Articles

Items: 191 — 200


Dec 19, 2007

Lethal Injection and Physicians: State Law vs. Medical Ethics

Journal of the American Medical Association COMMENTARY By Lee Black, JD, LLM and Robert M. Sade, MD Legal exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion has made nation­al head­lines dur­ing the past 2 years because pris­on­ers have argued that it pos­es an unnec­es­sary risk of pain as cur­rent­ly per­formed and there­fore con­sti­tutes uncon­sti­tu­tion­al cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The most wide­ly used method of lethal injec­tion, devel­oped by a physician,1 involves the intra­venous infu­sion of large dos­es of sodi­um thiopen­tal to induce deep sleep, pan­curo­ni­um bro­mide as a par­a­lyz­ing agent, and potassium…

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Dec 18, 2007

EDITORIALS: New Jersey’s Vote Praised For Eliminating Ultimately Futile” Death Penalty

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al, The New York Times praised New Jersey’s replace­ment of the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The Times wrote, It took 31 years, but the moral bank­rupt­cy, social imbal­ance, legal imprac­ti­cal­i­ty and ulti­mate futil­i­ty of the death penal­ty has final­ly pen­e­trat­ed the con­sciences of law­mak­ers in one of the 37 states that arro­gates to itself the right to exe­cute human beings.” The Times not­ed the impor­tance of the inno­cence issue in the New Jersey vote: New Jersey’s deci­sion to replace…

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Dec 05, 2007

EDITORIALS: The Myth of Deterrence

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al enti­tled The Myth of Deterrence,” the Dallas Morning News point­ed to the many rea­sons why the death penal­ty does not deter mur­ders: a major­i­ty of mur­ders can be clas­si­fied as irra­tional acts, and the per­pe­tra­tors are unlike­ly to have con­sid­ered the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a death sen­tences before and dur­ing the crime; those who com­mit pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der are also unlike­ly to con­sid­er the pos­si­bil­i­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment because it is so unlike­ly to be car­ried out. No ratio­nal crim­i­nal should be deterred by the death penal­ty, since…

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Nov 21, 2007

RESOURCES: Leading Criminologist Recommends Halt to Executions as Public Policy Priority

The jour­nal of Criminology & Public Policy recent­ly asked lead­ing experts to rec­om­mend impor­tant pol­i­cy changes need­ed in the area of crim­i­nal jus­tice and to pro­vide the evi­dence to sup­port such change. Although most of the arti­cles addressed var­i­ous prison and treat­ment issues, the first arti­cle by Prof. James Acker of the University at Albany called for an imme­di­ate mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. Prof. Acker exam­ines the United States’ long his­to­ry of grap­pling with the death penal­ty. He con­cludes that suf­fi­cient evi­dence now exists regard­ing the effec­tive­ness of the death penalty…

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Nov 08, 2007

NEW RESOURCE: American Journal of Criminal Law to Feature Article on Effective Counsel

In a forth­com­ing arti­cle in the American Journal of Criminal Law, John H. Blume of Cornell Law School explores recent Supreme Court deci­sions that affect the guide­lines for effec­tive coun­sel for cap­i­tal defen­dants. Blume notes in It’s Like Déjà Vu All Over Again: Williams V. Taylor, Wiggins V. Smith, Rompilla V. Beard and a (Partial) Return to the Guidelines Approach to the Effective Assistance of Counsel” that despite the recog­ni­tion by researchers, lit­i­ga­tors, and judges of the prob­lem of poor rep­re­sen­ta­tion of cap­i­tal defen­dants, most post-con­vic­tion claims of inef­fec­tive counsel…

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Oct 31, 2007

NEW RESOURCE: The Angolite Examines Death Penalty, Its Impact on Families of the Condemned

The most recent edi­tion of The Angolite, the nation’s largest prison news mag­a­zine, con­tains an arti­cle detail­ing nation­al death penal­ty trends and devel­op­ments. The piece also high­lights the impact of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment on fam­i­ly mem­bers and close friends of those fac­ing exe­cu­tion. It notes, Lost in the shad­ows of these cen­tral argu­ments is some­thing that defines us human beings: Taking care of our own. Unseen, unheard fam­i­ly mem­bers and close friends of those on death row have com­mit­ted no crime, have done no wrong, yet they must suf­fer the sterilized…

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