Entries tagged with “Editorials”
Issues
May 09, 2024
Articles of Interest: Los Angeles Times Editorial Board Says Systemic Racism in California Death Penalty Is Just One of Many Reasons for Abolition
Los Angeles Times editorial, May…
Issues
Apr 10, 2023
Editorial: Texas Should Bar the Death Penalty for Severely Mentally Ill Defendants
An editorial in the Dallas Morning News urges the Texas legislature to pass a bill to ban the death penalty for people with severe mental illness, stating, it“seems like an obvious decision in a decent society.” House Bill 727, sponsored by Rep. Toni Rose (D‑Dallas), passed the Texas House on April 5, 2023, by a vote of 97 – 48 and is pending before…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Jan 07, 2022
“Random and Unjust,” “Barbaric” and “Ineffective”: Editorials Call for End to Death Penalty
As 2021 came to a close, editorial writers in four death penalty states called for legislative and executive action to end capital punishment or further…
State & Federal Info
Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 13, 2021
Editorial Boards Say Moratorium to Study Execution Practices is Not Enough, Biden Should Commute Federal Death Row
Major U.S. editorial writers have criticized the Biden administration’s June 30, 2021 announcement of a temporary moratorium on executions while the Department of Justice reviews Trump administration changes to U.S. execution practices, saying that the pause for a limited policy review fails to fulfill the President’s campaign pledge to work to end the federal…
Issues
Jun 07, 2021
California Supreme Court Hears Case That Could Undo Hundreds of State Death Sentences
The California Supreme Court heard oral argument on June 2, 2021 in a capital case whose outcome could affect the fate of hundreds of prisoners on the state’s death row. Supported by friend-of-the-court briefs by California Governor Gavin Newsom and an alliance of progressive California district attorneys, lawyers for death row prisoner Don’te McDaniel argued to the court that California’s capital sentencing scheme is unconstitutional…
Issues
Apr 07, 2021
In a Wide-Ranging Series of Editorials, the South Florida Sun Sentinel Argues for Abolition of Capital Punishment in Florida
In a wide-ranging six-part editorial series analyzing systemic flaws in the administration of the death penalty, the editorial board of the South Florida Sun Sentinel has called for the abolition of capital punishment. “[I]t is past time to repeal it, here in Florida and nationwide,” the…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Nov 02, 2020
Florida Supreme Court Abandons 50-Year-Old Proportionality Safeguard for Capital Defendants
In a continuing diminution of procedural safeguards in capital cases, the Florida Supreme Court has ended its long-standing practice of independently reviewing death penalty cases on appeal to ensure that they are not disproportionate to sentences imposed in…
Issues
May 27, 2020
Florida Supreme Court Limits Enforcement of Supreme Court Decision Barring Execution of Intellectually Disabled Prisoners
For the third time in 2020, the Florida Supreme Court has reduced the constitutional protections afforded to death-row prisoners. In a May 21 decision in Phillips v. State, the court overturned its own case precedent and limited enforcement of a U.S. Supreme Court case that bars execution of intellectually…
Research
Feb 12, 2020
Major Newspapers in Ohio, Washington Editorialize in Favor of Death Penalty Repeal
As state legislatures in Ohio and Washington contemplate the future of their death-penalty statutes, major newspapers in each of the states are advocating legislative…
Issues
New Voices
,Nov 27, 2019
Editorials: Departing From Prior Position, Orlando Sentinel Calls for Abolition of Death Penalty
In a departure from its prior editorial stand, the Orlando Sentinel published an editorial on November 22, 2019 calling for Florida to abolish the death penalty. Describing the state’s capital-punishment system as a“hopeless quagmire of inequities,” the Sentinel said “[t]oo many questions cannot be adequately answered for us to continue supporting the death penalty, and for Florida to continue administering…
Issues
New Voices
,Oct 24, 2018
Following Washington Death Penalty Abolition, Op-eds Encourage Other States to Follow Suit
Following the Washington Supreme Court’s October 11, 2018 decision declaring the state’s death penalty unconstitutional, news outlets have questioned what comes next. Op-ed writers in North Carolina, Texas, and California have responded, urging their states to reconsider their capital punishment laws. The Washington court cited racial bias,“arbitrary decision-making, random imposition of the death penalty, unreliability, geographic rarity,…
Issues
New Voices
,Jan 05, 2018
Retired Lt. General: Exclude Mentally Ill Vets from the Death Penalty
Saying that the death penalty should“be reserved for the‘worst of the worst in our society,’” retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General John Castellaw (pictured) has urged the Tennessee state legislature to adopt pending legislation that would bar the death penalty for people with severe mental illnesses. In an op-ed in the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, General Castellaw writes that the death penalty“should not be…
Issues
New Voices
,Aug 03, 2017
Political Analysis: Is Conservative Support the Future of Death-Penalty Abolition?
