Articles
Items: 51 — 60
Nov 13, 2013
EDITORIALS: New Hampshire’s Concord Monitor Calls for Death Penalty Repeal
The Concord Monitor of New Hampshire called for repeal of the state’s death penalty in a recent editorial. The paper contrasted the case of Michael Addison, the state’s only death row inmate, to that of John Brooks, who was convicted of hiring three hitmen to kill a handyman, whom Brooks believed had stolen from him. Brooks received a sentence of life without parole. The Monitor noted, “Brooks was rich and white; Addison was poor and black.… Addison’s victim had the full force of New Hampshire law enforcement watching every twist…
Read MoreOct 24, 2013
EDITORIALS: Possible Innocence Case Deserves DNA Testing
A recent editorial in the Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio) called for DNA testing in the death penalty case of Tyrone Noling. Noling has been on death row for 17 years. His conviction was based largely on the testimony of three friends who have since recanted their stories, claiming they were coerced by the prosecution. No physical evidence linked Noling to the crime, and he has passed a polygraph test. Noling is requesting the testing of additional evidence that could finally prove he was not involved in the crime. The editors…
Read MoreOct 17, 2013
OP-ED: “Changes are long overdue for Texas’ clemency process”
Michael Morton (pictured), who was released after 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, called for reforms in Texas’s clemency process. In a recent op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, Morton and Scheck highlighted the case of Cameron Willingham, who was executed in 2004 despite serious doubts about his guilt. According to the authors, it is now understood that investigators who believed that Willingham committed arson were mistaken. They also noted that a recent investigation uncovered that a recantation…
Read MoreOct 09, 2013
EDITORIALS: Wyoming Paper Recommends Life Sentences for Sake of Victims
Wyoming’s Casper Star-Tribune recently pointed out why many families of murder victims favor life-without-parole sentences over the death penalty . “[I]t may be a surprise that many families of murder victims prefer the life without parole sentence, simply because it puts the killer away forever without the decades-long court appeals that can accompany a death sentence,” the paper wrote. The editorial noted that there is only one person on the state’s death row, and he is there for a crime committed 25 years ago. Attention to the case often focuses…
Read MoreSep 30, 2013
EDITORIALS: Boston Globe Recommends No Death Penalty For Marathon Bomber
A recent Boston Globe editorial called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder not to seek the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused of carrying out the bombing at the Boston Marathon. The editors said the lengthy death-penalty process would put the spotlight on the defendant to the detriment of the victims: “Years of proceedings, and their potential culmination in a death sentence, would also give Tsarnaev what he and his brother apparently sought: publicity and notoriety. Much better to let Tsarnaev slip into obscurity in a federal prison…
Read MoreSep 06, 2013
INNOCENCE: The Role of Journalists in Freeing An Innocent Man
The fortuitous investigation of a case by persistent journalists, rather than the workings of the limited appellate process, has led to the exoneration of a number of innocent individuals. Maurice Possley (l.), a former reporter for the Chicago Tribune, recently wrote how he and fellow-journalist Steve Mills (r.) helped free Daniel Taylor (c.) in Illinois, where he had spent more than 20 years in prison. In 2001, the reporters published a story exposing the false and coerced confession that led to Taylor’s conviction, but it would be more than a…
Read MoreAug 27, 2013
EDITORIALS: Ohio Paper Calls for Transparency and Caution in Selecting Execution Process
As Ohio prepares to change its execution process in October, the Toledo Blade called on the state to stop the secrecy surrounding the selection of an alternative to current lethal injection drugs. The editors wrote, “No state should proceed with scheduled executions until the drug, or multidrug cocktail, it plans to use has been proven to be humane and efficient. The process of changing how people are executed in Ohio should unfold with far more transparency than the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has shown so far.” The editorial…
Read MoreAug 08, 2013
False Confessions and Threats of the Death Penalty
A recent article in The Atlantic by Marc Bookman (pictured) shows how threats of the death penalty can contribute to false confessions. The piece recounts a Pennsylvania murder case in which two defendants, Russell Weinberger and Felix Rodriguez, admitted to a murder they did not commit, leading to their imprisonment for over 21 years. Rodriguez described his interrogation: “First they showed me pictures of the dead guy. I started to cry. I said I didn’t do that. That’s when they slapped me on the back of my head, said ‘They…
Read MoreJul 15, 2013
The Writ of Habeas Corpus and the Warren Hill Case
UPDATE: Warren Hill was granted a stay of execution by a Georgia court just hours before his scheduled execution on July 15. A hearing is scheduled for July 18 to consider challenges to a new state law that shields the identity of the lethal injection drug’s manufacturer and the prescribing physician from the public. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 15, 2013). As a petition on behalf of Georgia death row inmate Warren Hill awaits consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court, the role of habeas corpus in protecting defendants’ fundamental rights has…
Read MoreJul 01, 2013
NEW VOICES: Texas Paper Changes Its Death Penalty Position
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram announced a change in its stance on the death penalty in a recent editorial marking the 500th execution in Texas. While the newspaper had previously endorsed a moratorium on executions, it now supports the abolition of capital punishment. The editors said that moral grounds alone are enough to warrant ending the death penalty, but they also cited a variety of problems in Texas’s use of the death penalty, including geographical and racial disparities in sentencing, and the state’s “embarassing record of wrongful conviction.” The paper pointed…
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