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National News Archive from 2002
- Archive of National News
See all CADP National News links and excerpts from the years 2000 | 2001.
- About Broken Links
- AAC Group Plans January 17 Demonstration
Abolitionist Action Committee (AAC) marks the 25th anniversary of the first new execution by staging a demonstration at the U.S. Supreme Court. (1/16/02, CADP)
- Amnesty International Decries Child Offender Executions
WASHINGTON, DC -- Amnesty International said today that a growing national consensus, recent judicial action and scientific data will drive a re-examination of executions of child offenders by the US public, state legislators and jurists. In a new report on juvenile offender executions in the United States, Indecent and Internationally Illegal: The Death Penalty Against Child Offenders, the organization highlights numerous parallel arguments between Atkins v. Virginia, the recent US Supreme Court decision that abolished the death sentence for the mentally retarded, and the present legal situation for juvenile offenders. (9/25/02, Amnesty International)
- Amnesty International: Faith in Action October 11-13
Amnesty International USA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty invites individuals of all faiths, local congregations, and national religious organizations to participate in the Fifth Annual National Weekend of Faith in Action on the Death Penalty. (AIUSA)
- Ashcroft Pursues Death Penalty
At a time when many authorities, from the U.S. Supreme Court to state governments, are rethinking aspects of capital punishment, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft is aggressively pursuing the federal death penalty and frequently overruling his own prosecutors in the process, according to records and public officials. (7/1/02, Washington Post)
- AZ: Supreme Court Considering Arizona Case
The Court decided recently to revisit its 1990 decision affirming Arizona's highly unusual method of determining whether a person convicted of murder should receive death or life in prison. (2/5/02, CADP)
- Ban on Executing Retarded Would Muddy Law
(3/3/02, The Daily Camera) - CA: Poet and Writer Executed
Anderson, 48, who became a writer and poet while on Death Row, was led into the prison's apple-green death chamber and strapped onto a padded gurney. (1/29/02, San Francisco Chronicle)
- CA: Death Row Poet's Final Pleas
What he has are his words -- tens of thousands of them, handwritten into award-winning plays, books and poems. (1/27/02, San Francisco Chronicle)
- Deadly Decisions Examines Death Penalty Juries
In Deadly Decisions, American RadioWorks examines cases in which death penalty jurors misunderstood or even disobeyed the laws designed to guide their decisions over life and death. Is it a matter of jurors being influenced by their own fears and prejudices when faced with sentencing people to death? (8/8/02, MPR News)
- Death Penalty Facts
- Death Unplugged -- The Growing Movement to End Capital Punishment
Many citizens and politicians have reversed their views on the death penalty after seeing evidence that our flawed judicial system all too often convicts innocent people. (Independent Media Institute)
- DPIC Issues Year End Report on Death Penalty
The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) has released its 2002 Year End Report. According to the report, the year 2002 saw further isolation in the use of the death penalty, the exoneration of the nation's 100th death row inmate, key Supreme Court decisions restricting capital punishment, and a second state's implementation of a moratorium on executions. In addition, the report notes that continued concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the capital punishment system have led governors, courts, and other officials to institute concrete reforms in 2002. Read the PDF Press Release -or- Report. (12/18/02, DPIC)
- FL: Inmate on Death Row Goes Free After 17 Years
A chance discovery two years ago of an old legal transcript in a lawyer's files led to freedom Thursday for Juan Melendez -- 17 years after he was sent to Florida's Death Row for a murder another man claimed to have committed. (1/4/02, Miami Herald)
- GA: Williams Death Sentence Commuted to Life in Prison
Saying he had slipped too far into madness to be executed, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles Monday spared the life of convicted psychotic killer Alexander Williams. (2/25/02, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) See related news commentary by William Raspberry.