In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, released online in July, Ben Jones argues that, despite the popular conception of death-penalty abolition as a politically progressive cause, its future success may well depend upon building support among Republicans and political conservatives. In The Republican Party, Conservatives, and the Future of Capital Punishment, Jones — the Assistant Director of Rock Ethics…
Issues
New Voices
,Apr 14, 2017
With Looming Execution and Serious Innocence Concerns, Calls Mount for Virginia to Grant Clemency to Ivan Teleguz
Amid mounting concerns that Virginia may execute an innocent man on April 25, a diverse group of religious, political, and business leaders are calling on Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to grant clemency to Ivan Teleguz (pictured). Their pleas for clemency stress that Teleguz was convicted based upon highly unreliable testimony and sentenced to death based upon false testimony that he had been involved in…
Research
New Voices
,Feb 07, 2017
EDITORIALS: New York Times Hails Prosecutors’ Changing Views on Death Penalty
In a February 6 editorial, The New York TImes hails the reform efforts of the“new generation” of state and local prosecutors who are working to change the United States’ criminal justice system, and especially the use of the death penalty. The Times highlights the comments of two newly elected local prosecutors, Beth McCann, the new prosecutor in Denver, Colorado, and Kim Ogg, the new district attorney in…
Issues
New Voices
,Mar 08, 2016
EDITORIALS: Kentucky Newspaper Reverses Position on the Death Penalty
The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky’s second-largest newspaper, announced it was ending its long-held support for the death penalty, and now believes the state legislature should abolish capital punishment. Describing its previous position as“keep it but fix it,” the editors stated,“we must now concede that the death penalty is not going to be fixed and, in fact, probably cannot be fixed at any defensible cost to taxpayers.” Citing the 2011 American…
Research
New Voices
,Executions Overview
,Jan 27, 2016
Missouri Likely to See Change After Historic High in Executions
A decline in executions is likely in Missouri after two years of unusually high numbers. In 2014, Missouri tied with Texas for the most executions in the U.S., and it was second to Texas in 2015. However, changing attitudes about the death penalty – similar to national shifts – are evident in Missouri’s sentencing trends: no one was sentenced to death in Missouri in 2014 or 2015, and less than one person per year has been sentenced to death in the past…
Apr 22, 2011
NEBRASKA EDITORIAL: Instead of a new means of capital punishment, the Legislature should get rid of it
Days after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair was unconstitutional, a Lincoln Journal Star editorial urged the state to reconsider the death penalty:“Instead of rushing to pass a new means of capital punishment, the Legislature should take this opportunity to finally get rid of the death penalty.” Nebraska was the only state to retain the electric chair as its sole means of execution. The paper noted that it was the right time to take…
Research
New Voices
,Dec 30, 2008
EDITORIALS: Death Penalty Moratorium Needed in Texas
The Dallas Morning News renewed its call for a moratorium on executions in Texas because of the numerous errors in the state’s death penalty system. The paper highlighted the cases of Michael Blair and Charles Hood as examples of how the system has broken down. Blair was exonerated in 2008 after 14 years on death row. DNA evidence revealed that he had not been the murderer of 7‑year-old Ashley Estel in 1993,…
Issues
New Voices
,Oct 16, 2008
EDITORIALS: A Call for Examination of Death Penalty in Tennessee
The Tennessean called for a more just legal system as a state legislative study committee on the death penalty continues to meet. The committee began its work this year after a series of embarrassing mistakes in applying the death penalty in Tennessee. Executions currently are on hold due to a lethal injection challenge brought last year by a death row inmate. The editorial called the committee’s work a“sliver of hope for improvement”…
Research
New Voices
,Apr 28, 2008
EDITORIALS: Proposed Law Would Harm Younger Victims
The governor of Missouri, Matt Blunt, has proposed that his state expand the death penalty to include cases of sexual assault against children where the victim is not killed. However, according to an editorial in the Springfield News-Leader, such a law would not protect children. Instead, it could make it less likely that these offenses would be reported, would put the child in danger of even worse crimes, and would involve the child and…
Research
New Voices
,Executions Overview
,Feb 11, 2008
NEBRASKA EDITORIAL: Instead of a new means of capital punishment, the Legislature should get rid of it
