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National News Archive from 2003
- Archive
of National News
See all CADP National News links and excerpts
from the years 2000 | 2001 | 2002.
- About
Broken Links
- ABA
Pushes Death Penalty Changes
SEATTLE -- Six years after urging a halt
executions, the American Bar Association is
ready to issue states another challenge: Fix
shoddy defense systems for accused killers.
The nation's largest lawyers' group is overhauling
14-year-old standards for capital defense lawyers
in the face of criticism from Supreme Court
justices and others about the quality of legal
representation. (2/9/03, The Daily Camera)
- Abortion
Extremist Paul Hill Executed
STARKE, Florida (AP) -- Paul Hill, a former
minister who said he murdered an abortion
doctor and his bodyguard to save the lives
of unborn babies, was executed Wednesday
by injection. (9/3/03, CNN.com)
- A
Case Stranger than Fiction
The case
that led a federal appeals court to overturn
111 death sentences in Arizona
was described in the ruling by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals as "the raw
material from which legal fiction is forged." (9/3/03,
CNN.com)
- Alleged
Spies Execution Still Fresh
OSSINING, N.Y. -- Pete Seeger was in New
York's Union Square in 1953 along with 5,000
other supporters of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
as the hour of the couple's execution drew
near. "We were waiting and hoping Eisenhower
would give a last-minute reprieve," says
Seeger, now 84. "We learned that wouldn't
happen, and then a great sigh, a great wail
went up from the crowd when the time came and
we knew they'd been executed." On the
50th anniversary of the execution today, Seeger,
Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte and other show
business activists will appear at a benefit
for the Rosenberg
Fund for Children, which assists children
of people imprisoned, attacked or fired for
taking a public stand. Robert
Meeropol, the Rosenbergs' younger son,
who runs the fund, calls it his "constructive
revenge."
- Appeals
Court Tosses Out 111 Death Sentences
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Citing a 2002 Supreme
Court ruling that only juries can impose
the death penalty, a federal appeals court
overturned 111 death sentences Tuesday that
had been imposed by judges in Arizona, Idaho
and Montana. In an 8-3 vote, the 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California,
said inmates sent to death row by judges
should have their sentences commuted. ...
Those three states, along with Colorado and Nebraska,
all changed their laws to specify
that only juries can impose death sentences,
but the issue of whether the high court's
ruling was retroactive to death sentences
previously imposed by judges is the focus
of the federal appeals court argument. (9/2/03,
CNN.com)
- AR:
Appeals Court OK's Medicating and Executing
Mentally Ill Man
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- In the latest
bizarre turn in a nearly 25-year-old death
row case, a federal appeals court ruled that
a mentally ill inmate can be put to death even
though he would be too insane to qualify for
execution without his medication. (2/11/03,
CNN.com)
- Arguments
on Death Penalty
Take a volatile topic
such as the death penalty in America and
turn two entirely
different men loose and the results are compelling
and surprising. One man, Scott Turow ("Ultimate
Punishment') is a respected lawyer with years
of trial experience and a string of successful
fiction books. The other, Mark Fuhrman ("Death
and Justice'), is a retired cop with years
of street experience who left his job in
a very public manner. ... They both say that
their expectation was that in capital cases
the standard of burden
of proof would be greater since the stakes
are so high. Unfortunately, this wasn't the
case. In fact, in mostly high-profile and
emotional cases, the pressure to convict
was very high, causing investigators to lose
objectivity according to Fuhrman. Both books,
though different in voice and character,
are thought-provoking, heart wrenching and
deserving of a close read. (12/28/03, The
Denver Post)
- Ashcroft
Tells Prosecutors to Seek More Executions
Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered
U.S. attorneys in New York state and Connecticut
to pursue the death penalty for a dozen defendants
in cases in which prosecutors had recommended
against or did not ask for capital punishment,
according to lawyers who follow the issue.
Those are nearly half of all the cases nationwide
in which Ashcroft has rejected prosecutors'
recommendations in a death penalty case. ...
