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News Commentary Archive from 2003
- Archive
of News Commentary
See all CADP News Commentary links and
excerpts from the years 2000 | 2001 | 2002.
- About
Broken Links
- An
Insane Side Effect of the Death Penalty
The death penalty is a didactic tool used to
teach certain members of society that they
should never again do that which placed them
in the situation in which they find themselves.
Its employment, of course, may occasionally
produce results that even its most enthusiastic
supporters find, at least one may hope, incongruous.
... Mr.
Singleton's lawyers believed it unfair
to force their client to take medication for
the sole purpose of restoring him to reason
so he could be killed. (2/22/03, The Daily
Camera. News commentary by Christopher Brauchli.)
- Ashcroft
Looking for Death in all the Wrong Places
Once again the death penalty is in the
news. Found in the interstices of the local
paper was a story that Puerto Rico is the latest
beneficiary of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's
gentle importuning on behalf of the death penalty
... A federal trial is taking place in Puerto
Rico as this is written in which the Justice
Department wants to invoke the death penalty.
According to a report in The New York Times,
everyone from local politicians to lawyers,
scholars and just plain folk have denounced
the trial. They call it a betrayal of their
constitution, which was approved in its entirety
by the U.S. Congress in 1952. (7/26/03, The
Daily Camera. News commentary by Christopher
Brauchli.)
- Ashcroft
Preaches Love and Death Penalty
John Ashcroft is preaching love from the
saddle of the death penalty horse that he is
riding for all it's worth. He's riding that
horse when lots of other horsemen have dismounted
because they have concluded that in its present
incarnation too many mistakes have been made.
Illinois is the best example. (2/8/03, The
Daily Camera. News commentary by Christopher
Brauchli.)
- Bible:
The Wrong Place for Bible Study
Those jurors who wanted the death penalty
but violated the rule about outside materials
can now spend the rest of their lives pondering
how the Bible they hoped would help impose
capital punishment on Robert
Harlan instead kept him alive. (5/28/03,
Editorial by the Rocky Mountain News)
- Bible:
Law is Clear: No Bibles Allowed in Jury Room
It has long been the law in this country
that the use of outside, or "extraneous," materials
by jurors invalidates a verdict, unless it
is clear that whatever was brought in to the
jury room played no role in the outcome. (5/24/03,
Rocky Mountain News. News commentary by Scott
Robinson.)
- Dead
End: Capital Punishment Crusade Led Nowhere
Too many Colorado officials, from Gov.
Bill Owens on down, are wedded politically
to the belief that executing more criminals
should be a high priority in Colorado. Absurd
consequences have flowed from that absurd premise
for the better part of a decade. ... The underlying
problem is this: For eight years, Colorado
has conducted the wrong debate. The goal should
be to dispense justice, not merely to execute
criminals. At the least, state officials might
have left a decent system in place. Better
yet, they might have asked whether capital
punishment serves the cause of justice at all.
(2/27/03, Editorial by The Daily Camera)
- Deathly
Doubts
Texas is on the verge of executing the
300th inmate put to death since capital punishment
resumed in 1982. In a system marred by clear
inequities and troubling doubts, it is morbidly
ironic that the case of the candidate for that
March 12 execution date embodies a number of
those doubts and raises questions about whether
Texas is about to lethally inject someone who
was wrongfully convicted. (3/7/03, Editorial
by the Houston Chronicle)
- Death
Penalty Poses Too Many Questions
Sometimes, although too rarely, politicians
do have the courage and integrity to ignore
misinformed public-opinion polls and do what
is right. This is the true measure of "leadership." Illinois
Gov. George Ryan's decision on Jan. 11 to commute
165 death sentences to terms of life imprisonment
without parole is a perfect example of that
integrity and leadership. It is now time to
call upon the Boulder City Council, Colorado
legislators and Colorado Gov. Bill Owens to
support a moratorium on the death penalty.
To date, 75 or so city and county governments
across the United States have made such a call.
We in Boulder should follow Ryan's leadership
and do the same. (1/19/03, The Daily Camera.
Guest opinion editorial by Michael Radelet.)
- Death
Penalty's Price Too High, and There's Proof
With the state in the worst budget crisis
in its history -- jobs and services being eliminated
or trimmed and the governor desperately hunting
for new sources of revenue -- the death penalty
has become a luxury we can no longer afford.
