On June 25, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, struck down Louisiana's law allowing a death sentence for those guilty of child rape. The Kennedy v. Louisiana opinion additionally extended the current understanding of death-eligible crimes, clarifying that the death penalty is “for crimes that take the life of the victim."
Read full coverage on the InCASE blog.
The Innocence Project has a great account on YouTube where you'll find many interviews with exonerees, as well as video of events like the April 2007 ceremony (embedded below) where 17 people who served decades in prison for crimes they did not commit are honored. Please watch the video below for an introduction to their stories, and visit the Innocence Project on YouTube here.
See www.innocenceproject.org for more.
Hector Black's daughter was murdered seven years ago in Atlanta.
In this NPR story, he tells the story of her death and his decision not to seek the death penalty in the case. He briefly details how he forgave the man who killed his daughter.
Listen to this moving, 4-minute piece here.
Days after Nebraska's Supreme Court struck down its electrocution statute, the Lincoln Journal-Star published an editorial calling for the end of the death penalty there. The state was left without a means of carrying out executions--as the electric chair was its sole method.
The Journal-Star editorial asserts, "The time is ripe to abolish capital punishment in the state...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."
Read the full editorial here.
From the Death Penalty Information Center and AP:
On February 15, a mentally retarded man in Texas accepted a life sentence for a murder that occurred over 28 years ago. Johnny Paul Penry was originally sentenced to death for the sexual assault and murder of Pamela Mosley Carpenter. Penry's death sentence was overturned twice by the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to the plea agreement, the prosecution was insisting on a fourth capital sentencing hearing for Penry.
In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that although the execution of the mentally retarded was not constitutionally banned, the law in Texas did not give mentally retarded defendants sufficient protection to ensure that their disability was considered as a mitigating factor (Penry v. Lynaugh). Penry was again sentenced to death and again the sentence was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 (Penry v. Johnson). In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia held that the execution of defendants with mental retardation was unconstitutional. Nevertheless, Texas continued to seek a death sentence for Penry, whose IQ has been measured between 50 and 63, well into the mental retardation range. In 2005, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Penry's latest death sentence.
The Nebraska Supreme Court declared electrocution unconstitutional on Friday, Feb. 8, striking down the electric chair in the only state that still used it as its sole method of execution.
In a 6-1 ruling, the Court said evidence shows that electrocution inflicts "intense pain and agonizing suffering" and that "(electrocution) has proven itself to be a dinosaur more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein than the death chamber" of state prisons.
Get more coverage on the InCASE blog, "End of Nebraska's Electric Chair." Also see New York Times Legal Columnist Adam Liptak's analysis here: "Electrocution is Banned in Last State to Rely on It."
According to the 2007 annual report of the Death Penalty Information Center, 2007 had 42 executions - the lowest number in 13 years. This decrease is due in part to the de facto moratorium imposed while the Supreme Court considers a challenge to lethal injection procedures.
62% of executions in 2007 were in Texas, while 86% were in South states.
There were approximately 110 death sentences - the lowest number in 30 years.
2007 saw three exonerations, in Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Carolina, while eleven inmates had their sentences commuted.
Both New Jersey and New York ended their death penalties, with the New Jersey legislature passing an abolition bill just before Christmas.
This is the opinion of Ray Krone, who spent ten years in prison for a murder he did not commit before becoming the 100th American exonerated and released from death row since the 1976 reinstatement of capital punishment.
In a January 14 op-ed in the San Fransisco Chronicle, Krone writes, "While the court wrestles with technical issues concerning the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, there's a much larger reason our country is rethinking the death penalty: the possibility of sentencing to death and executing an innocent human being." Krone notes: "Unlike almost any American, I speak from experience."
This is a great piece that indicates some of the flaws in the American death penalty that run deeper than method of execution. Read the full text here.
As the Supreme Court prepared to hear arguments in Baze v. Rees, a case out of Kentucky that challenges the constitutionality of lethal injection, the New York Times published an editorial titled "Cruel and Far too Usual Punishment."
The piece focuses on the lethal injection debate, but the paper makes some powerful statements and observations about the death penalty in its entirety:
"We believe that the death penalty, no matter how it is administered, is unconstitutional and wrong."
