Articles

An edi­to­r­i­al pub­lished by the Lexington Herald-Leader not­ed that sup­port for Kentucky’s death penal­ty has declined since the state resumed exe­cu­tions a decade ago. The paper stat­ed that 68% of state res­i­dents ques­tioned in a recent poll pre­ferred a long prison sen­tence over exe­cu­tion for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. The Herald-Leader con­clud­ed that Kentuckians’ grow­ing unease about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is reflec­tive of a broad­er nation­al trend away from the death penal­ty and that the death penal­ty is often more a mat­ter of chance than of jus­tice. The edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed: It’s…

In his final arti­cle for 2006, colum­nist Richard Cohen chose to high­light the ​“mad­ness of the death penal­ty” and to draw atten­tion to the exe­cu­tion of those with men­tal ill­ness. Cohen used the case of Gregory Thompson, a severe­ly men­tal­ly ill Tennessee death row inmate, to illus­trate some of the broad­er prob­lems with the death penal­ty. Thompson is delu­sion­al, para­noid, schiz­o­phrenic, and depressed. He takes 12 pills every day and receives twice-month­ly anti-psy­chot­ic injec­tions. Cohen notes that although there is no doubt about his guilt, there is grave doubt ​“about…

Editorial de El Nuevo Día

Commenting on the recent halt­ing of exe­cu­tions over the lethal injec­tion con­tro­ver­sy and DPIC’s Year End Report, the Boston Globe raised the ques­tion of ​“whether exe­cu­tion by any method is right.” Their edi­to­r­i­al con­clud­ed that “[t]his hit-and-miss sys­tem offers no pro­tec­tion for soci­ety,” and stat­ed that a life-with­out parole alter­na­tive would ​“pro­tect soci­ety while allow­ing for redress if a pris­on­er could show he was wrong­ly con­vict­ed. A ban on exe­cu­tions would spare judges and juries from hav­ing to con­sid­er whether men­tal ill­ness, age, or oth­er mit­i­gat­ing cir­cum­stance should pre­clude a…

The Albany Democrat-Herald in Oregon recent­ly edi­to­ri­al­ized that the ​“death penal­ty isn’t work­ing,” and con­clud­ed ​“that the death penal­ty here is a point­less law. If we’re not going to apply this law, then get­ting rid of it would be the less expen­sive course.” The edi­to­r­i­al cit­ed the pos­si­bil­i­ty of error, the arbi­trari­ness of apply­ing the pun­ish­ment to some dan­ger­ous offend­ers but not oth­ers, and the dif­fi­cul­ty of ever get­ting to an exe­cu­tion as rea­sons for end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The edi­to­r­i­al follows:

The Morning CallBy Debbie GarlickiOctober 19, 2006 The plea: Entered an Alford plea to three counts of third-degree mur­der on Wednesday.

A Los Angeles Times arti­cle on the recent hear­ings in fed­er­al District Court regard­ing the California’s lethal injec­tion process was enti­tled ​“The Chaos Behind California Executions.” Excerpts from the arti­cle follow:

Monday, October 2, 2006The Chaos Behind California ExecutionsTrial tes­ti­mo­ny paints lethal injec­tion meth­ods as hap­haz­ard, with lit­tle med­ical over­sight.By Maura Dolan and Henry WeinsteinLos Angeles Times Staff WritersSAN JOSE — ​“Operational Procedure No. 770,” the state’s name for exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion, is per­formed in a dark, cramped room by men and women who know lit­tle, if any­thing, about the dead­ly drugs they inject under extreme stress.Thousands of pages of depo­si­tions and four days of tes­ti­mo­ny last week in a fed­er­al court­room here pro­vid­ed the most inti­mate por­trait yet of…

As the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission con­tin­ued its review of the state’s law, the Asbury Park Press called for replac­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment with the sen­tence of life with­out parole. This would bet­ter serve the fam­i­lies of vic­tims, accord­ing to the edi­to­r­i­al, because the death penal­ty caus­es years of uncer­tain­ty with lit­tle prospect that the sen­tence will be car­ried out. The edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed:Reasons to drop death penal­ty Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/​15/​06

Two of Texas’s main news­pa­pers have called for an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the case of Ruben Cantu, who was exe­cut­ed in Texas in 1993. New evi­dence revealed in the Houston Chronicle ear­li­er in the year has thrown con­sid­er­able doubt on the guilt of Cantu. Susan Reed, the District Attorney of Bexar County where Cantu was tried, has refused to step down as head of the coun­ty’s inves­ti­ga­tion, even though, as a judge, she signed Cantu’s death war­rant, an appar­ent con­flict of inter­est. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to…