Testimony and Statements

Items: 61 — 70


Oct 26, 2006

National Conference to Focus on Death Penalty Issues

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will hold its nation­al con­fer­ence at the Fair Lakes Hyatt Hotel in Fairfax, Virginia, October 26 – 29, 2006. The NCADP con­sists of a wide spec­trum of groups and indi­vid­u­als opposed to the death penal­ty. Among the speak­ers at this year’s event are Theodore Shaw, President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Hugo A. Bedau, author and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Tufts University, and numer­ous indi­vid­u­als who were…

Read More

Aug 09, 2006

ABA Passes Resolution On Mental Illness and the Death Penalty

The American Bar Association passed a res­o­lu­tion on August 8 at its annu­al con­fer­ence rec­om­mend­ing that juris­dic­tions refrain from sen­tenc­ing to death or exe­cut­ing indi­vid­u­als with severe men­tal dis­or­ders. Using lan­guage adopt­ed ear­li­er by the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, the res­o­lu­tion assert­ed that defen­dants should not be exe­cut­ed or sen­tenced to death if, at the time of the offense, they had sig­nif­i­cant lim­i­ta­tions in…

Read More

Jul 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 future of the death penal­ty in…

Read More

Apr 13, 2006

RELIGIOUS VIEWS: Catholic Bishops Invoke Holy Day in Calling for End to Executions

In a let­ter issued pri­or to Easter, the Catholic Bishops in Missouri called for an end to exe­cu­tions in the U.S. and urged parish­ioners to build a cul­ture of life.” The let­ter not­ed that vio­lence is not a solu­tion to soci­ety’s prob­lems,” and it sum­ma­rized church teach­ings regard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and high­light­ed a cam­paign by U.S. Catholic Bishops to end the use of the death penal­ty. “(Christ) was unjust­ly sen­tenced to death and exe­cut­ed on a cross, the cru­elest form of capital…

Read More

Apr 11, 2006

Law Enforcement Officials, Defense Experts, and Researchers Explore Wrongful Convictions at California Conference

The recent Faces of Wrongful Conviction” con­fer­ence at UCLA fea­tured a wide vari­ety of speak­ers, includ­ing California’s Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, for­mer spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor and fed­er­al judge Kenneth Starr, and for­mer Bexar County (TX) District Attorney Sam Milsap. The con­fer­ence was orga­nized to exam­ine mis­takes in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and to explore reforms, par­tic­u­lar­ly in California. A state Senate com­mis­sion is prepar­ing a study of California’s death penalty…

Read More