..."Popular support for capital punishment is, thankfully, declining in this country. The growing number of exonerations of innocent people on death row has shown that the system cannot be trusted to make such an irrevocable decision. There is considerable evidence of racial discrimination in the application of the death penalty. After years of botched electrocutions and other horrors, it is clear that the methods of taking life are barbaric."
..."In 2007, executions in this country dropped to a 13-year low, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. We believe that use of the death penalty will continue to decline, and we hope that it will eventually be banned completely. Until that time, however, the Supreme Court has a duty to ensure that it is not administered in a cruel way. Kentucky’s ill-conceived and haphazard administration of lethal injection does not meet that constitutional requirement."
Read the full editorial here.
In early January, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Kennedy v. Louisiana, in which the justices will decide whether the Constitution allows death as a punishment for the rape of a child.
According to the New York Times, of the 3,300 inmates currently on death row across the U.S., only two face execution for crimes that did not involve a killing. Both men are in Louisiana. The Court will hear the appeal of Patrick Kennedy, who was sentenced to death in 2004 for the rape of his 8 year-old step-daughter.
No one in the U.S. has been executed for a crime other than murder since 1964.In 1977, the Supreme Court decided in Coker v. Georgia that "a sentence of death is grossly disproportionate and excessive punishment for the crime of rape and is therefore forbidden by the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment." But concluding that the "rape of a child under the age of 12 years of age is like no other crime," the Louisiana Supreme Court concluded that death was not disproportionate for Kennedy.
In an important amicus brief to the upcoming hearing of Kennedy's case before the Court in April, the National Association of Social Workers and a group of crisis centers argued that allowing the death penalty for rape will encourage offenders to kill their victims to prevent them from reporting the sexual assault.
In this clip, Mr. Welch says that the feelings of revenge tied to the death penalty are opposed to the healing process for the family members of murder victims.
In this brief clip, Mr. Welch explains the background of his visit with Bill McVeigh (Timothy McVeigh's father).
Bruce Dold, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Editorial Page Editor of the Chicago Tribune, comes to ND this week as the third speaker in ND ASK's fall lecture series. Mr. Dold will adress the Tribune's role in the Illinois moratorium process and speak about his personal conversion and the editorial page's conversion on the death penalty, at 7:30 pm on Monday, Nov. 5 in the Hammes Student Lounge in Coleman-Morse.
Please click below for more about Mr. Dold.
Mr. Dold joined the Tribune in 1978 as a reporter. He covered the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns and the mayoral campaigns of Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley. He was appointed to the Tribune’s editorial board in 1990 and became deputy editor of the board in 1995. That same year, he began writing a weekly column that appeared on the Commentary page of the Tribune. He was named editorial page editor of the 155-year-old newspaper in July, 2000.
Mr. Dold received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1994 for a series on the death of a three-year-old boy and the failure of the juvenile court and child welfare system to save the child. His writing contributed to sweeping reforms in the protection and care of abused children in Illinois.
He received the 1999 Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for Commentary, the 1999 Herman Kogan Award for Commentary from the Chicago Bar Association, and the 1988 Peter Lisagor Award for public service from the Chicago Headline Club. He served as a Pulitzer Prize juror in 1997 and 1998. His work has been honored by numerous civic organizations.
Under his direction, the Tribune editorial page has received more than dozen major awards, including the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for editorials demanding reform of the death penalty system.
He has often appeared on national television and radio programs, including Nightline, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Hardball with Chris Mathews.
Mr. Dold received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism in 1977 and a Master of Science in Journalism in 1978 from Northwestern University and has served as an instructor at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
Bud Welch describes his experience following the death of his daughter:
“I was opposed to the death penalty all my life until my daughter Julie Marie was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. For many months after the bombing I could have killed Timothy McVeigh myself. Temporary insanity is real, and I have lived it. You can’t think of enough adjectives to describe the rage, revenge, and hate I felt. But after time, I was able to examine my conscience, and I realized that if McVeigh is put to death, it won’t help me in the healing process. People talk about executions bringing closure. But how can there be closure when my little girl is never coming back. I finally realized that the death penalty is all about revenge and hate, and revenge and hate are why Julie Marie and 167 others are dead.”
Mr. Welch will be speaking at Notre Dame this week, on Nov. 7 at 8 pm in the CSC Classroom; on Nov. 8 at 12 noon in the Law School and on Nov. 8 at 7:30 pm in the Hesburgh Center.