Days after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair was unconstitutional, a Lincoln Journal Star editorial urged the state to reconsider the death penalty:“Instead of rushing to pass a new means of capital punishment, the Legislature should take this opportunity to finally get rid of the death penalty.” Nebraska was the only state to retain the electric chair as its sole means of execution. The paper noted that it was the right time to take…
Research
New Voices
,Feb 06, 2008
EDITORIALS: “Don’t expand capital punishment, abolish it”
In a recent editorial, the Concord Monitor advocated against expanding New Hampshire’s death penalty law to include multiple-murder offenses, as some lawmakers have proposed. Instead, they say,“the death penalty should be eliminated, not expanded.” The editorial cites problems in the death penalty process, such as wrongful convictions, high costs, and its arbitrariness, as reasons for abolition. The Monitor also writes that the death…
Research
New Voices
,Jan 22, 2008
EDITORIALS: Key Virginia Paper Shifts Position on Death Penalty
The Richmond Times-Dispatch, a key paper in the Virginia state capital, has long supported the death penalty. But their recent editorial takes the position that capital punishment“achieves no legitimate goals that cannot be achieved by a life sentence with no possibility of parole.” The paper equates the death penalty with the state“playing God.” The full text of the editorial follows: Del. Frank Hargrove, one of the General Assembly’s Don Quixotes, hopes the…
Issues
New Voices
,Apr 16, 2007
EDITORIALS: Dallas Morning News Issues Historic Call to End Death Penalty
Noting that they“cannot reconcile the fact that [the death penalty] is both imperfect and irreversible,” the Dallas Morning News has called on Texas to abandon capital punishment. The paper, which has long supported the death penalty, changed its position after careful consideration of mounting evidence that the state has wrongly convicted a number of defendants in capital trials and has likely executed at least one man who…
Issues
New Voices
,Mar 26, 2007
Chicago Tribune Changes Position and Calls for Abolition of Death Penalty
After decades of maintaining a position that the government should have the legal right to impose capital punishment, the Chicago Tribune is now calling for abolition of the death penalty. Noting concerns about innocence, the arbitrary nature of the punishment, and the public’s shift away from the death penalty, the Tribune announced on March 25 that,“The evidence of mistakes, the evidence of arbitrary decisions, the sobering knowledge that…
Issues
New Voices
,Jan 15, 2007
NEW VOICES: Dallas Morning News Calls for Halt to Executions
In a recent Dallas Morning News editorial, the paper noted the incongruity between the state apologizing to a prison inmate who was freed following DNA testing, and its aggressive pursuit of irrevocable executions. The paper stated that“human error is an inherent part” of the justice system and called on legislators to enact a moratorium on executions until the state can review the accuracy and fairness of its capital…
Issues
New Voices
,Dec 12, 2006
NEW VOICES: Oregon Paper Calls Death Penalty a “Pointless Law”
The Albany Democrat-Herald in Oregon recently editorialized that the“death penalty isn’t working,” and concluded“that the death penalty here is a pointless law. If we’re not going to apply this law, then getting rid of it would be the less expensive course.” The editorial cited the possibility of error, the arbitrariness of applying the punishment to some dangerous offenders but not others, and the difficulty of ever…
Issues
New Voices
,Jul 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…
Issues
New Voices
,Jul 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…
Issues
New Voices
,Jun 01, 2006
NEW VOICES: Another Major Newspaper Calls for End to Capital Punishment
Reversing its long-standing support for capital punishment, the Spokane Spokesman-Review recently published an editorial calling for an end to capital punishment in the United States. The paper noted that the decision to change its stance on the death penalty came after careful consideration of growing evidence that the newspaper’s“expectations of fairness and justice” are not being met and that the death penalty’s“drawbacks now outweigh its merits.”…
Issues
New Voices
,May 19, 2006
NEW VOICES: Newspaper Changes Its Position-‘Commonsense Finding is that Death Penalty Has Failed and Should be Abolished’
An editorial in the Asbury Park Press, a newspaper that formerly supported capital punishment, called on New Jersey policymakers to abandon the state’s costly death penalty and replace it with the“sure and swift” sentence of life without parole. Stating that New Jersey has wasted millions of dollars on the death penalty, but has not carried out an execution since it was reinstated in1982, the editorial noted: Can it really be 22 years since Robert O.
