Publications & Testimony

Items: 5681 — 5690

Oct 14, 2004

EDITORIAL: Examine the systemic problems in the death penalty before reinstating it in NY

New York’s death penal­ty remains in abeyance, hav­ing been found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al by the state’s high court. A recent N.Y. Newsday edi­to­r­i­al called on law­mak­ers to care­ful­ly exam­ine the fun­da­men­tal prob­lems with the death penal­ty before con­sid­er­ing any rein­state­ment leg­is­la­tion. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: On the steps of New York City Hall on Thursday, a coali­tion of death penal­ty oppo­nents — promi­nent­ly includ­ing City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and for­mer guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date Andrew Cuomo -…

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Oct 14, 2004

Newspapers, Opinion Leaders Call for End to Juvenile Death Penalty

As the Supreme Court heard argu­ments in the case of Roper v. Simmons on October 13, news­pa­pers through­out the coun­try fea­tured edi­to­ri­als and opin­ion pieces call­ing on the U.S. to aban­don the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing juve­nile offenders:The New York Times When the Supreme Court con­sid­ers an Eighth Amendment chal­lenge, it looks to ​“evolv­ing stan­dards of decen­cy” — and there has been a steady move­ment nation­al­ly away from the juve­nile death penal­ty. In the 15 years since the Supreme Court…

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Oct 14, 2004

117th Innocent Person Freed From Death Row

117th INNOCENT PERSON FREED FROM DEATH ROW Ernest Willis became the eighth per­son exon­er­at­ed from Texas’s death row on October 6, 2004, and the 117th per­son freed nation­wide since 1973. Willis was sen­tenced to death 17 years ago for alleged­ly set­ting a house fire that killed two peo­ple. U. S. District Judge Royal Ferguson held that the state had admin­is­tered med­ical­ly inap­pro­pri­ate antipsy­chot­ic drugs with­out Willis’ con­sent; that the state supressed evi­dence favor­able to Willis;…

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Oct 12, 2004

NEW VOICES: Major Texas Newspapers Call for a Halt to Executions in Cases from Houston

Following a call from the Houston Police Chief and from state leg­is­la­tors to halt exe­cu­tions in cas­es from Harris County, four of the state’s largest news­pa­pers pub­lished edi­to­ri­als in sup­port of a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The Houston police crime lab has been plagued with errors in DNA test­ing and preser­va­tion of evi­dence. There have been far more exe­cu­tions from Harris County (Houston) than from any oth­er coun­ty in the coun­try. AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN (N)othing can jus­ti­fy an execution…

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