Bud Welch lost his 23-year old daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. In the months after her death, he changed from supporting the death penalty to taking a public stand against it, inspired in part by his daughter's stance against the death penalty prior to her own murder.
Mr. Welch will be speaking at Notre Dame this week, on Nov. 7 at 8 pm in the CSC Classroom, on Nov. 8 at 12 noon in the Law School and on Nov. 8 at 7:30 pm in the Hesburgh Center. Click below for more.
Mr. Welch has testified before the U.S. Congress, many State Senate and House Judiciary Committees, made numerous radio and TV appearances, and met frequently with the father of Timothy McVeigh. He has addressed the British Parliament and the European Parliament as part of the Amnesty International Journey of Hope in Paris, London and Brussels.
His work as a speaker and advocate has been widely recognized. In 1997 Mr. Welch was awarded the "Champion of Justice Award" by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He was given the "Abolitionist of the Year Award" in 1998 by the Okalahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the "Felton Humanitarian Award" from Death Penalty Focus of California, the "Spirit of Compassion Award" of the Prison Action Committee in Buffalo, New York and the ACLU Oklahoma Foundation "Anti-Death Penalty/Prison Project Award." In 1999 Mr. Welch received the "Abolitionist of the Year Award" from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. And in 2002, he was named "Abolitionist of the Year" by Coloradans Against the Death Penalty.
The past week has once again included numerous stayed and postponed executions across the nation. Georgia and Texas each stayed two, while Alabama, Nevada and Virginia each halted one execution--for a variety of reasons, the most frequent being the pending challenge to lethal injection.
Expand this post below to see a listing of the dates of each stay, with links to news articles relating the full stories.
10/24 - The scheduled execution of Daniel Siebert in Alabama was stayed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals: Execution of Ill Alabama Inmate Blocked (source: The Associated Press)
10/23 - Georgia stays two executions in four days: Top Court in Georgia Again Delays Execution (source: The New York Times)
10/18 - Two executions in Texas postponed: Two Executions Halted Over Challenges (source: The Associated Press)
10/18 - Virginia halts execution, raising more questions about national state of the death penalty: Supreme Court Halts Va. Inmate's Execution (source: The Washington Post)
10/17 - Nevada becomes the fifth state to stay an execution since Sept. 25: Court Stays Execution in Nevada (source: The New York Times)
Dear ND ASK readers,
Our apologies for the technical difficulties and lack of posts you may have noticed if you've been visiting the site lately. We've cleared up some problems, and will continue to cover state and national death penalty news--there's plenty of it right now--as well as ND ASK events.
There are three more excellent speakers in our fall lectures series, so we hope to see you at an event soon!
Thank you for your continued support,
Andrea & the ND ASK team
According to the Associated Press, President George W. Bush has tried to halt the execution of a Mexican national on death row in Texas, Jose Ernesto Medellin (pictured to the left), whose case is to be heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Read more in The Guardian which reports, "It puts Mr Bush in the unusual position of arguing against the death penalty and against the very same Texans who helped put him in the White House. Even more unusually, it puts Mr Bush on the same side of the dispute as the International Court of Justice in The Hague."
A number of developments have occurred in the last week, following the Sept. 26 decision of the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to lethal injection sometime this winter. Below, starting with the most recent, is a review of the big decisions and stays-of-execution:
Oct. 4: Oklahoma’s attorney general asked the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals not to set any execution dates until the United States Supreme Court ruled on a challenge to the lethal injection method.
Oct. 2: The Texas Court of Appeals stayed the execution of Heliberto Chi, pending the decision by the US Supreme Court on lethal injection. Some legal experts in Texas view the decision by Texas' highest appeals court and the issues it raised as an indefinite halting of all executions in the state, though Texas officials claim they plan to proceed. See the New York Times for more.
Sept. 28: The US Supreme Court granted a rare stay of execution to a Texas inmate, Carlton Turner, Jr., who had appealed to the Court due to the pending lethal injection hearing. According to the New York Times, "The decision suggests that until it issues a ruling on lethal injection, the court may be receptive to requests to delay such executions, at least for defendants whose cases raise no procedural issues."
Sept. 28: Another rare stay of an execution by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, who said the state would not execute inmate Tommy Arthur, while it came up with a new formula for lethal injection. State officials said they wanted to make sure prisoners were completely unconscious before they were killed--an issue that has been problematic in recent months and has temporarily halted executions in several states, including Florida.
