Publications & Testimony

PHILADELPHIA BAR ASSOCIATION RESOLUTION CALLING FOR A MORATORIUM ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT UNTIL SUCH TIME THAT FAIRNESS IN ITS ADMINISTRATION CAN BE ENSURED Adopted by the Board of Governors November 25, 1997, vot­ing 18 to…

October 20, 1997As spir­i­tu­al lead­ers in the com­mu­ni­ty we Catholic Bishops of Texas are acute­ly aware of the vio­lence in our state. Despite a grow­ing reliance on longer sen­tences, more pris­ons, and more exe­cu­tions, our state’s crime rate has…

The Vatican issued the defin­i­tive Latin lan­guage ver­sion of its Universal Catechism on September 9, 1997. The pri­ma­ry change in the cat­e­chism focus­es on legit­i­mate defense and the death penal­ty . The new ver­sion reads: ​“The tra­di­tion­al teach­ing of the Church does not exclude … recourse to the death penal­ty when it is the only prac­ti­cal way to effi­cient­ly defend the lives of human beings from the unjust aggres­sor.” It con­tin­ues, ​“Today, in fact, because the means states have to repress…

American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and…

Furman v. Georgia 408 U.S. 238: Court ruled that the death penal­ty, as applied, was an arbi­trary pun­ish­ment and thus uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under the 8^th and 14^th…

The…

Mario Marquez had the adap­tive skills of a 7 year-old. His tri­al coun­sel tes­ti­fied at a clemen­cy hear­ing that he did not present any evi­dence of Mario’s men­tal retar­da­tion because of a legal flaw in the Texas death penal­ty statute. Marquez was exe­cut­ed on January 17,…

T U C S O N W E E K L YDecember 8 — December 14, 1993by Beth Hawkins and Kristin Solheim- Arizona Plans To Execute Paris Carriger For Shattering AnotherMan’s Skull With A Cast-Iron Skillet. Never Mind That Someone Else Confessed To The Crime. — Fifteen years ago, when Paris Carriger first was locked away in a 6‑by-9cell on death row at the Arizona State Prison, he, like most con­demned­men, claimed to be inno­cent. Of course, no one lis­tened. His lawyer had­bare­ly paid atten­tion dur­ing the trial,…

Justices crit­i­cize con­duct of case By Pete Shellem and Laird…

FBI, state police inves­ti­gat­ing Wambaugh’s $45,000 pay­ment to Holtz By Pete Shellem and Laird…