Articles

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 what’s wrong with the…

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 arti­cles dis­cuss the Streamlined…

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 hon­est, lev­el and unbiased…

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 the Supreme Court’s ban on…

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 edi­to­r­i­al stated:What would it…

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 edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: The death penalty…

In an edi­to­r­i­al high­light­ing pub­lic sup­port for the sen­tenc­ing option of life with­out parole in death penal­ty cas­es and the need to take steps to pro­tect against exe­cut­ing inno­cent peo­ple, USA Today recent­ly stat­ed that life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole is a ​“fit­ting replace­ment” for the death penal­ty. The edi­to­r­i­al praised the his­toric enact­ment of a life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole statute in Texas and oth­er recent activ­i­ties around the nation that seek to address prob­lems with…

Newspaper edi­to­ri­als from papers in Texas and oth­er areas of the coun­try praised the Supreme Court’s rul­ing in the case of Thomas Miller-El and crit­i­cized the way in which the death penal­ty has been imple­ment­ed in Texas. Miller-El was grant­ed a new tri­al in light of strong evi­dence of racial bias dur­ing jury selec­tion at his orig­i­nal tri­al. Editorial excerpts follow:New York Times[Miller-El] is an impor­tant rul­ing that reit­er­ates to all courts the impor­tance of keep­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion out of…

The May/​June issue of Foreign Policy mag­a­zine includes an arti­cle on the death penal­ty in Japan by Charles Lane, Supreme Court reporter for The Washington Post. Lane notes that Japan’s death penal­ty is shroud­ed in secre­cy and cul­mi­nates in exe­cu­tions out­side of all pub­lic view. He pro­vides read­ers with a rare look inside this sys­tem and com­pares that coun­try’s poli­cies with U.S. prac­tices and inter­na­tion­al trends. The arti­cle, ​“A View to a Kill,” notes that although death sen­tences are…