Articles
Items: 251 — 260
Mar 16, 2006
NEW RESOURCE: 2005 Death Penalty Articles Index Available
Each year, DPIC collects relevant death penalty articles that have appeared in print and on media Web sites. Our collection certainly does not contain all such articles, nor do we claim that it represents the “best” articles. It is only a representative sample of the extensive coverage given to capital punishment in print in a particular year. For those interested in examining this coverage, we have prepared an index of the articles from 2005 in PDF format. Note that we are not posting the…
Read MoreFeb 17, 2006
Texas Editorial Backs Death Penalty Reforms
An editorial in the Austin-American Statesman praised the recommendations of the governor’s advisory council on criminal justice, especially in regard to changes needed in the death penalty system. Excerpts from the editorial appear…
Read MoreFeb 08, 2006
NEW RESOURCE: Amicus Journal Examines Death Penalty Developments
The most recent edition of the Amicus Journal, a London publication that provides a forum for dialogue on issues concerning capital punishment around the world, contains articles addressing U.S. death penalty concerns. Among the topics covered are clemency, mental retardation, conditions on death row, ineffective assistance of counsel, and lethal injection. The magazine features pieces by a number of U.S. death penalty experts, including an essay on clemency by Austin Sarat and a…
Read MoreJan 19, 2006
NEW VOICES: Texas Paper Calls for Halt to Executions
The San Antonio Express-News, which supports the death penalty, recently called for a halt to executions in Texas because of concerns about the ongoing problems at the Houston Crime Lab. The Express-News stated:This month, New Jersey lawmakers voted to halt executions while a task force reviews the fairness and costs of imposing the death penalty.Texas should consider doing the same but for slightly different reasons.The disturbing facts coming out of an independent investigation into cases…
Read MoreJan 02, 2006
EDITORIALS: “The Year in Death”
The Washington Post editorialized about the death penalty in 2005, commenting on many of the points made in DPIC’s Year End Report:[T]he overall tendency is unmistakable: At least for now, with crime and murder rates low and the threat of wrongful convictions on people’s minds, the death penalty does not have the same attraction that it once…
Read MoreDec 31, 2005
Articles: Schwarzenegger’s Mistake: Clemency and Tookie Williams
Dec 06, 2005
Editorials Criticize Texas Death Penalty
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 1000th execution since 1976 scheduled for today in…
Read MoreNov 14, 2005
Terrorism Trial’s Strategies Revealed
Washington Post, Nov. 14, 2005, by Jerry MarkonAs preparations intensify for the upcoming death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, newly unsealed court documents are laying out the arguments prosecutors and defense attorneys plan to make in what is likely to be the only judicial reckoning for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.Prosecutors will tell an Alexandria federal court jury that Moussaouideserves to die because he lied to the FBI when he was arrested a monthbefore the terrorist…
Read MoreNov 09, 2005
North Carolina Law Results in Sharp Drop in Death Sentences
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 a reconsideration of the sentences of…
Read MoreNov 07, 2005
NEW VOICES: The Birmingham News Changes Its Position on the Death Penalty
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 sacred. And in embracing a…
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