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National News Archive from 2000
- Archive of National News
See all CADP National News links and excerpts from the years 2001 | 2002.
- About Broken Links
- A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases 1973-1995
Executive Summary. There is a growing bipartisan consensus that flaws in America’s death-penalty system have reached crisis proportions. (6/00, Columbia University)
Landmark Study Finds Capital Punishment System "Fraught with Error"
Serious, Reversible Error Found In Nearly 7 out of 10 Capital Cases in 23 Year Period (6/00, Columbia University)
- A Life or Death Gamble
You would think that if technology is available to prove absolute guilt or innocence, prosecutors and politicians would all be quick to embrace it, if only to sleep easier at night. You would be wrong. (5/29/00, Newsweek)
- A Subtle but Powerful Shift in Politics of Death Penalty
Support has declined from 80 percent in 1994 to 66 percent in the most recent Gallup survey, and, according to his own work, "support is more nuanced" now. (6/18/00, The Washington Post)
- ABC's Nightline Profiles Anti-Death Penalty Activist
After witnessing the execution of death row prisoner Jonathan Nobles, Earle wrote “Over Yonder (Jonathan’s Song)” Click song link to view music video. (10/20/00, ABC News Nightline) - Actors Danny Glover, Mike Farrell, Edward Asner Join ACLU in Urging Death Penalty Moratorium
Launch of a web-based campaign to build support for a national moratorium on executions and bring attention to the inherent unfairness of the way the death penalty is administered in this country. ... The campaign is located at http://www.aclu.org/death-penalty. (9/20/00, ACLU)
- Case for Innocence
FRONTLINE profiles four cases of prisoners, some on death row, where DNA evidence was ignored or discounted and examines why the criminal justice system resists acknowledging and correcting its mistakes. (6/13/00 TV broadcast, PBS)
- Changing Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment Open Way for Bush's Death Row Reprieve
"What's happened is an unequal application of justice that weighs heavily on minorities, African-Americans particularly," televangelist Pat Robertson said recently. (6/2/00, CNN)
- Death Penalty Facts
- Death Penalty On Trial
We now know that prosecutorial mistakes are not as rare as once assumed; competent counsel not as common. (6/12/00 Edition, Newsweek)
- Death Row Inmate Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
SAN FRANCISCO -- From his tiny San Quentin cell, Stanley Williams spends his days on death row writing gritty children's books about his experiences as a founder and leader of the street gang the Crips. (11/19/00, The Daily Camera)
- DNA Test Sought in Case of Executed Man
ATLANTA -- Three newspapers and CBS News said Wednesday they would pay for new DNA tests on evidence from a 1981 Georgia murder case to explore whether the man executed for the crime was innocent. (7/27/00, The Daily Camera)
- DNA Clears Inmate in 1982 Slaying
Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) pardoned Earl Washington Jr. yesterday after new DNA tests found no sign that Washington committed the rape and slaying that once brought him within five days of execution. (10/3/00, The Washington Post)
- Florida: Lawmakers Pass Death Appeals Bill
Determined to execute more killers more often... (1/8/00, Miami Herald report)
- Forgiving Her Child’s Killer
"I would not honor the goodness and sweetness and beauty of my little girl’s life by killing someone in her name." (7/19/00, ABC News 2020)
- Governors Question Death Penalty
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Capital punishment is under renewed national scrutiny... amid signs that public support for the death penalty is slipping. (6/11/00, The Daily Camera)
- Illinois: Compensation For Death Row Time?
Illinois Gov. George Ryan, whose moratorium on executions has cast a harsh new light on the death penalty, tells Mike Wallace that death row inmates found to be innocent deserve compensation. (4/30/00, CBS)
Illinois: Death Takes a Holiday
Illinois halts executions while reviewing mistakes (2/00, Time Magazine)
Illinois: Failure of the Death Penalty in Illinois
A Tribune investigation finds an Illinois capital punishment system where errors and incompetence rule and justice often is absent.
Illinois: Ryan Orders Stay of Executions
"There is no margin for error when it comes to putting a person to death," Ryan said. (1/31/00, Chicago Tribune)
Illinois: Trial & Error
A Tribune investigation found hundreds of homicide cases where prosecutors violated their oath by hiding evidence or twisting the truth. Innocent people went to prison, some to Death Row.
- Innocence on Death Row
In this country, one in seven people sent to death row are later proven innocent, and more innocent people are being sent to death row every year. In one very disturbing case, a prisoner was 48 hours away from execution when his innocence was proven.
