Publications & Testimony

News & Observer July 24, 2004 Editorial With its annual list of violator countries, the United States claims the title of defender of human rights, and given its heritage and standing in the world, the title is fitting. A chink in the claim, however, is that 19 states allow the execution of people who committed capital crimes at the ages of 16 or 17. True, that age bracket is on the cusp of what is typically considered adulthood. But there is no getting around the fact that 16- or…

The Virginian Pilot July 24, 2004 Editorial A broad swath of humanitarian, religious, medical, legal and governmental groups recently urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the death penalty for individuals whose crimes occurred before they turned 18. The five Supreme Court justices who disagreed in 2002, when the high court last weighed the matter, should consider carefully the evidence that standards of decency have evolved. No one disputes that Christopher Simmons, a Missouri inmate…

Roanoke Times and World News July 23, 2004 Editorial Lawyers representing Virginia are among those arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that states know better whether killers who committed crimes as juveniles deserve the death penalty. The justices should dismiss the errant position staked out by Virginia and a few other states and heed the call of an impressive group, including Nobel laureates, that has asked the court to end the execution of killers who committed crimes as teens.

A clemency letter-writing campaign organized by Alabama death row prisoners on behalf of James Barney Hubbard, an ailing 74-year-old man who is scheduled to be executed on August 5^th, was recently halted by Department of Correction authorities at Donaldson Prison. Just two months before Hubbard’s scheduled execution, Willie Dorrell Minor wrote a clemency petition to Alabama Governor Robert Riley. He planned to have the petition asking Riley to spare Hubbard’s life signed by other individuals on…

A new report released by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury recommended changes to the state’s costly death penalty and called into question its effectiveness in preventing crime. The Office of Research noted that it lacked sufficient data to accurately account for the total cost of capital trials, stating that “because cost and time records were not maintained, the Office of Research was unable to determine the total, comprehensive cost of the death penalty in Tennessee.” Although…

The Coloradoan July 21, 2004 Editorial By Julie Baxter Remember those misspent days of your youth? When you were invincible, intelligent and incapable of making a bad decision? Now, can you remember just how vulnerable, foolish and gifted you were at making rotten choices? We all did things in our younger days we aren’t proud of, things we regret, things that after the heat of the moment passed, we would have done much differently. Turns out there’s good cause for that; our brains just…

The Republican (Springfield, MA) July 21, 2004 Editorial Most of the world agrees on this much: A civilized nation does not execute its young. Virtually every nation in the world shares this fundamental standard of decency, even some nations with histories of human rights violations. In this spirit, 48 nations asked the Supreme Court this week to end the execution of people in the United States for crimes they committed before they turned 18. Briefs were also filed by 18 Nobel Peace Prize…

The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA) July 21, 2004 Editorial Fact: The United States is just one of five countries in the world that allows the execution of juveniles. Opinion: This nation has many reasons to be proud. But this is not one of them. Solution: Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court invoked the concept of “evolving standards of decency” and used that to abolish capital punishment for mentally retarded criminals. That same standard should be expanded to include the execution of…

Miami Herald July 21, 2004 Editorial OUR OPINION: ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY FOR JUVENILE OFFENDERS The United States should follow the majority in this country and the rest of the world and abolish the death penalty for offenders who committed their crimes as juveniles. That’s what a chorus of advocates — among them the American Bar Association, Nobel Prize winners, former U.S. diplomats and 48 countries — told the U.S. Supreme Court this week in friend of the court briefs. Executing…