that China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and the United States lead the world in exe­cu­tions. Japan, the only oth­er indus­tri­al­ized democ­ra­cy besides the U.S. that uses cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, aver­ages five exe­cu­tions a year but is known for inhu­mane death row con­di­tions. Author and inmate…

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Jan 12, 2009

EDITORIALS: A Penalty of the Past

The News & Record of North Carolina recent­ly fea­tured an edi­to­r­i­al encour­ag­ing the state’s leg­is­la­ture and gov­er­nor to abol­ish the death penal­ty. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed the con­tro­ver­sies that have sur­round­ed the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state, includ­ing dis­agree­ment about lethal injec­tions and the incon­sis­tent way the penal­ty has been applied. The declin­ing num­ber of death sen­tences and the exten­sive time need­ed before an exe­cu­tion can take place led the paper to conclude…

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