Criminal Justice : Death penalty |
Issues concerning the efficacy of the death penalty in deterring crime, the equity or inequity in its application and whether some methods of execution constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.”
7/17/08 Long delays on appeals of death sentences are eroding public confidence in the death penalty in Malaysia, where the punishment has been liberally applied. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43215
INTERNATIONAL
Websites Amnesty International: Death Penalty: http://www.amnesty.org/deathpenalty
Analysis & views: 7/17/08 Long delays on appeals of death sentences are eroding public confidence in the death penalty in Malaysia, where the punishment has been liberally applied. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43215 7/5/08 7,000 death row inmates in Pakistan expect to have their death sentences commuted in "honor" of slain former President Benazir Bhutto. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43074 2/23/08 Uzbekistan's repeal of the death penalty unites it with all other central Asian countries, but civil rights abuses continue in the country. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41311 6/1/07 Rwanda is expected to abolish capital punishment to remove an obstacle to extradition to the country of people accused in trial for 1994 genocide. http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/africa/article04 4/20/06 Philippines set to abolish the death penalty: http://news.inq7.net/top/index.php?index=1&story_id=73167 4/20/06 Report: 20,000 on death row worldwide, 1500 executed last year -- but more countries are abolishing the death penalty: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/04/20/1542004-ap.html 2/21/06 Suoth Korea: Life without paole could replace death penalty http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200602/200602210016.html 2/13/06 Concern raised about Australians being subjected to death penalties in foreign countries: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0212-28.htm
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NATIONAL
Websites Abolish the Death Penalty Blog: http://deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com/ AIUSA Program to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/index.do Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty:
Analysis & views: 6/26/08 Supreme Court, in 5-4 decision, says death penalty may not be administered to those convicted of rape of a child, the penalty must be reserved for "homicidal" acts. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/washington/26scotus.html?th&emc=th 4/24/08 Let the killing continue; Many American states are preparing to resume lethal injection executins after Supreme Court decision in Kentucky case. While there will continue to be litigation over the constitutionality of the death penalty or the lethal injection mode of its administration, Virginia may resume executions in May and Texas may again step to the head of the killing parade with 40 to 50 scheduled exections. 4/19/08 Supreme Court decision on death penalty approves method of lethal injection not fit for use on a dog: The 7-2 decision this week to approve lethal injunction as not "cruel and unusual" contradicts the determinations made by both U.S. and U.K. veterinarians that this "cocktail" of drugs should not be used on the euthanasia of animals. http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/clive_stafford_smith/2008/04/cruel_and_unusual.html 4/17/08 By 7-2 vote, Supreme Court rules that lethal injection doesn't constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" unless it can be shown that it is more inhumane than alternative methods of execution. Justice Stevens, while joining the majority, "assents" in a separate opinion saying he believes that capital punishment itself is "cruel and unusual" and therefore un-constitutional. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/washington/17scotus.html?th&emc=th 1/7/08 Supreme Court begins hearing arguments on constitutionality of lethal injections as a mode of execution. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0107/p01s01-usju.html 1/5/08 Death penalty isue is effectively "off the table" in this presidential election season:. Of the 14 remaining candidates, Republican and Democrat, 11 are advocates with varying degrees of enthusiasm for the retention or expansion of the use of the death penalty. Only Ron Paul, Mike Gravel, and Dennis Kucinich are opponents but these, of course, are not "viable" candidates and the media is ignoring their views. http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/264926 1/3/08 U.S. states are playing it safe about their letahl injection methods:. As Supreme Court is considering constitutionality of lethal injection, the 36 states that use lethal injection are sticking with their "3-chemical cocktail" formula that critics say is more painful to the humans to whom it is administered than is the one chemical used in the euthanizing of animals. New York Times reporter suggests that is because states are reluctant to change their formula, lest it implies that they have made mistakes in their prior executions http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/us/03lethal.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 10/3/07 Texas appears to be joining the U.S.A. in its death penalty practices: .Although the state executed a man hours after Supreme Court ruling putting the use of lethal injections into legal limbo, a Texas court stay of execution in another case leads Texas officials reluctantly to indicate that executions will probably be put on hold pending Supreme Court's further rulings next year as is being done in most other states. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5174185.html 9/29/07 After a case from Kentucky results in Court's decision to review the constitutionality of lethal injections as death penalities, some states have announced moratoriums on executions pending the Court's ruling. Not so thestate of Texase, which plans to add as early as next week to its list of 25 executions already carried out by the state this year. As the New York Times puts it: Texas "has a history of confrontations with the Supreme Court over its prerogatives in criminal justice." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/us/29lethal.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin 8/25/07 Texas carries out its 400th execution since 1976 as Governor brushes aside foreign appeals as a effort to influence the action of a sovereign state. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082407G.shtml 8/12/07 Scotsman who has been on death row in Ohio for more than 20 years has his conviction overturned for second time, may soon be released. http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1611673.0.0.php 6/28/07 One of nine fired U.S. Attorneys tells Congress that his resistance to pressure from AG Gonzales to seek death penalty in some cases was a factor in his dismissal. 5/4/07 And a young lawyer shall lead them. Fired by youthful idealism and perseverance, young attorneys throughout the U.S. are leading court challenges against legal injection executions but also more broadly against application of the death penalty. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37577 3/30/07 Fired Federal prosecutors and the death penalty: A little-noticed connection: Liliana Segura notes, in the midst of the current flurry of concern over the Justice Department's firing of federal prosecutors who were deemed not sufficiently loyal to the President's agenda, that some of these prosecutors had resisted pressure from John Ashcroft to prosecute death penalty cases more aggressively and that this is part of a larger pattern which has resulted in a sharp increase in federal death penalty prosecutions while those in the states have declined. