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National News
- Archive
of National News
See all CADP National News links and
excerpts from the years 2000 | 2001 | 2002
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007.
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Broken Links
- GA:
Georgia Man Executed After Lethal Injection
Moratorium
William Earl Lynd was the first inmate to
die by lethal injection since September,
when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider
whether the three-drug combination represented
cruel and unusual punishment. (5/6/08, CNN.com)
- GA:
Lethal Injustice: No New Trial for Innocent
Death Row Prisoner Troy Davis
The Georgia Supreme Court refuses to
grant a new trial to a death row prisoner
who is almost certainly innocent. Troy
Anthony Davis is an innocent man on Georgia's
death row. His lawyers believe it, his
supporters believe it, even most of those
who sent him to die believe it. ... In
a 4-3 decision, the court decided that
not even the seven recanted testimonies
were enough to merit a new trial. ...
Even the most hardbitten death penalty lawyers
and activists were stunned by the court
ruling. ... Barring a successful appeal
to the U.S. Supreme Court, Davis will
once again find himself at the mercy
of the state parole board. (3/20/08,
AlterNet) Take
action now with Amnesty International
- NE:
Nebraska Court Bans The Electric Chair
A child killer received a reprieve Friday
from the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled
that electrocution, the state's only means
of capital punishment, is unconstitutional.
Death penalty experts said the ruling is
likely to put an end to a form of execution
rarely used in the United States in recent
years. ... "It is the hallmark of a
civilized society that we punish cruelty
without practicing it," said the ruling
from the seven-justice majority. "The
evidence shows that electrocution inflicts
intense pain and agonizing suffering. Therefore,
electrocution as a method of execution is
cruel and unusual punishment." (2/8/08,
CNN.com)
- PA:
Mumia Abu-Jamal Still Fighting For His
Life
With the world's most famous death row prisoner
recently denied a new trial, activists take
to the streets on April 19th. (4/19/08, AlterNet)
- TX:
Dallas Man Freed By DNA Testing After
27 Years In Prison
A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years
in prison for a murder he didn't commit was
freed Tuesday, after being incarcerated longer
than any other wrongfully convicted U.S.
inmate cleared by DNA testing. (4/29/08,
ABC News)
- USA:
Executions Resume, as Do Questions of
Fairness
The release of the third death row inmate
in six months in North Carolina last week
is raising fresh questions about whether
states are supplying capital-murder defendants
with adequate counsel, even as an execution
on Tuesday night in Georgia ended a seven-month
national suspension. (5/7/08, New York Times)
- USA:
States Abandon Execution Moratorium
Many states wasted little time trying
to get executions back on track following
a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding
the use of a three-drug lethal cocktail.
Almost immediately, Virginia lifted its
death penalty moratorium. Mississippi
and Oklahoma said they would seek execution
dates for convicted murderers, and other
states were ready to follow. (4/17/08,
CNN.com)
- USA:
128th Inmate Exonerated and Freed From
Death Row
Glen Edward Chapman, a North
Carolina man who was sentenced to death
for the 1992 murders of Betty Jean
Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley, was
released from death row on April 2
after prosecutors dropped all charges
against him. In 2007, North Carolina
Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin
granted Chapman a new trial, citing
withheld evidence, “lost,
misplaced or destroyed” documents,
the use of weak, circumstantial evidence,
false testimony by the lead investigator,
and ineffective assistance of defense
counsel. There was also new information
from a forensic pathologist that raised
doubts as to whether Conley’s death
was a homicide or caused by an overdose
of drugs. (4/7/08, DPIC Update)
- USA:
High Cost of Incarceration - One in
100 Adults in Jail
More than one in 100 adult Americans are
in jail or prison, an all-time high that
is costing state governments nearly $50
billion a year, in addition to more than
$5 billion spent by the federal government,
according to a report released Thursday.
With more than 2.3 million people behind
bars at the start of 2008, the United States
leads the world in both the number and the
percentage of residents it incarcerates,
leaving even far more populous China a distant
second, noted the report by the nonpartisan
Pew Center on the States. (2/29/08, The Denver
Post)
- USA: Women and the Death Penalty
Victor Streib,
who has been researching the subject of
women and the death penalty for 20 years,
has released an updated version of his
report “Death Penalty for
Female Offenders.” In his research,
Prof. Streib, a professor at Elon University
School of Law in North Carolina and Ohio
Northern University’s Pettit College
of Law, has found that women are significantly
less likely than men to receive a death
sentence, possibly because prosecutors
seem less inclined to seek the death penalty
against female offenders. He noted , “Women
[are charged with] roughly 10 to 12 percent
of the murders in the country. They get
about 2 percent of the death sentences
and get less than 1 percent of the actual
executions.” He also noted that it
is impossible to know why prosecutors decide
to seek the death penalty in some cases
but not others.
(2/25/08, DPIC Update)
- USA: Executions May Be Carried Out at
Gitmo
If six suspected terrorists are sentenced
to death at Guantanamo Bay for the Sept.
11 attacks, U.S. Army regulations that
were quietly amended two years ago open
the possibility of execution by lethal
injection at the military base in Cuba,
experts said Tuesday. Any executions would
probably add to international outrage over
Guantanamo, since capital punishment is banned
in 130 countries, including the 27-nation
European Union. (2/13/08, Newsday.com)
- USA:
United States To Seek Death Penalty
For 6 Gitmo Detainees
The United States will seek the death penalty
against six Guantanamo Bay detainees who
are suspects in the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, two U.S. defense officials said.
The government is expected to announce
Monday that it will submit criminal charges
against the detainees, who include alleged
9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
according to the officials. (2/11/08, CNN.com)
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