Yes, a luxury. Study after study has shown
us two things: 1. Executing convicted killers
costs much more than keeping them in prison
for the rest of their lives. 2. Executing convicted
killers does not deter other people from killing.
Both truths violate popular assumptions about
capital punishment and together they reveal
the capital punishment system as yet another
bloated and inefficient government program.
(3/9/2002, The Chicago Tribune. News commentary
by Eric Zorn)
- Executions
in Decline
So is capital punishment an inevitable
part of life in the United States? Is it here
to stay, now and forever? Not necessarily.
A new year-end report from
the Death
Penalty Information Center reveals that
the number of executions in the United States
declined this year to 65. That's a 34 percent
drop since 1999, when the number peaked at
98. ... That's encouraging news for those who
share our view that the death penalty is both
wrong as a matter of principle and ineffective
as a deterrent in practice. If a state rarely
uses the death penalty, it's reasonable to
ask why the punishment is needed at all - particularly
when the risk of executing an innocent human
being is so great. (12/30/03, Editorial by
The Daily Camera)
- Executioner's
Last Songs Vol. 2 and 3
Here's the The Pine Valley Cosmonauts playing
their old death card and raising a little more
hell and cash to help wean America off its
life threatening death penalty dependency.
On hearing Volume One, Illinois Governor George
Ryan spontaneously cleared Death Row and was
heard to whimper "Shit, those country
commies know their chops!!!" This leaves
us little doubt that this Two Disc Set sequel
portends oblivion for the hangmen that lurk
in the rest of the nation. ... This 2 record
set is bargain priced [$15.00], and all artists'
proceeds benefit the National Coalition Against
the Death Penalty. (Bloodshot Records)
- Fighting
the Death Penalty with a Honky-Tonk Attitude
Murder ballads on an album to raise money
to fight the death penalty? Yep, those "insurgent
country" rowdies at Bloodshot Records
are at it again. (8/10/03, The Denver Post)
- If
System "Works," Why Are Innocent
Executed?
Colorado legislators said those kinds of
errors couldn't happen here. Death row inmates
have been freed in 25 states, suggesting very
strongly that innocent people have been executed
somewhere. But it couldn't happen here. Given
that people are human, even in our fair state,
I wonder why it couldn't happen here. (1/14/03,
Rocky Mountain News. News commentary by Mike
Littwin.)
- Inhumane
Drug Used in Many Executions
The death penalty has once again made news.
On Oct. 10, the European Union marked the first
World Day Against the Death Penalty by calling
for the worldwide abolition of capital punishment.
The United States is in the company of, among
others, Iran and Nigeria in using the death
penalty to modify people's behavior. It is,
of course, more civilized in its use than Nigeria,
so some may dislike lumping the two together.
On the other hand, dead is dead. ... Although
stoning is not favored in the United States,
a report in The New York Times on Oct. 1 discloses
that contrary to popular belief, people who
are executed by lethal injection are not as
happy as the drugs they are given cause them
to appear. (10/18/03, The Daily Camera. News
commentary by Christopher Brauchli.)
- Journey
of Hope ... From Violence to Healing
The savage murder of 78-year-old Bible
teacher Ruth Pelke by four teen-age girls was
the beginning of Bill Pelke's Journey of
Hope ... From Violence to Healing. Initially
Bill did not object when 15-year old Paula
Cooper was sentenced to death for his grandmother's
murder. Through the power of prayer and transformation,
he moved from supporting her death sentence,
to working to have it overturned, to dedicating
his life to the abolition of the death penalty.
This book is the story of Bill's journey, the
obstacles he overcame, and the amazing, loving,
forgiving, committed people he met on the way.
(9/20/03, Xlibris.com)
- Let's
Get Them Healthy - So We Can Kill Them
We are constantly reminded of the fact
that we live in a civilized society that enthusiastically
embraces the restorative powers of the death
penalty for a society sometimes seemingly overcome
by violence. The important thing is not that
we recognize its ability to make the U.S. a
better place in which to live, but that we
use it in a socially responsible way. And so
we do. ... Thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision
announced during the week of June 14, we may
have been given an insight into how the court
is apt to rule in the Charles Singleton death-penalty
case that is slowly working its way upwards
(although the case which offers guidance is
not a death penalty case.) (6/28/03, The Daily
Camera. News commentary by Christopher Brauchli.)