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/29/170/ 2/8/07 Six US states move toward wider use of the death penalty In Texas, Virginia, Tennesse, Utah, Missouri and Georgia, leaders are advocating mandatory death sentences for violence against victims like law enforcement officers and molested children. 2/1/07 Maryland's newly-elected Governor gets behind a legislative effort to abolish capital punishment in that state. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/31/AR2007013101904.html?referrer=email 12/16/06 Shape up or be shipped out: California judge gives state 30 days to reform method of administrating executions by lethal injection, or having it declared unconstitutional, as he continues his earlier ban on executions in the state. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/16/DEATH.TMP 8/23/06 South Dakota religious leaders speak out against death penalty as the state prepares to hold its first execution in many years. 4/24/06 Decline in number of people sentenced to death in Baltimore highlights a national trend in the same direction: 4/20/06 Lethal injection suit is put forward in Missouri: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/?OpenDocument 4/20/06 Legal system's floundering over lethal injections as "inhumane" unless "appropriately" administered (by medical people unwilling to do so) highlights the central contradiction of the death penalty: how to be both humane and vindicative: http://counterpunch.org/jsmith04202006.html 4/18/06 Federal judge reverses lethal injection ruling and allows a "brain monitor" to be used at NC execution instead of qualified doctors: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/us/18lethal.html 4/14/06 Condemned man in Texas who was spared the death penalty because declared mentally incompetence to be forced to take anti-psychotic drugs to prepare him for execution: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5751091,00.html 4/12/06 Judges in various states are voiding lethal injection executions because they cannot find doctors willing to administer the injection, in violation of A.M.A ethics; maybe they should try death by firing squads? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/12/us/12lethal.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 3/1/06 Father of Oklahoma City bombing victim who speaks out against death penalty reports growing support around the country for abolition of the penalty: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0301-33.htm 2/25/06 Lethal injection executions being challenged across the country on grounds of being unconstitutionally cruel and also violations of medical ethics for administering doctors: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_SCOTUS_DEATH_PENALTY_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US 2/22/06 Unable to find a doctor willing to administer a lethal injection, California calls off a scheduled execution: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060222-0021-ca-moralesexecution.html 2/21/06 California execution delayed after anesthesiologists withdraw http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/21/state/n032819S06.DTL 2/2/06 Alito, in first case, sides with liberal majority in supporting stay of execution on a lethal injection in Missouri: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13768108.htm 1/20/06 One man's guilt (Roger Coleman ) doesn't validate all executions: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0119-32.htm
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FLORIDA
STATEWIDE
Websites: Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty: http://www.fadp.org/alternatives.html
Analysis & views: 7/2/08 Florida resumes executions after 18 month moratorium, as lethal injection is administered to man convicted of 1991 rape and murder of a boy. 5/20/08 On July 1 Florida is scheduled to carry out its first execution since 2006. 9/26/07 For 388 Floridians on death row, it's off again, on again, for their executions. Supreme Court agrees to hear case challenging death by lethal injection from Kentucky, whose procedures resemble those of Florida. This raises prospect that the state's executions will be put on hold, at least until the Court decides next summer. http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/250523.html 9/24/07 Gainesville Sun reporter, in his personal blog, describes his observation at last year's execution of Angel Diaz of the condemned man's writhing in pain and asking "what's happening?" after the lethal injection. The reporter also tells of the state of Florida having declined earlier in the year to arrange the use of a machine which could have insured executioners that a recipient was unconscious before the injection was given. http://watchdog.gainesville.com/default.asp?item=678707 8/27/07 As medical professionals protest use of doctors to assist in lethal injection executions, state is asking courts to provide more "humane and dignified" executions by eliminating the "moon suits" worn by medical professionals who do participate. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flfdeath0827nbaug27,0,5489175.story 8/4/07 Florida set to respond to court mandates on death penalty by requiring more medical credentials and training for those who administer lethal injections. 6/24/07 Florida expects to resume executions despite continuing questions about the legality of its manner of administering lethal injections. 5/25/07 Florida Supreme Court reverses death sentences for an Ocala and a Panama City man, one reversal based on the defendant's mental disability, the other on an error in trial procedure. http://gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070525/LOCAL/705250317/-1/news 5/10/07 Florida Governor Crist ready to begin signing death warrants following the state's changes in its protocols for executions. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/315049_cops10.html 1/30/07 Warden of Florida State Prison, where a "botched execution" of Angel Diaz was carried out in December, testifies to state inquiry that Diaz was "stretching to see a clock," not "grimacing in pain" after he was injected. A distinction that isn't a difference? http://gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070130/LOCAL/70130003/-1/news 12/16/06 ''A matter of humanity, constitutional imperative and common sense'' says Governor Jeb Bush in suspending executions in Florida after the botched 34-minute lethal injection of Angel Diaz. A special commission will report to Governor's office on the matter on 3/1/07 (let Charlie deal with it.) http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16249722.htm 12/13/06 Death by lethal jailhouse snitch: Innocence Project (for exonerating the wrongfully convicted) weighs in on case of a man scheduled for Florida execution tonight, on a conviction based mostly on testimony of a jailhouse informant who later recanted the testimony and said officials helped him make it up. http://gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061213/LOCAL/612130315/-1/news 2/1/06 Florida Supreme Court blocks another execution: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060131/APN/601311003 1/23/06 Impending execution at Starke stirs news debate about lethal injection: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060123/LOCAL/201230311/1078
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