- IL: 400 Professors Back Illinois Mass Clemency
CHICAGO -- As Gov. George Ryan decides whether to commute the sentences of some death row inmates, hundreds of the nation's law professors want him to know he would be justified in granting clemency to all of them. The legal scholars planned to deliver that opinion today in an open letter to Ryan bearing more than 400 of their signatures, the latest act in a hard-fought public relations battle over Illinois' death row inmates. (12/30/02, The Daily Camera)
- IL: Governor Ryan Pardons Three in Illinois
Ryan wiped away the criminal records of Cruz, Gary Gauger and Steven Linscott. Cruz and Gauger both spent time on Death Row and are among the 13 exonerated inmates Ryan frequently refers to in his efforts to overhaul capital punishment in Illinois. (12/20/02, Chicago Sun-Times)
- IL: 40 Former Inmates Appeal to Illinois' Ryan
CHICAGO -- As Republican Gov. George Ryan considers commuting some, possibly all, death sentences in Illinois to life terms before he leaves office in mid-January, about 40 former death row inmates who wrongfully were convicted plan to meet here today and Monday to urge him to spare the lives of all 160 condemned prisoners. (12/15/02, The Daily Camera)
- IL: Retired Judges Urge Illinois Mass Clemency in Tainted Cases
A group of retired state and federal judges is urging Gov. Ryan to commute the death sentences of any inmate whose conviction was tainted by flaws in the state's capital punishment system. "Examination of current death sentences reveals cases involving credible claims of coerced confessions, unreliable 'incentivised' testimony from jailhouse informants and purported accomplices, inexperienced and unqualified defense counsel, confusing jury instructions, mental retardation, and mental illness," they wrote. (12/2/02, Chicago Sun-Times)
- IL: Death Penalty Activist Spurns GOP Proposal (12/2/02, Chicago Sun-Times)
- IL: Considers Clemency for All Pending Executions
CHICAGO -- Illinois opened a marathon series of clemency hearings Tuesday for nearly every prisoner on death row in what could be the most sweeping review of capital punishment in U.S. history. ... Governor Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in 2000, calling the state's death penalty system "fraught with error" after 13 inmates were found to have been wrongfully convicted. The board will make confidential recommendations to the governor. But Ryan has suggested that he may grant a blanket clemency to all. (10/16/02, The Daily Camera)
- IL: Governor Ryan May Commute All Death Sentences
CHICAGO (AP) -- Gov. George Ryan, who has already put executions in Illinois on hold, said Friday he is strongly considering commuting all death row inmates' sentences to life in prison. (9/7/02, The Daily Camera)
- IL: Governor Ryan's Faith a Factor in Death Penalty
For the first time, Gov. Ryan spoke Thursday about how his faith influenced his decision to put a moratorium on executions in Illinois. ... "That was just one of those things that I felt I needed to do.When we exonerate more than we execute and almost execute, we shouldn't have a system like that that goes unchallenged ... That's a matter of right and wrong and certainly a moral obligation." (3/15/02, Chicago Sun-Times)
- IL: Death Penalty Inquiry Finished
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Two years after Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted executions, saying he couldn't trust the state's criminal justice system, a panel he named to examine the process is ready to recommend changes aimed at keeping innocent people off death row. Abolishing capital punishment isn't among the proposals to be announced today, but the commission's report will include about 70 other recommendations for judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and police, co-chairman Frank McGarr said. (4/15/02, The Daily Camera)
- IL: Death Penalty Panel Wants to Extend Changes
CHICAGO -- The panel that suggested a series of changes to the way capital cases are handled in Illinois said many of the recommendations should also apply to cases that don't involve the death penalty. The commission was formed by Gov. George Ryan when he set a moratorium on executions two years ago. It made 85 suggestions designed to prevent innocent people from being sent to death row, but the panel said its recommendations could also keep innocents out of prison. (4/21/02, The Daily Camera)
- Innocence Protection Act Approved by Senate Judiciary Committee
Legislation which would increase access to DNA testing and improve counsel standards for capital defense attorneys was reported favorably by the Senate Judiciary Committee today in a 12-7 vote. All 10 Democrats and 2 Republicans (Sens. Specter and Brownback) approved the bill. We applaud Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy and Senators Arlen Specter, Dianne Feinstein, Joseph Biden, Richard Durbin and the other committee members who worked on and approved the substitute amendment to the Innocence Protection Act (S 486) for their display of leadership and unity on this critical issue. (7/02, The Justice Project)
- MD: Governor Declares Moratorium on Executions
Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening today declared a moratorium on executions, sparing the life of a Baltimore-area killer and making Maryland the second state after Illinois to suspend the death penalty because of doubts about its fairness. (5/9/02, The Washington Post)