- No
Rush to Execute in Colorado
Outside a handful of Southern states, capital
punishment is reserved for the truly exceptional
case, and even then it remains under skeptical
review by citizens, elected officials and the
courts. ... Of all the battles waged year in
and year out at the Legislature, few are more
pointless than the crusade to make Colorado
more like Texas in its application of capital
punishment. The death penalty does not deter
crime. It can't provide "closure" for
families of the victims. Its application is
inconsistent and even biased. It has no place
in a civilized society. The best course would
be to abolish capital punishment. The next
best is to apply it with intelligence and restraint,
as Colorado and many other states already do.
Those who clamor for more executions are wrong
on principle. As the latest evidence makes
clear, they're also out of step with the times.
(1/2/03, Editorial by The Daily Camera)
- Ryan
Showed Courage on Death Penalty
My new hero is a gun-owning conservative
Republican politician who might be indicted
soon. His name is George Homer Ryan, the enigmatic
ex-governor of Illinois. On his way out of
office, Ryan committed one of the most surprising,
confounding and courageous moral acts I've
ever seen. He emptied his state's death row.
(1/25/03, The Daily Camera. News commentary
by David Waters in Faith Matters.)
- Scott
Turow: To Kill or Not to Kill
Ambivalence about the death penalty is
an American tradition. When the Republic was
founded, all the states, following English
law, imposed capital punishment. But the humanistic
impulses that favored democracy led to questions
about whether the state should have the right
to kill the citizens upon whose consent government
was erected. Jefferson was among the earliest
advocates of restricting executions. ... Like
many others who have wrestled with capital
punishment, I have changed my mind often, driven
back and forth by the errors each position
seems to invite. Yet after two years of deliberation,
I seem to have finally come to rest. When Paul
Simon asked whether Illinois should have a
death penalty, I voted no. (1/6/03, The New
Yorker)
- Study
Demonstrates Need for Wider Moratorium
WASHINGTON -- A new University
of Maryland study about the disturbing
impact of race and geography in Maryland's
administration of the death penalty conclusively
demonstrates why the state's moratorium should
continue and other states should suspend executions
as well. (1/7/03, ACLU)
- Tennessee
June Execution Not Just
We're scheduled to execute Abu-Ali Abdur'
Rahman at 1 a.m. June 18. I say "we" because
Abu-Ali's arrest, prosecution, conviction,
sentencing and incarceration were carried out
by a system we arrange, fund and support. So
will his execution. In this case, our criminal
justice system seems to have gotten the right
man. But we're not talking about putting a
guilty man in prison. We're talking about killing
someone. ... The performance by defense counsel
was so egregious and the prosecutor so deceitful," said
members of the Interdenominational Ministers
Fellowship and the Covenant Association. "This
act of mercy also meets the requirement of
justice in this case." (6/7/03, The Daily
Camera. News commentary by David Waters in
Faith Matters.) Note: On Friday June 6, 2003,
the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted an
indefinite stay to Abu-Ali Abdur' Rahman. The
stay was granted so that the court can review
the defense attorney's claims of prosecutorial
misconduct. (6/9/03, Amnesty International)
- The
Execution of a Serial Killer Book Review
In The
Execution of a Serial Killer: One Man's Experience
Witnessing the Death Penalty, Diaz transports
the reader to a front row seat inside the death
chamber at the prison in Starke, Fla. He candidly,
and at times brutally, reveals what it is like
to view an execution from a distance of less
than 3 feet. He challenges those who support
capital punishment to ask themselves, "Could
I witness an execution?" Unwittingly,
Diaz becomes his own subject as he finds himself
emotionally unprepared for what he encounters.
He writes honestly about the psychological
aftermath of his experience as he confronts
his religious beliefs and re-evaluates his
views on life and death. (3/30/03, Book review
by The Denver Post)
- The
Life of David Gale Movie Review
"The Life of David Gale" tells the story of a famous opponent of capital
punishment who, in what he must find an absurdly ironic development, finds himself
on Death Row in Texas, charged with the murder of a woman who was also opposed to
capital punishment. This is a plot, if ever there was one, to illustrate King Lear's
complaint, "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their
sport." I am aware this is the second time in two weeks I have been compelled
to quote Lear, but there are times when Eminem simply will not do. (2/21/03, Chicago
Sun-Times. Movie review by Roger Ebert.)
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