Articles

Items: 11 — 20


Aug 03, 2017

Political Analysis: Is Conservative Support the Future of Death-Penalty Abolition?

In a forth­com­ing arti­cle in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, released online in July, Ben Jones argues that, despite the pop­u­lar con­cep­tion of death-penal­ty abo­li­tion as a polit­i­cal­ly pro­gres­sive cause, its future suc­cess may well depend upon build­ing sup­port among Republicans and polit­i­cal con­ser­v­a­tives. In The Republican Party, Conservatives, and the Future of Capital Punishment, Jones — the Assistant Director of Rock Ethics Institute at Pennsylvania State University — traces the ide­o­log­i­cal roots of the recent emer­gence of Republican law­mak­ers as cham­pi­ons of death penal­ty repeal to long-held con­ser­v­a­tive views. He writes,…

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Jun 06, 2017

Recent Jury Trials in Dallas Highlight Death Penalty Decline Across Texas

From 2007 to 2013, Dallas sen­tenced twelve cap­i­tal­ly charged defen­dants to death — more than any oth­er coun­ty in Texas—and Dallas ranks sec­ond nation­al­ly, behind only Harris County (Houston), in the num­ber it has exe­cut­ed since 1972. But the coun­ty has not imposed any new death sen­tences since then, and the recent life sen­tences in the cap­i­tal tri­als of Justin Smith and Erbie Bowser high­light a statewide trend away from the death penalty.

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May 22, 2017

EDITORIALS: Seattle Times Urges End to Washington’s Zombie” Death Penalty

The death penal­ty in Washington is like a zom­bie, not alive or dead, yet con­tin­u­ing to eat its way through pre­cious resources in the crim­i­nal-jus­tice sys­tem,” The Seattle Times edi­to­r­i­al board declared on May 21, urg­ing the state leg­is­la­ture to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Washington cur­rent­ly has a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, imposed by Governor Jay Inslee in 2014, lead­ing the Times to declare the prac­tice effec­tive­ly dead.” But because death sen­tences can still be imposed, and appeals con­tin­ue for the eight men on death row, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is still alive on…

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Feb 24, 2017

American Bar Association Human Rights Magazine on Capital Punishment

Human Rights Magazine, a quar­ter­ly pub­li­ca­tion by the American Bar Association, focused its first-quar­ter 2017 edi­tion on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, mark­ing the 40th anniver­sary of Gregg v. Georgia. Articles by nation­al­ly-renowned death penal­ty experts exam­ine geo­graph­ic dis­par­i­ties in death sen­tences, secre­cy and lethal injec­tion, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, men­tal ill­ness, and oth­er crit­i­cal ques­tions in the cur­rent dis­course around the death penal­ty. In the intro­duc­tion to the mag­a­zine, Seth Miller, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Innocence Project of Florida and chair of the ABA Death Penalty Due Process Review Project, and Misty Thomas, staff…

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Feb 15, 2017

EDITORIALS: Colorado Newspapers Support Bill to Repeal Death Penalty

As Colorados Senate Judiciary Committee con­sid­ers SB 95—a bill that would replace the death penal­ty with life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole — the edi­to­r­i­al boards of The Denver Post and The Durango Herald have urged the leg­is­la­ture to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. Colorado’s death penal­ty sys­tem is bro­ken beyond repair and needs to be repealed,” wrote The Denver Post​. Repeal, it said, would save the state mil­lions in both the pros­e­cu­tion and defense of mur­der­ers and an untold num­ber of judi­cial man hours that have so infrequently…

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Feb 07, 2017

EDITORIALS: New York Times Hails Prosecutors’ Changing Views on Death Penalty

In a February 6 edi­to­r­i­al, The New York TImes hails the reform efforts of the new gen­er­a­tion” of state and local pros­e­cu­tors who are work­ing to change the United States’ crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, and espe­cial­ly the use of the death penal­ty. The Times high­lights the com­ments of two new­ly elect­ed local pros­e­cu­tors, Beth McCann, the new pros­e­cu­tor in Denver, Colorado, and Kim Ogg, the new dis­trict attor­ney in Harris County, Texas. McCann has said her office will not seek the death penal­ty because she does not think that the state…

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Nov 03, 2016

Editorial Boards, Oklahoma Conference of Churches Oppose Death Penalty Ballot Measure

The edi­to­r­i­al boards of Oklahomas two major news­pa­pers and the lead­er­ship of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches are all urg­ing vot­ers to vote no on State Question 776, which would enshrine the death penal­ty in the Oklahoma con­sti­tu­tion and remove from state courts the pow­er to declare the death penal­ty cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The Oklahoman called SQ 776 unnece­sary,” say­ing it, should be reject­ed by Oklahoma vot­ers on Nov. 8.” The Tulsa World also encour­aged a no vote on 776, say­ing, It’s intend­ed effect is to allow sup­port­ers of…

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Sep 19, 2016

EDITORIALS: California Newspapers Overwhelmingly Support Ballot Initiative to Abolish Death Penalty

Newspaper edi­to­r­i­al boards in California are over­whelm­ing­ly sup­port­ing a November bal­lot ini­tia­tive to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty and replace it with life with­out parole plus resti­tu­tion, and are uni­form­ly reject­ing an oppos­ing ini­tia­tive that pur­ports to speed up the appeals process. At least eight California news­pa­pers have pub­lished edi­to­ri­als sup­port­ing Proposition 62 and oppos­ing Proposition 66, and Ballotpedia reports that it is aware of no edi­to­r­i­al boards that have sup­port­ed Proposition 66. A Los Angeles Times edi­to­r­i­al char­ac­ter­izes the death penal­ty as both immoral and inhu­mane,” adding, “[e]ven those…

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Jul 21, 2016

EDITORIAL: San Jose Mercury News Endorses Death Penalty Repeal, Says Competing Measure Would Magnify Inequity

Weighing in on California’s com­pet­ing death penal­ty bal­lot ini­tia­tives, the San Jose Mercury News edi­to­r­i­al board urged vot­ers to sup­port repeal of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and reject a pro­pos­al to speed up exe­cu­tions. The edi­to­r­i­al called California’s death penal­ty sys­tem, a fail­ure on every lev­el,” not­ing that the state has spent $4 bil­lion to car­ry out just 13 exe­cu­tions and the $150 mil­lion annu­al sav­ings the inde­pen­dent Legislative Analysts Office says death penal­ty abo­li­tion would achieve could be bet­ter spent on edu­ca­tion, on reha­bil­i­tat­ing young offend­ers or on catch­ing more murderers,…

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Mar 08, 2016

EDITORIALS: Kentucky Newspaper Reverses Position on the Death Penalty

The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky’s sec­ond-largest news­pa­per, announced it was end­ing its long-held sup­port for the death penal­ty, and now believes the state leg­is­la­ture should abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Describing its pre­vi­ous posi­tion as keep it but fix it,” the edi­tors stat­ed, we must now con­cede that the death penal­ty is not going to be fixed and, in fact, prob­a­bly can­not be fixed at any defen­si­ble cost to tax­pay­ers.” Citing the 2011 American Bar Association assess­ment of Kentucky’s death penal­ty, the Herald-Leader said the sys­tem was rife with injus­tices and the potential…

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