Articles

As evi­dence sur­faces that Texas may have killed an inno­cent man when it exe­cut­ed Ruben Cantu in 1993, recent edi­to­ri­als by the Austin American-Statesman and the Dallas Morning News have crit­i­cized Texas’ death penal­ty and called on the state to take a clos­er look at its​“flawed” cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. The Austin American-Stateman wrote: We all should remem­ber (Ruben) Cantu’s case and the lessons it offers as the coun­try car­ries out its 1000^th exe­cu­tion since 1976…

According to the North Carolina News & Record, death sen­tences in the state have sig­nif­i­cant­ly declined since the 2001 enact­ment of leg­is­la­tion that allows defen­dants to plead guilty to first-degree mur­der and receive a sen­tence of life with­out parole rather than go to tri­al and risk the death penal­ty. Juries are also return­ing few­er death sen­tences. The paper argues that the emer­gence of the life-with­­out-parole alter­na­tive should result in…

In an edi­to­r­i­al in its Sunday, November 6 edi­tion, the Birminham News announced that​“After decades of sup­port­ing the death penal­ty, the edi­to­r­i­al board no longer can do so.” The paper cit­ed both prac­ti­cal and eth­i­cal rea­sons for the change in its stance: “[W]e have come to believe Alabama’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem is bro­ken. And because, first and fore­most, this news­pa­per’s edi­to­r­i­al board is com­mit­ted to a cul­ture of life.… We believe all life is…

In an edi­to­r­i­al on October 27, the Los Angeles Times called for an end to the death penal­ty in California. The Times stat­ed that the pun­ish­ment should end not because of the mer­its of indi­vid­ual death row inmates, such as Stanley Williams, sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on December 13, but because of​“who we are” as a civ­i­lized soci­ety:EDITORIAL Shut down death rowOctober 27, 2005STANLEY​“TOOKIE” WILLIAMS is a charis­mat­ic sym­bol of what’s wrong with the death penal­ty — and of…

The lat­est edi­tion of the mag­a­zine Justice Denied fea­tures sto­ries of those who have been wrong­ly con­vict­ed in the United States and inter­na­tion­al­ly, includ­ing sev­er­al death penal­ty cas­es. One arti­cle is about Lena Baker, who was posthu­mous­ly par­doned 50 years after Georgia exe­cut­ed her for the mur­der Ernest B. Knight. The mag­a­inze also fea­tures a sto­ry about the inno­cence claims raised by Frances Newton, who was recent­ly exe­cut­ed in Texas. Other…

The lat­est edi­tion of Christian Networks Journal fea­tures a series of arti­cles under the theme ​“Shalt Thou Kill?: An In-Depth Look at Capital Punishment.” In addi­tion to com­men­tary from two for­mer gov­er­nors and arti­cles by death penal­ty experts Franklin Zimring, Rob Warden, David Dow, and DPIC Executive Director Richard Dieter (on Costs), the mag­a­zine also con­tains inter­views and death row sto­ries. The mag­a­zine states that its pur­pose is​“to provide…

The entire cur­rent edi­tion of Congressional Quarterly’s CQ Researcher is devot­ed to a com­pre­hen­sive look at the death penal­ty in the U.S. This spe­cial CQ report, authored by Kenneth Jost and entitled ​“Death Penalty Controversies,” explores the his­to­ry of the U.S. death penal­ty and chang­ing pub­lic opin­ion about its use. It also looks at the cur­rent sta­tus of state mora­to­ri­um devel­op­ments, the con­tin­u­ing decline in U.S. exe­cu­tions, state responses to…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Washington Post praised Indiana Governor Mitchell Daniels for com­mut­ing the death sen­tence of Arthur Baird, who suf­fers from severe men­tal ill­ness. The editorial…

The Birmingham News sharply crit­i­cized Alabama’s sys­tem of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in death penal­ty cas­es, say­ing that the pub­lic should be out­raged. A lack of even min­i­mal resources and pay has caused attor­neys to with­draw from cas­es and to decline rep­re­sen­ta­tion to indi­gent defen­dants. The paper wrote that this short­age of attor­neys could result in more tri­al errors and longer appeals, putting an undue strain on vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and the entire sys­tem of jus­tice. The…

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette stat­ed that the death penal­ty is more expen­sive than life with­out parole and offers Indiana res­i­dents no mea­sur­able ben­e­fit for their tax dol­lars. The paper said that end­ing the death penal­ty and real­lo­cat­ing funds cur­rent­ly put toward cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment would improve pro­grams such as vic­tim’s assis­tance, grass­roots police pro­grams, and social ser­vice agen­cies that work with at-risk youth. The Journal Gazette…