Death Penalty
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Supreme Court and Juvenile Life Sentences
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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?
Death and Texas
Published November 20, 2009 @ 08:06AM PT
Another week, another refusal by Texas to reconsider a death row case. Actually, make that two refusals.
Robert Lee Thompson, 34, was executed last night in Huntsville, just an hour after Gov. Rick Perry had declined to commute his sentence to life. Perry was presented a rare commutation recommendation from the state's Board of Pardons and Parole, which had voted 5-2 in favor of a life sentence for Thompson, who was convicted under the "law of parties" -- meaning he participated in the crime but didn't pull the trigger. Perry decided to ignore the board and authorize the execution.
In another case, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday rejected an appeal from Max Soffar (left), who has been on the state's death row for 28 years for a crime he says he didn't commit. Soffar, who is mentally ill, was convicted of killing four people in 1980 after giving what he and advocates say was a false confession.
Crowdfunded Court Reporting
Published November 20, 2009 @ 06:15AM PT
This week, a reporter from San Francisco public radio station KALW is spending her days in Oakland courtrooms, taking in all of the action (and inaction). She's reporting for a story funded by individuals through the website Spot.us, on the daily activity in a criminal court -- and she's blogging about what she sees, letting us in on both the process of reporting a story like this and the day-to-day workings of a court that the media usually misses in its 800-word story about a murder conviction.
So far, reporter Rina Palta has seen some high-level cases, more than one might expect from the daily grind of a criminal court. She wrote on Tuesday about watching arguments from both sides of a death penalty sentencing hearing. The proceedings piqued her curiosity about jury selection and she spent the next day watching lawyers interview potential jurors in a case where the state was seeking to label a man a sexually violent predator, making him eligible for lifetime civil commitment.
Together, Spot.us and KALW are exploring a new method of covering our criminal justice system, and there's great potential here. Criminal justice reform can't happen until the system's failures and successes become human stories to which we can connect. Crowd-funded reporting offers a chance to shine a spotlight on the invisible people within the system.
Ohio Executions: Straight, No Chaser
Published November 15, 2009 @ 06:11AM PT
High-profile failures to humanely administer the lethal, three-drug cocktail used by 35 other states have prompted Ohio to abandon that method in favor of single-drug lethal injections.
The announcement by the director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction endorsed the injection of a "massive dose of anesthetic," reports The New York Times. This method -- preferred for veterinary euthanasia -- has long been pushed by critics of the more popular three-drug cocktail which paralyzes inmates and is intended to also render them unconscious. Paralysis is especially problematic, critics say, as it eliminates inmates' potential to express extreme discomfort with failed or particularly painful executions.
Despite some celebrations of the move, it only represents an effort to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic that is Ohio's death row. Ohio's recent displays of executioners' incompetence were not merely demonstrative of the need for a new approach to executions. Ohio's botched attempt to execute Rommel Broom are illustrative of capital punishment's shortcomings generally.
Hire a Lawyer, Avoid the Death Penalty
Published November 10, 2009 @ 03:56PM PT
If you hire a lawyer, the chances are you won't be sentenced to death in Houston.
University of Denver Criminologist Scott Phillips reviewed 504 capital indictments over three decades in Harris County, Texas, and found that defendants who hired lawyers for the entire trial were never sentenced to death -- and were more likely to be acquitted.
The results of his study, published over the summer in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, are truly stunning. Since nearly all defendants facing the death penalty in Harris County were poor, Phillips argues that his results further demonstrate the arbitrariness of capital punishment. If a defendant's family and community is able to pool resources to hire an attorney, the paid attorney might be better equipped to investigate a case or to bring bargaining power to the table against a district attorney.
He makes clear that his findings aren't an indictment of appointed attorneys, but of the system that straddles those attorneys with thin resources in a death penalty case. Something clearly went wrong for results this drastic.
Phillips also came up with some significant findings on race and capital punishment, which he published in the American Constitution Society's journal, Advance.
Trimming the Budget, Skipping Death Sentences
Published November 06, 2009 @ 07:14AM PT
One county in Mississippi has announced that it won't be seeking the death penalty in upcoming cases because it just doesn't have the money. Slowing death sentences by any means is progress, but this story makes me wonder if prosecutors are cutting fair trials to save a few bucks.
The exorbitant cost of capital cases and executions has caught the attention of the public recently, with a report from the Death Penalty Information Center, an editorial from the New York Times and more columns and comments than I can count.
The cost argument is one I employ often when talking about why the death penalty should be abolished. But it gives me pause to see Hinds County, Mississippi, cut back on scientific experts, investigators and sentence mitigation reports that would be used in a death penalty case. Aren't these resources we as a society should be providing in life without parole cases, as well?
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.