- MI: DNA Frees Man in 1984 Rape and Murder
DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- A judge on Monday overturned the conviction of a man found guilty of raping and murdering a teenage girl in the 1980s. The man had confessed but recent DNA tests showed he couldn't have been the killer. ... If Michigan had the death penalty, Scheck said there's a good chance Lloyd would have been sentenced to death. (8/26/02, CNN.com)
- Moussaoui, Zacarias: U.S. to Seek Death for 9/11 Conspiracy Suspect
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The Bush administration said Thursday it will seek to execute Zacarias Moussaoui in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks and appealed to European allies to keep cooperating with terrorism investigations despite their opposition to the death penalty. (3/29/02, The Daily Camera)
- Moussaoui, Zacarias: Case in Uncharted Waters
(3/29/02, The Daily Camera)
- NY: Death Penalty Ruling Reversed
NEW YORK -- A federal appeals court panel Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling that found the federal death penalty unconstitutional because it amounted to the "state-sponsored murder" of innocent people. (12/11/02, The Daily Camera)
- Sacco-Vanzetti Anniversary Raises Fresh Questions about Executions, Immigrants
BOSTON (AP) -- Vito Bruno remembers his father and thousands of others marching through Boston's North End 75 years ago to protest the executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. ... ''The idea that the death penalty is used against minorities, against people of color, still exists an enduring form of racism and xenophobia,'' she said. ''The minorities here are no longer Italians, but now Arab Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, whoever happens to be perceived as the 'other.' '' (8/22/02, The Boston Globe)
- SC: Ricky Johnson Executed - Likely an Innocent Man
Statement from The Moratorium Campaign: Today is a sad day. Governor Jim Hodges (D-SC) has denied Ricky Johnson's request for clemency based on questions about his guilt. This morning the US Supreme Court turned down last minute request from Mr. Johnson's legal team to intervene. Richard Charles Johnson, very likely an innocent man, will be put to death. (5/3/02, The Moratorium Campaign)
- Study: Disparities in System
- Supreme Court: Anti-Death Penalty Groups Hail Ruling About Executing Retarded
"The U.S. Supreme Court has finally ushered the United States into the circle of civilized nations when it comes to such executions," said William F. Schultz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "Our justice system has now caught up with the moral sensibilities of the American people." (6/21/02, CNN.com)
- TX: Texas Leads in 2002 Executions
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Texas executed 33 people this year, the most of any state in the nation and almost double the number put to death in the state last year, a study showed. ... "Increasingly, Texas is finding itself standing alone in its increasing application of the death penalty." (12/29/02, The Daily Camera)
- TX: Texas Appeals Court Considers Jury Film
Earlier this month, Ted Poe, a trial judge in Houston, said he would allow the public television documentary series "Frontline" to film the jury's deliberations in a death-penalty case there. On Monday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin suspended jury selection in the case and said it will consider the prosecution's appeal of the judge's ruling next month. Legal experts said that filming jury deliberations is quite unusual and that they knew of no other instance involving a capital case. (11/26/02, The Daily Camera)
- TX: Texas, Missouri Carry Out Executions
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A 66-year-old convicted killer was executed by injection Wednesday -- becoming the oldest inmate Texas has put to death -- as he bitterly professed his innocence on the gurney before the drugs stopped him mid-sentence. ... "My request to you is to get yourself in church and pray to God he forgives you because you are murdering me," Chappell said. (11/20/02, CNN.com)
- TX: Texas Shrugs Off Debate on Executions
As Texas forges ahead with executions, it appears to be swimming against what critics of capital punishment say is a gathering national tide. In some states, DNA testing, erroneous convictions, the formidable cost of the appeals process and the disproportionate application of the death penalty against minorities have combined to slow the pace of executions. Illinois and Maryland have declared moratoriums on executions pending reviews. Indiana has commissioned a study. Elsewhere, a variety of state legislation to scrutinize the death penalty is in the pipeline. (9/22/02, The Washington Post)
- TX: Teen Killer Executed Despite International Treaties
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (CNN) -- Texas executed confessed killer Napoleon Beazley by lethal injection Tuesday evening for a murder he committed in 1994, when he was 17. ... Beazley said the crime he committed "was not just heinous, it was senseless." But he also criticized the state, saying his execution shows that there are no second chances and tells children "that in some instances, in some cases, killing is right. (5/28/02, CNN.com)