Ashcroft's aggressive approach in the New York
region was criticized Wednesday by lawyers
who said the best way to eliminate geographic
disparities in capital punishment was not to
increase its use but to reduce it. (2/6/03,
The Daily Camera)
- CA:
Judge Sentences van Dam killer to Death
SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Showing no emotion
and turning aside a plea for an apology, David
Westerfield was sentenced to death Friday for
the slaying of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.
(1/3/02, CNN.com)
- Death
Penalty Facts
- IL:
Illinois Overhauls Capital Punishment
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Nearly four years after
the release of several wrongly condemned
prisoners led to a moratorium on executions,
legislators Wednesday overhauled the state's
death penalty system to reduce the risk of
executing an innocent person. The state House,
in a 115-0 vote, approved a series of changes
to a system that led to at least 17 wrongful
convictions. ... The overhaul follows years
of heated debate over capital punishment, starting
with the
release from death row of three men in quick
succession who were exonerated or found to
be wrongly convicted. From 1977, the year
the death penalty was reinstated in Illinois,
and 2000, 12 people were executed in the
state, while 13 death row inmates were released
because they had been wrongly condemned.
(11/20/03, The Daily Camera)
- IL:
Governor Vetoes Death Penalty Bill
CHICAGO -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday
vetoed part of a complex legislative package
aimed at reforming the state's flawed capital
punishment system, saying he approved of
all aspects of it except a section providing
sanctions for perjury by individual police
officers. The partial veto sends the matter
back to the state Legislature. The state's
struggles with the death penalty have made
headlines nationwide for the past three years.
(7/30/03, The Daily Camera)
- IL:
Blanket Commutation Empties Illinois Death
Row
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Outgoing Illinois
Gov. George Ryan announced Saturday that he
had commuted the sentences of all of the state's
death row inmates and said he would "sleep
well knowing I made the right decision," during
a speech at
Northwestern University. Ryan, a Republican
who leaves office Monday, pardoned four death
row inmates Friday after determining they had
been tortured into confessing crimes they did
not commit. (1/11/03, CNN.com)
- IL:
Four Illinois Death Row Inmates Pardoned
in Cop Torture
Gov. Ryan today pardoned four inmates sent
to Death Row on the strength of confessions
allegedly beaten out of them by former Chicago
police Cmdr. Jon Burge or detectives who worked
under him. ... "Here we have four more
men who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced
to die by the state for crimes the courts should
have seen they did not commit. We have evidence
from four men, who did not know each other,
all getting beaten and tortured and convicted
on the basis of the confessions they allegedly
provide," Ryan said. (1/10/03, Chicago
Sun-Times)
- LA:
Death Sentence for Rape Renews Debate
The sentencing to death of a Louisiana man
last week for raping an 8-year-old girl has
reopened a debate about whether crimes that
do not involve killings may ever be punished
by death. There has not been an execution
for rape in the United States since 1964,
and no one has been executed for any crime
that did not involve a killing since the
Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty
in 1976. (8/31/03, The Daily Camera)
- MD:
Death Penalty Study Shows Huge Racial Disparities
College Park, MD -- A new study shows
that state prosecutors are far more likely
to go after the death penalty in cases where
Blacks are charged with killing Whites. And
not only is race a factor in how
capital punishment is applied in Maryland,
location is also used to determine when the
death penalty is used. The results come from
the most comprehensive study on death penalty
cases in Maryland to date, but it
offers a window into the problem of capital
punishment across the country, and is sure
to add fuel to the fire about the fairness
of the penalty. (1/8/03, BET.com)
- MO:
Supreme Court Strikes Down Execution of
Juvenile Offenders
In a precedent-setting
case with national repercussions, the Missouri
Supreme Court
Tuesday overturned the death sentence of
a juvenile offender. The court found that "a
national consensus has developed against
the execution of juvenile offenders" and
cited the number of states that have banned