Research
New Voices
,May 17, 2006
Science Journal Recommends: “Let the death penalty die a natural death.”
A recent editorial in Nature, the international weekly journal of science, called on scientists and doctors to refuse to participate in executions: “Don’t advise, don’t prescribe, don’t inject. Let the death penalty die a natural death.” Noting that courts are now considering whether the death penalty by lethal injection should be outlawed as inhumane, the editorial points out that the procedure was…
Issues
New Voices
,Jan 23, 2006
NEW SOURCE: Scientific American Looks at Flaws in the Death Penalty
Philip Yam is the News Editor of Scientific American Magazine. He recently posted an item on the magazine’s Web site about the death penalty. Some excerpts from the posting, entitled“Science versus the Death Penalty,”…
Research
New Voices
,Jan 19, 2006
NEW VOICES: Texas Paper Calls for Halt to Executions
The San Antonio Express-News, which supports the death penalty, recently called for a halt to executions in Texas because of concerns about the ongoing problems at the Houston Crime Lab. The Express-News stated:This month, New Jersey lawmakers voted to halt executions while a task force reviews the fairness and costs of imposing the death penalty.Texas should consider doing the same but for slightly different reasons.The disturbing facts coming out of an…
Dec 27, 2004
NEW VOICES: Bill Kurtis Describes His Shift on the Death Penalty
A&E television host and well-known investigative journalist Bill Kurtis chronicles his journey from death penalty supporter to capital punishment opponent in his newly released book, The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice. In an interview with the Kansas City Star, Kurtis stated, “Look, I was for the death penalty, but looking at these cases and the rapidly increasing number of exonerations, there are just too many…
Dec 21, 2004
NEW VOICES — Palm Beach Post Editorial: Plea Bargain Underscores the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty
While applauding a life-sentence plea bargain arranged by Palm Beach County’s State Attorney in an especially heinous murder, the Palm Beach Post said the state had “forfeit[ed] the moral standing to execute anyone else.” The State Attorney said that he agreed to let the defendant plead guilty to killing 5 people because the life-without-parole sentnece will bring finality. The Post noted:“The state saves not only the cost of a trial; the victims’…
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…
Aug 30, 2004
NEW VOICES: Time to Re-Think the Death Penalty
An op-ed in Oregon’s Albany Democrat Herald called on the state to re-think its reliance on the death penalty: 20 years after voters in Oregon reinstated the death penalty, it is time to take a dispassionate look and conclude that it hasn’t done much good. In the general election of 1984, Oregon voters overwhelmingly called for the death penalty to be resumed. 2 initiatives were on the ballot that year. One, calling for capital punishment or mandatory life…
Aug 09, 2004
NEW VOICES: Time to Review the Costs of the Death Penalty
A recent San Jose Mercury News editorial recommended including the death penalty in the California Performance Review prepared for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce public spending. The paper stated that the abandonment of capital punishment would save valuable taxpayer dollars in the state and praised local efforts to support a temporary halt to executions while capital punishment is reviewed. The editorial noted: Termination of the death penalty…
Jun 26, 2003
NEW VOICES: Akron Beacon Journal Calls for Death Penalty Review in Ohio
A recent editorial in The Beacon Journal notes that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, who played a leading role in writing Ohio’s death penalty statute 22 years ago when he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is now calling for passage of legislation to analyze the state’s death penalty system. The review, which also has the endorsement of the Ohio State Bar Association, would create a Capital Case Commission to study the state’s death penalty and make reform…