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,…
Read MoreJun 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.
Read MoreMay 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…
Read MoreFeb 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…
Read MoreFeb 15, 2017
EDITORIALS: Colorado Newspapers Support Bill to Repeal Death Penalty
As Colorado’s 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…
Read MoreFeb 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…
Read MoreNov 03, 2016
Editorial Boards, Oklahoma Conference of Churches Oppose Death Penalty Ballot Measure
The editorial boards of Oklahoma’s 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…
Read MoreSep 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…
Read MoreJul 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,…
Read MoreMar 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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