Articles

The Dallas Morning News renewed its call for a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Texas because of the numer­ous errors in the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem. The paper high­light­ed the cas­es of Michael Blair and Charles Hood as exam­ples of how the sys­tem has bro­ken down. Blair was exon­er­at­ed in 2008 after 14 years on death row. DNA evi­dence revealed that he had not been the mur­der­er of 7‑year-old Ashley Estel in 1993, despite the fact that the jury had tak­en only 27 min­utes to con­vict him, and that he may…

Dec. 9, 2008US MILTARY:Military death sen­tence case may head back for Supreme Court cer­tio­rari decisionFor the 1^st time in half a cen­tu­ry, the President approved a mil­i­tary death sen­tence this sum­mer. Army Private Ronald Gray was sen­tenced to death by a mil­i­tary court-mar­tial pan­el in 1988 after con­vict­ing him of two mur­ders, three rapes, an attempt­ed mur­der, and a host of oth­er crimes. A mil­i­tary death sen­tence trig­gers auto­mat­ic appeals. In Gray’s case, his con­vic­tion went before the Army Court of Military Review (now the Army Court of Criminal Appeals)…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska) expressed the paper’s shock at how the death penal­ty dis­tort­ed a state crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion to the extent that six inno­cent peo­ple were con­vict­ed of a mur­der they did not com­mit. Defendants were pres­sured to offer erro­neous tes­ti­mo­ny through the threat of fac­ing the death penal­ty. ​“The wrong­ful con­vic­tions show how the death penal­ty can dis­tort the search for jus­tice,” the edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed. ​“Investigators sup­plied sus­pects sug­ges­tions on what could have hap­pened. They showed pho­tos of the crime scene. Under pres­sure, suspects…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Virginian-Pilot points to the prob­lem of arbi­trari­ness in apply­ing the death penal­ty. The edi­to­r­i­al asks, ​“Is it right to look at who the vic­tims were? Is it fair to con­sid­er the strength of the evi­dence and the time and resources required to pur­sue the death penal­ty, a cost­ly process? Does it make a crime less impor­tant, a vic­tim’s life less mem­o­rable, if pros­e­cu­tors decide that life in a tiny prison cell is pun­ish­ment enough for the killer?” The edi­to­r­i­al con­tin­ues, ​“Even if we assumed that…

Civil rights lit­i­ga­tor and death penal­ty expert Ronald J. Tabak recent­ly pub­lished ​“The Private Bar’s Efforts to Secure Proper Representation for those Facing Execution” in the Justice System Journal. The arti­cle presents an in-depth review of the American Bar Association​’s (ABA) role in ensur­ing effec­tive coun­sel in cap­i­tal cas­es. Tabak recounts the ABA’s efforts since the mid-1980’s to secure com­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion at every state of legal pro­ceed­ings, stat­ing that ​“some­one with­out coun­sel has lit­tle chance of secur­ing redress for con­sti­tu­tion­al vio­la­tions that may have taint­ed a con­vic­tion or death sentence.”…

In 1996, Illinois Governor Jim Edgar com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Guin Garcia to life with­out parole, even though Garcia her­self had stopped fight­ing for her life. Garcia would have been the first woman exe­cut­ed in the U.S. in twelve years. She had been con­vict­ed of killing the man who had phys­i­cal­ly abused her, but she had dropped her appeals because she said she was done ​“beg­ging for her life.” Chicago Sun-Times reporter Carol Marin fol­lowed Garcia’s case after the com­mu­ta­tion and recent­ly wrote about the changes in Garcia’s life.…

In May 2008, the California Supreme Court threw out the death sen­tence of con­vict­ed mur­der­er Adam Miranda and ordered a new sen­tenc­ing tri­al, rul­ing that Los Angeles County pros­e­cu­tors failed to dis­close key infor­ma­tion that like­ly affect­ed the sen­tenc­ing of Miranda. A Los Angeles Times edi­to­r­i­al high­lights the arbi­trari­ness of this case, not­ing that many defen­dants with­out ded­i­cat­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tion might not have fared so well. This edi­to­r­i­al asks about the oth­er inmates on California’s death row: Miranda had an attor­ney whose firm was will­ing to donate mil­lions of dol­lars worth…

May 5, 2008

By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current April 30, 2008