Articles

By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current April 30,…

The gov­er­nor of Missouri, Matt Blunt, has pro­posed that his state expand the death penal­ty to include cas­es of sex­u­al assault against chil­dren where the vic­tim is not killed. However, accord­ing to an edi­to­r­i­al in the Springfield News-Leader, such a law would not pro­tect chil­dren. Instead, it could make it less like­ly that these offens­es would be report­ed, would put the child in dan­ger of even worse crimes, and would involve the child and the fam­i­ly in years…

By Karen Campbell Boston Globe April 3,…

A UMNS CommentaryBy John C. Goodwin*March 28,…

February 28,…

Supreme Court mulls lethal injec­tions as Christian sup­port for the death penal­ty drops. by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra Christianity Today…

By MICHAEL C. DORF Wednesday, February 13, 2008FindLaw’s…

Days after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the elec­tric chair was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, a Lincoln Journal Star edi­to­r­i­al urged the state to recon­sid­er the death penal­ty: ​“Instead of rush­ing to pass a new means of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the Legislature should take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to final­ly get rid of the death penal­ty.” Nebraska was the only state to retain the elec­tric chair as its sole means of exe­cu­tion. The paper not­ed that it was the right time to take a broad­er look at the death…

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al, the Concord Monitor advo­cat­ed against expand­ing New Hampshire’s death penal­ty law to include mul­ti­ple-mur­der offens­es, as some law­mak­ers have pro­posed. Instead, they say, ​“the death penal­ty should be elim­i­nat­ed, not expand­ed.” The edi­to­r­i­al cites prob­lems in the death penal­ty process, such as wrong­ful con­vic­tions, high costs, and its arbi­trari­ness, as rea­sons for abo­li­tion. The Monitor also writes that the death penal­ty is coun­ter­pro­duc­tive, not­ing, ​“It…

The Richmond Times-Dispatch, a key paper in the Virginia state cap­i­tal, has long sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. But their recent edi­to­r­i­al takes the posi­tion that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment ​“achieves no legit­i­mate goals that can­not be achieved by a life sen­tence with no pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.” The paper equates the death penal­ty with the state ​“play­ing God.” The full text of the edi­to­r­i­al fol­lows: Del. Frank Hargrove, one of the General Assembly’s Don Quixotes, hopes the umpteenth time will be the…