- TX: Texas Executes Another Juvenile Offender
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) -- A Texas man was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday for a murder he committed when he was 17, the killing of his infant cousin during a car wheel theft. He was the third person executed in Texas this year for a crime committed while still a teenager. "Such executions not only violate international norms, they also offend human decency," Steven Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in a statement. (8/29/02, CNN.com)
- TX: Beazley, Murderer at 17 Facing Execution
- TX: Texas Executes Killer over Victim's Mother's Objections
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A man who killed a convenience store clerk was executed Wednesday despite an extraordinary plea by the victim's mother to commute the sentence. Johnny Joe Martinez apologized to the parents of the slain clerk, Clay Peterson. Peterson's mother, Lana Norris, lobbied for his sentence to be reduced to a life term. "I want to thank you," he said, referring to Norris, who did not witness the execution. "It meant a lot to me. (5/22/02, CNN.com)
- TX: Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Execution Opposed by Victim's Parents
- TX: Victim's Mom Opposes Killer's Execution
While Johnny Joe Martinez uses the court system to halt his looming execution, his efforts have been bolstered by an unlikely source: his victim's mother. ... Peterson's mother, Lana Norris, sent a letter earlier this month to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles opposing Martinez's execution. (5/17/02, Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
- TX: Murderer Thankful for Help of Victim's Mom
- TX: Death Penalty Under Fire
Bold Texas Protest Actions Hit Death Row (5/23/02, Workers World)
- USA: Death Row Population Drops
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of death row prisoners dropped last year for the first time since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, the Justice Department reported Sunday. The decline was part of a trend that has seen fewer people sentenced to die in recent years. The death row population fell from 3,601 in 2000 to 3,581 in 2001, the first year-to-year decrease in 25 years. ... Death penalty experts say juries and prosecutors appear to be exercising greater care in using the death penalty, particularly considering recent cases in which DNA evidence has proved that people were wrongly convicted. (12/15/02, CNN.com)
- USA: Federal Death Penalty Declared Unconstitutional
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A federal trial judge Monday became the first U.S. judge to declare the current federal death penalty unconstitutional, a ruling that is sure to set off fierce national debate over the issue. U.S. District Judge Rakoff said the federal death penalty act "deprives innocent people of a significant opportunity to prove theitr innocence" and "creates an undue risk of executing innocent people," thereby violating due process. ... The ruling is expected to be appealed. (7/1/02, CNN.com)
- USA: Federal Terrorist Charges Move Ahead
As charges were filed against [American Taliban] Walker, federal prosecutors Tuesday made preparations to seek the death penalty against Moussaoui. (1/16/02, The Daily Camera)
- USA: Feds Will Seek Death Against Suspected Spy
WASHINGTON -- Government lawyers told a federal judge Friday they intend to seek the death penalty against Brian Patrick Regan, a retired Air Force master sergeant accused of trying to spy. (4/20/02, The Daily Camera)
- VT: Possible National Effects in Vermont Ruling
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled key parts of federal death penalty statutes unconstitutional, stalling the capital trial of accused killer Donald Fell and possibly affecting federal cases nationwide. The law does not give criminal defendants sufficient rights to question witnesses or sufficiently guarantee due process rights, U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions wrote. (9/25/02, Burlington Free Press)
- Yates, Andrea: Sentenced to Life in Prison
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- A Texas jury spent less than an hour deliberating before sentencing Andrea Yates to life in prison Friday for the drowning deaths of her five children. She will be eligible for parole in 40 years. (3/15/02, CNN.com)
- Wrong Man Executed in Old Murder?
Thomas Johnson was an African-American. The murder was dubbed the "Negro Crime," and Johnson was quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. Just eight months after Angelina's body was found, Johnson was electrocuted. Now, 70 years later, author Ralph Melnick says the Johnson trial was a travesty. Authorities as well as Angelina's relatives knew Johnson was innocent, Melnick claims. In a well researched book, "Justice Betrayed: A Double Killing in Old Santa Fe" (University of New Mexico, 224 pages, $22.95), Melnick uncovers information showing how prosecutors, backed by the Santa Fe newspaper, inflamed local residents, so that jurors had no choice but to come up with a guilty verdict. Melnick identifies a man he says was the real killer. (11/12/02, The Denver Post)
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