Publications & Testimony
Items: 5111 — 5120
Jul 13, 2006
North Carolina Poised to Establish Nation’s First Innocence Commission
North Carolina is poised to become the first state to establish an Innocence Inquiry Commission that would review inmates’ innocence claims. Legislation to create the panel recently passed the state Senate by a vote of 48 – 1, and it passed last year in the House of Representative by a vote of 80 – 23. The legislation now must go before a legislative conference to reconcile differences between the versions. The House version of the bill would establish…
Read MoreJul 12, 2006
Lead Texas Investigator in Possible Wrongful Execution Had History of Misjudgment, Mistaken Arrests
According to a report by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, the police sergeant in charge of the investigation that led to the possible wrongful execution of Ruben Cantu in Texas had a record of wrongful arrests and was suspended three times for errors in judgment during his three decades with the San Antonio Police Department. Official documents examined by the papers revealed that Sergeant Bill Ewell, who supervised the homicide unit and was one of the…
Read MoreJul 12, 2006
ABA ASSESSMENT REPORT CALLS FOR ALABAMA DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM
A new report issued by the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project found that Alabama’s death penalty fails to meet fundamental ABA standards of fairness and accuracy. An eight-member assessment team assembled in Alabama by the ABA was so troubled by its findings that it called for a moratorium on executions…
Read MoreJul 10, 2006
NEW VOICES: “The Failed Experiment”
Anna Quindlen, writing in the June 26, 2006 issue of Newsweek, reflected on the underlying questions surrounding the…
Read MoreJul 07, 2006
NEW RESOURCE: Study Finds Racial Disparities in Colorado’s Death Penalty
A new study examined all cases in which the death penalty was sought in Colorado over a 20-year period, from 1980 to 1999. The study identified 110 death penalty cases, and compared the race and gender of the victims. The authors concluded that the death penalty was most likely to be sought for homicides with white female victims. They also determined that the probability of death being sought was 4.2 times higher for those who killed whites than for those who…
Read MoreJul 06, 2006
PUBLIC OPINION: Americans Closely Split Between Death Penalty and Life Without Parole
A June 2006 TNS Poll (released by the Washington Post and ABC News) found little change in American opinion on the death penalty over the past three years. Sixty-five percent of American adults still favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. Despite this, when respondents were given a choice between the sentencing options of life without parole and the death penalty, 46% favored life without parole. Fifty percent of respondents, however, selected the death…
Read MoreJul 05, 2006
OP-ED: At the 30th Anniversary of Gregg v. Georgia, Death Penalty Remains Arbitrary
Professor Michael Meltsner, who worked as an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in its efforts to challenge the death penalty in the 1960s and 70s, recently assessed the U.S.‘s application of the death penalty over the past 30 years. He noted that today’s death penalty system is“broken” and fails to make the nation a safer society. Writing in the Boston Globe,…
Read MoreJul 05, 2006
NEW VOICES: Former Publisher of the Chicago Tribune Calls for End to Executions
In a recent op-ed, Jack Fuller, former editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, called for an end to capital punishment. Citing a series of mistakes by eyewitnesses, police and forensic experts, he stated that the criminal justice system is too deeply flawed to entrust with carrying out executions. Pointing to the likely innocence of Carlos DeLuna, a Texas man who was executed in 1989, Fuller concluded that the death penalty should be abolished because“no…
Read MoreJul 05, 2006
Anesthesiologists Advised to Avoid Lethal Injections
Dr. Orin Guidry, president of the 40,000-member American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), issued a public statement strongly urging members to“steer clear” of any participation in executions by lethal injection. In a four-page“Message from the President,” Guidry noted that anesthesiologists have been“reluctantly thrust into the middle” of the legal controversy over lethal injections. In recent months, the procedures being used around the United States…
Read MoreJul 02, 2006
Tipping the Scales: Supreme Court Fails to Recognize Danger of Executing the Innocent
The Anniston StarSection: OpinionJuly 2, 2006Author: Richard C. DieterSpecial to The StarIn deciding a narrow issue about an obscure part of Kansas’ death penalty law, the Supreme Court last week revealed a chasm of differing opinions regarding the fundamental reliability of capital punishment in this country. Although the opposing views were widely divergent and sharply expressed, the court did us all a service by identifying the key problem that may decide the…
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