- Lawyer Sabotages Death Row Inmate's Appeals
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- A lawyer for a death row inmate has stepped forward and admitted sabotaging his client's appeals because he didn't like the man and thought he ought to be executed. (11/2/00, Associated Press)
- Mumia Abu-Jamal - Amnesty International Report
New report calls for a new trial for Mumia. (4/00, Amnesty International)
Mumia Abu-Jamal: 'Bizarre, Erratic' Judge Jails Mumia Activist
Kissinger's troubles with Rapoport began last year, but intensified after a December 6 hearing in Philadelphia, where he received a sentence of 90 days in jail for violating probation .... to deliver a speech on Mumia at the Republican National Convention. (12/21/00, The Village Voice)
- N.H. Governor Vetoes Death-Penalty Repeal
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- In vetoing the bill, Shaheen brushed off appeals from former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu. (5/19/00, USA Today)
- President Clinton Praised for Reprieve
WASHINGTON -- Civil rights leaders and lawyers' groups praised President Clinton on Friday for postponing the first federal execution in 37 years but pressed for a moratorium on all federal death sentences. (12/9/00, The Daily Camera)
President Clinton Postpones First New Federal Execution
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton has postponed what would have been the first federal execution in nearly 40 years, granting a six-month reprieve in the case of federal death row inmate Juan Raul Garza, placing the matter in the hands of whoever becomes the next president of the United States. (12/7/00, CNN)
President Clinton Postpones Garza Execution
(7/8/00, The Daily Camera)
President Clinton Rejects Death Penalty Moratorium
President Clinton rejected calls for a national moratorium on capital punishment. (2/17/00, The Daily Camera)
- Religious Leader Faults Bush's Use of Death Penalty
NEW YORK -- A religious leader challenged George W. Bush on his death penalty stance. (7/15/00, The Dallas Morning News)
- Report: Most Convictions are Reversed Because of Serious Errors
The most far-reaching report of the death penalty in the United States has found that two of three convictions were overturned on appeal, mostly because of serious errors by incompetent defense lawyers or overzealous police and prosecutors who withheld evidence. (6/12/00, Denver Rocky Mountain News)
Report: Many Death Penalty Appeals Successful
"It's not one case; it's thousands of cases. It's not one state; it's almost all of the states," Liebman said in an interview. "You're creating a very high risk that some errors are going to get through the process." (6/12/00, The Daily Camera)
- Rising Number of Executions Welcomed, Decried
Roman Catholic bishops and leading rabbis have vowed to lobby state legislators and activate protest groups. (12/13/99, Washington Post)
- Spotlight on Death Penalty
Igniting a national debate on capital punishment unsurpassed in intensity since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. (6/18/00, The Washington Post)
- Study: Disparities in System
WASHINGTON -- A Justice Department study found wide racial and geographic disparities in the federal death penalty system. ..."Minorities are over-represented in the federal death penalty system, as both victims and defendants, relative to the general population," Reno said. (9/13/00, The Daily Camera)
- Support Building for End to Death Penalty
"There's growing momentum," ABA President William Paul said Saturday at his 400,000-member group's national convention. "The moratorium issue clearly is alive." (2/13/00, The Daily Camera)
- Supreme Court News
CADP now has a Web page with U.S. Supreme Court news stories
- Texas: U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Appeal of Mentally Retarded Texas Death Row Inmate
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal by a condemned killer from Texas whose lawyers say he is mentally retarded and has the reasoning capacity of a 7-year-old. (11/27/00, CNN)
Texas Executes Record 40th Inmate This Year
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) -- Texas, the nation's leader in capital punishment, performed a record 40th and final execution of the year Thursday, putting to death a 60-year-old man who murdered a liquor store owner in a 1989 holdup. (12/7/00, CNN)
Texas: Appeals Court Lets Lawyer Sleep in Murder Case
HOUSTON -- A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a death row inmate's bid for a new trial, saying he was unable to prove that his lawyer slept through key portions of his 1984 murder trial. (10/28/00, The Daily Camera)
Texas: Executes Man Said to be Mentally Retarded
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Despite pleas from death penalty opponents around the world, Texas on Wednesday executed a man said to be mentally retarded. (8/9/00, CNN.com)
Texas: Executing Mentally Retarded Even as Laws Shift
Texas: Executes Graham Despite His Pleas of Innocence
Graham went to his death Thursday at 8:49 p.m. (9:49 p.m. EDT) protesting his innocence. (6/23/00, CNN)
Texas: Execution Could Haunt Campaign
"The problem is he's expressed confidence in a system that's really not worthy of confidence. (6/24/00, The Daily Camera)
Texas: Flawed Trials Lead to Death Chamber
AUSTIN, Texas -- But an investigation of all 131 executions during Bush's tenure found that the problems plaguing Illinois are equally pronounced in Texas and that additional flaws undermine the state's administration of society's ultimate punishment. (6/11/00, Chicago Tribune)
Texas: Bush Politics of the Death Penalty
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush has approved his first reprieve in a death penalty case after allowing 131 executions (6/2/00, USA Today)
Texas: Bush Hits The Pause Button
After presiding over 131 executions... (6/00, Time)
Texas: Gatekeeper Court Keeps Gates Shut
Confession had been obtained under disturbing circumstances. (6/12/00, Chicago Tribune))
Texas: Slated Release of Gay
Texas Inmate Further Reveals Death Penalty’s Injustice
Calvin Burdine’s 15-year-old conviction was overturned in September ... "Just as the death penalty is applied selectively to people of color and low-income people, it is also used against lesbian and gay people. It’s unconscionable-- and it’s also unconstitutional." (3/2/00, ACLU)
- Wanted: Witness to the Execution
As the pace of executions has picked up, states have found themselves scrambling for witnesses. (7/20/00, ABC News)
- Wyoming: Shepard's Show Mercy, Sparing Life of Son's Killer (11/5/99)
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