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News Commentary
- Archive
of News Commentary
See all CADP News Commentary links
and excerpts from the years 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003
| 2004
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009.
- About
Broken Links
- Caution Urged on Death Penalty Expansion
John Whitehead, president of the conservative
Rutherford Institute, recently voiced concerns
in the Huffington Post about expanding
the death penalty in Virginia. He noted, "As
capital punishment studies have shown,
whether or not you are sentenced to death
often has little to do with the crime committed
and everything to do with your race, where
you live, and who prosecutes your case." (3/1/10, DPIC Update)
- MSNBC Reports on Costs of Death Penalty
View the online video. (2/22/10, CADP)
- Resources on the Death Penalty for Communities
of Faith
The Death Penalty Information Center has
recently updated its information packet
entitled "Death
Penalty Resources for Communities of Faith." This
packet was initially developed to help
a wide spectrum of religious groups address
the death penalty by providing information,
discussion questions, and multi-media resources.
(2/8/10, DPIC Update)
- Conservative Leaders Call for End to
Death Penalty
Roy Brown, state senator and
2008 Republican nominee for governor of
Montana, said that opposition to capital
punishment aligns well with his conservative
ideology. He is reaching out to social
and fiscal conservatives, hoping to create
a bipartisan movement against capital punishment.
Brown noted, "I
believe that life is precious from the
womb to a natural death." He continued, "Criminals
should be prosecuted. I want it to be life
without parole. In the long run, that's
much cheaper."
(2/1/10, DPIC Update)
- A Decade of Progress on Death Penalty
Justice
A recent editorial in the Dallas Morning
News recalled that the paper had reversed
its position in support of the death penalty
in April 2007.
... "These are all signs that courts,
prosecutors, politicians and the public are
recognizing the problems in our imperfect
system of justice," the editorial states. "This
newspaper feels more strongly than ever that
those flaws are sufficiently widespread that
the justice system cannot be trusted to impose
irreversible sentences of death." (1/25/10, DPIC Update)
- Death
Penalty System Irretrievably Broken
A recent editorial in the Charlotte Observer
in North Carolina cited the American Law
Institute's decision in 2009 to separate
itself from the death penalty system as another
reason for the state to abolish the practice.
The ALI, whose model death penatly standards
were instrumental in the U.S. Supreme Court's
decision to allow the reinstatement of capital
punishment in 1976, has recently disavowed
its own recommendations because the many
problems of the system had rendered it unworkable.
The editorial also cited a recently published
study by Duke University Professor Philip
Cook that concluded North Carolina could
save $11 million annually over the costs
of life imprisonment if it abolished the
death penalty. (1/18/10, DPIC Update)
- Kill the Death Penalty
The editor of the
editorial page of the Palm Beach Post recently
called for an end to the death penalty
in Florida. Citing DPIC's recent report
on the costs of the death penalty, Randy
Schultz notes that, "Every objective
study shows that life imprisonment costs
much less than sentencing someone to death." (1/11/10, DPIC Update)
- Denial of Death: Time to End Capital
Punishment
An editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune recently
called for an end to capital punishment,
stating that "the legal, moral and
practical arguments against capital punishment
have evolved from sound to unassailable" since
the punishment was reinstated over 30 years
ago. (1/11/10, DPIC Update)
- Researchers
Find "No Empirical Support" for
Deterrence Theory
Researchers from the University of Texas
at Dallas recently published a study on whether
executions deter homicides using state panel
date and employing well-known econometric
procedures for panel analysis. The authors
found "no empirical support for the
argument that the existence or application
of the death penalty deters prospective offenders
from committing homicide." (1/4/10, DPIC Update)
- There
is No "Humane" Execution
This is what passes for progress in the
application of the death penalty: Kenneth
Biros, a convicted murderer, was put to
death in Ohio last week with one drug,
instead of the more common three-drug cocktail.
... The larger problem, however, is that
changing a lethal-injection method is simply
an attempt, as Justice Harry Blackmun put
it, to “tinker with the machinery
of death.” No matter how it is done,
for the state to put someone to death is
inherently barbaric.
(12/13/09, Editorial by the New York
Times)
- Pulling the Plug on Capital Punishment
Not all the important turning points in
America's epic struggle over the death
penalty get noticed immediately by the
mass media and the public. A quiet blockbuster
this year was the decision of the American
Law Institute, a little-known but prestigious
organization of lawyers and judges, to
withdraw its approval for the standards
created by the institute's 1963 Model Penal
Code to guide juries in the choice between
long prison terms and execution. (12/7/09,
The National Law Journal. News commentary
by Franklin E. Zimring.)
- Selective Empathy
In overturning a
death sentence this week of a Korean War
veteran whose lawyer failed to inform the
jury about the man’s
combat-related traumatic stress disorder,
the Supreme Court drew cheers from veterans’ groups
and death-penalty opponents. But it also
raised a question: Is selective empathy
better than no empathy at all?
(12/3/98, New York Times. News commentary by Linda Greenhouse.)
- Death Penalty Just Too Costly
There are many troubling questions about
the death penalty. There are questions
of racial disparities. There are questions
of the mentally ill. There are questions
of mistakes. This newspaper has long supported
the death penalty. Polls show overwhelming
support for it. Opposing the death penalty
is not a popular position. But, I am opposed
to the death penalty. Morally, I don't
think the state should kill people. But
I also don't think the death penalty is
practical. It is not a deterrent to crime.
It takes so long that any idea of timely
justice is lost.
(11/1/09, Clarion-Ledger. News commentary
by D. Hampton, Editorial Director.)
- The Price of Death
Even in states where executions are carried
out as planned, the often grisly circumstances
lead some people to wonder why the United
States supports the death penalty, one
of the few developed countries that still
does so.
