Death Penalty
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Police Chiefs: Death Penalty Doesn't Work
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Do 2/3 of Americans Really Support the Death Penalty?
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“To Kill, or Not to Kill?” Asketh Ohio
Will Russia Reinstate the Death Penalty?
Published November 02, 2009 @ 08:14PM PT
Russia is at a crossroads on capital punishment.
Ten years ago, the Russian Constitutional Court introduced a moratorium on death sentences until the country made the switch to the jury system. The country's leaders also pledged to abolish the practice as they were joining the Council of Europe, and the jury delay was seen as a step toward abolition.
The switch to juries is nearly complete, and human rights advocates and death penalty abolitionists are watching Russia's next steps on capital punishment.
Two Posthumous Pardons in South Carolina
Published October 27, 2009 @ 07:07AM PT
Last week, the South Carolina pardon board voted unanimously to clear the names of two men executed in 1915 for a murder they may not have committed. The men -- Meeks and Thomas Griffin -- were great uncles of syndicated radio talk show host Tom Joyner (left), who sought the pardons after learning last year about the men’s story.
It was the first posthumous pardon ever granted in a capital case by the state of South Carolina.
I wrote about this case a couple of weeks ago, and I’m excited to be able to report on this positive outcome. Joyner was delighted with the news:
“It’s good for the community, it’s good for the nation. Anytime you can repair racism in this country is a step forward,” he said.
Texas Gov. Ducks Arson Investigation
Published October 01, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
The Willingham case was getting too hot for Rick Perry.
In a surprising move yesterday, the Texas Governor removed three of the eight members of a state forensic panel that was set to review arson evidence in the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham at a public hearing on Friday. The panel's chairman and two other members were pulled by Perry, and Friday's meeting has been cancelled.
Willingham was executed in 2004 despite evidence available at the time that the arson science that led to his conviction was flat-out wrong. Further reports from independent arson experts since Willingham's execution have proven that he was innocent. I've written about the case before here and here.
Perry's move - two days before an arson expert was expected to testify that Willingham was convicted based on "myths" - certainly didn't fly under the political radar, however.
Mentally Ill Prisoners on Japan's Death Row
Published September 10, 2009 @ 05:11PM PT
A report released today by Amnesty International lays out evidence that Japan has executed mentally ill prisoners in recent years - despite a federal law and an international agreement against the practice - and that conditions on the country's death row are driving sane prisoners to develop mental illness.
This news would be nothing new in the U.S., but we don't expect it from Japan. The country has a famously low crime rate, but the incarceration rate has quietly doubled over the last two decades. And, as the graph above shows, Japan's death row population has nearly doubled since 2003. Japan's death row is shrouded in secrecy. Combine this with Japan's cultural taboo against discussing mental illness, and you get an invisible population on death row. Little was known about the 103 people on death row until a group opposed to capital punishment secretly interviewed 78 of them last year for the book "Please Don't Extinguish the Spark of Life."
The Amnesty report chronicles specific cases of individuals executed in the last decade despite clear signs of their mental illness. But I found some of the report's details on death row conditions particularly surprising and troubling. For example, prisoners learn just hours before their death that they will be executed. Once appeals are exhausted, the process moves quickly. Death warrants are signed, prisoners are informed, and then the execution is carried out - the same day. Waiting for those footsteps day after day is completely unimaginable.
New Yorker: Texas Executed an Innocent Man
Published August 31, 2009 @ 06:51AM PT
A report published today in the New Yorker finds that Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 in Texas for setting a fire that killed his three daughters, was innocent. He is pictured at left with his two-year-old daughter Amber, who died in the fire.
This is incredibly sad news, but it also marks the most conclusive evidence yet that an innocent person has been put to death in the United States. We’ve known for years that the arson science used to convict Willingham was flat-out wrong. Today’s New Yorker report goes further: it dismantles the case that sent Willingham to his death, point-by-point, proving that every shred of evidence used against him was false.
Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck wrote in the Huffington Post: "There can no longer be any doubt that an innocent person has been executed. The question now turns to how we can stop it from happening again."
And the New York Times adds, in an editorial today: "The Willingham investigation, which is continuing, is further evidence that the criminal justice system is far too flawed to justify imposing a death penalty."
I strongly, strongly urge you to read David Grann’s incredible New Yorker piece in its entirety. I can’t imagine that you can leave the story with trust in our system of capital punishment.
(Disclaimer: We’re reporting on this story today at the Innocence Project, where I work when I'm not blogging here at change.org. The Innocence Project has been involved in investigations of the Willingham case, but views expressed here are mine alone.)
Kenya Clears Death Row
Published August 04, 2009 @ 04:29PM PT
More than 4,000 prisoners on Kenya's death row will have their sentences commuted to life, officials announced yesterday. Although the country hasn't executed anyone in two decades, thousands were languishing on death row. In comparison, the American death row population peaked at 3,593 in 2000 and was 3,220 in 2007.
Giving reasons for commuting all these sentences to life imprisonment, President Kibaki said the law did not allow those prisoners to work.
He said this had led to idleness and had affected general prison discipline.
The impact on the prisoners' mental health was also given as a reason.
President Kibaki noted that the decision did not in any way suggest the abolition of the death penalty but said he had directed the government to assess whether the punishment was having any impact on the fight against crime.
Togo was in a similar situation, not having executed anyone since 1978, when the country abolished the death penalty in June. Let's hope this news means Kenya is on the way to becoming the 95th nation in the world to repeal this antiquated, unjust and ineffective punishment.
Sotomayor Sidesteps on Death Penalty and Sentencing
Published July 15, 2009 @ 11:09AM PT
The second day of questioning in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor is underway, and while there weren't any major fireworks in day one, there were some interesting moments for citizens concerned about the fate of the death penalty and over-sentencing in the United States.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina both targeted questions on the death penalty to Sotomayor. Durbin asked Sotomayor whether she agreed with former Justice Harold Blackmun that the death penalty has been unfairly administered in the United States.
She answered with caution:
The state of this question is different today than it was when Justice Blackmun came to his views. As a judge, I don't rule in an abstract. I rule in the context of a case that comes before me and a challenge to a situation and an application of the death penalty that arises in an individual case.
I've been and am very cautious about expressing personal views since I've been a judge. I find that people who listen to judges express their personal views on important questions that the courts are looking at, that they have a sense that the judge is coming into the process with a closed mind, that their personal views will somehow influence how they apply the law. It's one of the reasons why, since I've been a judge, I've always been very careful about not doing that. And I think my record speaks more loudly than I can.