... It is time for the nation to conclude
once and for all that in our civilized
society there is no place for capital
punishmennt.
(10/26/09, Editorial by America Magazine.)
- Judge
Says Death Penalty "Too Fraught
with Variables to Survive"
Retired Federal Appeals Court Judge H. Lee
Sarokin recently offered a harsh critique
of the death penalty, especially challenging
the botched execution attempt of Romell Broom
in Ohio in September. Citing morality, arbitrariness,
and the dim prospects of closure for the
murder victims’ families, Judge Sarokin
called the imposition of the death penalty
an erratic and flawed process that should
not be permitted to continue. (10/19/09, DPIC Update)
- Botched
Executions
Ohio's attempt to execute Romell
Broom last month by lethal injection was
the death penalty at its most barbaric.
Even after that horribly botched failed
execution, the state wants to continue
putting people to death, starting next
week. Ohio should at the very least call
a moratorium so it can ensure that it has
the technical competence to put people
to death humanely. But every state should
use this shameful moment to question whether
they ought to be putting people to death
at all. (10/3/09, Editorial by the New York
Times)
- Death for the Death Penalty?
In
theory, the death penalty for capital crimes
should work. An accused killer takes the
life of an innocent and is put to death
to protect the rest of society. The only
problem is that theory has little to do
with real life. Prejudicial prosecution;
coerced confessions; corrupted informants;
botched lawyering; and, yes, even racism,
have turned the death penalty, as it is
now applied in the United States, into
a very dirty, inaccurate business.
(9/24/09, Black Voices - Black Spin)
- High Cost of Death Row
To the many excellent
reasons to abolish the death penalty -
it's
immoral, does not deter murder and affects
minorities disproportionately - we
can add one more. It's an economic
drain on governments with already badly
depleted budgets.
It is far from a national trend, but some
legislators have begun to have second thoughts
about the high cost of death row. Others
would do well to consider evidence gathered
by the Death Penalty Information Center,
a research organization that opposes capital
punishment.
(9/27/09, Editorial by the New York Times)
- NCADP
Launches "Shouting from the Rooftops" Campaign
In
2006, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia wrote that there has not been "a
single case - not one - in which it
is clear that a person was executed
for a crime he did not commit. If such
an event had occurred in recent years,
we would not have to hunt for it; the
innocent's name would be shouted from
the rooftops." So to raise
awareness about Cameron
Todd Willingham, who was innocent
yet executed, the National Coalition
to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP)
is now "Shouting from the Rooftops." Learn
more. (9/24/09, CADP)
- Innocent Until Executed
For years, death-penalty opponents and
supporters have been working their way
toward a moment in which each side would
rethink things. They were seeking a case
in which a clearly innocent defendant was
wrongly put to death. (9/3/08, Newsweek.
News
commentary by Dahlia Lithwick.)
- Reaction
to Execution of Innocent Man Grows
Recent scientific reports indicating
that Texas likely executed an innocent
man have spurred wide coverage and commentary.
Cameron Todd Willingham was executed
in 2004 for the arson murder of his three
children. Fire experts now say the blaze
was likely an accident. Read excerpts
from coverage. (9/8/09, DPIC Update)
- Former Death Row Warden Discusses the
Impact of Executions
In the video,
Dean Ault discusses the tremendous drain
that carrying out executions had, and continues
to have, on his life. He added, "I
know I'm not the only one who has administered
executions that felt the way I do. They all
have shed a lot of tears." He questions
the value of the death penalty, and recognizes
the difficulty that many politicians have
in challenging this punishment, despite
its obvious flaws.
(8/24/09, DPIC Update)
- Restrictions on Death Penalty Appeals
Raising Judges' Concerns
A number of federal judges have recently
written strong dissents in capital cases
because they were concerned that restrictions
on appeals could lead to tragic mistakes.
Judge William Fletcher of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, for example,
began his dissent in the case of Kevin
Cooper with the words, "The State
of California may be about to execute an
innocent man." According
to a study by the New York Times, such
concerns have risen recently. "In
dozens of capital cases in recent years,
appeals court judges, some of whom have
ruled in favor of the death penalty many
times, have complained that Congress and
the Supreme Court have raised daunting
barriers for death row prisoners to appeal
their convictions, and in many cases the
judges have taken on their colleagues." (8/17/09, DPIC Update)
- Browse
Multimedia Resources on the Death Penalty
The Death Penalty Information Center
(DPIC) maintains a Multimedia Resources
page. This Web page organizes numerous
links to audio files, podcasts, and videos.
Videos include interviews with death
row prisoners, case studies, commentaries,
and so on. Podcasts cover a variety of
topics: arbitrariness in the application
of the death penalty, clemency, cost
of the death penalty, and the issue of
deterrence. The DPIC page also includes
links to many additional audio and video
clips. These links are to multimedia
resources available from organizations
such as the BBC, NPR, PBS, and various
commercial news outlets. Visit
the DPIC Multimedia Resources page.
(8/10/09, CADP)
- Documentary Tells Story of Innocent
Man Who Spent 18 Years on Death Row
In 1984, Juan Melendez was sent to Florida's
death row for the murder of Delbert Baker
even though no physical evidence linked
him to the crime. In 2002, he was released
with all charges vacated after it was found
that prosecutors had withheld critical
evidence in the case. ... Juan Melendez
- 6446 is a documentary released as part
of the HBO-sponsored 10th Annual New York
International Latino Film Festival. Director
Luis Rosario Albert tells Melendez' story
through his own words and the words of
his family, friends and lawyers - the story
of a migrant Puerto Rican farm worker sent
to death row for a crime he didn't commit.
Editor's note:
Juan Melendez spoke at 2004
CADP events. (8/3/09, DPIC Update)
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