the practice. (8/28/03, NCADP)
- MS:
Stay in Publicized Foster Execution
Governor Musgrove has today granted a reprieve
of Ronald Chris Foster's execution until the
case can be considered by the Mississippi Supreme
Court and until there is a decision by the
US Supreme Court in the Hain case. Foster,
who was a juvenile at the time the crime was
committed, was the subject of a recent online
action alert from Amnesty International. (1/6/03,
Tollbells Digest)
- NC:
Senate Approves Two-year Moratorium
RALEIGH, N.C. -- In a historic vote, North
Carolina senators agreed Wednesday to a two-year
ban on executions while they study whether
the death penalty is fair. The measure now
must go to the state House. Neither chamber
of the General Assembly had ever considered
a moratorium bill until Wednesday, the day
after the bill sponsored by Sen. Ellie Kinnaird,
D-Orange, became the first to be voted on in
committee. Kinnaird and sponsors of the moratorium
say the state's death penalty needs to be studied
because of inequities in how the punishment
is meted out based on race, geography and wealth. "This
period of time will not take anybody off death
row unless they're innocent or need a new trial," Kinnaird
said. "All we're doing is saying there are
many questions that need to be answered." (4/30/03,
Charlotte.com)
- PA:
DNA Clears PA Death-Row Inmate
Prosecutors will not retry Nicholas Yarris,
the first Pennsylvania prisoner to have his
death sentence overturned due to DNA evidence,
in the 22-year-old rape and murder of a Delaware
County woman. ... The Delaware County District
Attorney's Office said yesterday that it did
not have
sufficient evidence to proceed with the Jan.
6 retrial of Yarris, 42, who spent half of
his life awaiting execution by electric chair. "Despite
the 22 years the commonwealth did its best
to kill me, I've used the opportunity to
become a good man," Yarris told Judge
William R. Toal Jr. at the brief hearing
in Delaware County Court in Media. (12/10/03,
Philadelphia Inquirer)
- PA:
Man Freed on Bail Due to DNA Testing
GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- A man behind bars for
16 years for an elderly neighbor's rape and
murder was released on bail Friday after
new DNA evidence showed that body fluids
from the crime scene were not his. (11/22/03,
The Daily Camera)
- PA:
Panel Advises Moratorium
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Pennsylvania
should stop executing criminals until it can
study the impact of race in death penalty sentences,
a committee appointed by the state's Supreme
Court said in a report released
Tuesday. ... "The moratorium should continue
until policies and procedures intended to ensure
that the death penalty is administered fairly
and impartially are implemented," the
report said. It noted that studies showed that "at
least in some counties, race plays a major,
if not overwhelming, role in the imposition
of the death penalty." (3/4/03, CNN.com)
- PA:
1,000 Death Penalty Foes Rally
HARRISBURG,
Pennsylvania (AP) -- About 1,000 people
converged on the state Capitol to
urge a suspension of the death penalty, joined
by the former Illinois governor who imposed
a moratorium there. ... "There is no
politics when you call for a moratorium.
A moratorium will give you a chance to look
at and to stop the machinery of death," [former
Illinois governor] Ryan said at the rally.
Schieber, whose daughter was murdered in
her Philadelphia
apartment five years ago
by a serial rapist, said he and his wife
have never wavered in their opposition to
the death penalty. "We need to start
staring our political leaders in the face
and find out why they are trying to kill
these people," Schieber said on the
steps of the state Capitol. (10/12/03, CNN.com)
- Supreme
Court News
CADP now has a Web page with U.S. Supreme Court
news stories.
- USA:
Feds Execute Decorated Gulf War Veteran
TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (AP) -- A decorated
Gulf War veteran who claimed his exposure to
Iraqi nerve gas caused him to rape and kill
a female soldier was executed by injection
Tuesday at a federal prison. Louis Jones Jr.,
53, died by injection at the U.S. Penitentiary
near Terre Haute after President Bush and the
U.S. Supreme Court refused his two final requests
that they intervene. Jones was the third person
-- after Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh
and drug kingpin Juan Garza -- put to death
by the federal government since it resumed
executions in 2001 after a 38-year suspension.
... A sign leaning against a fence said, "The
tragic irony: As we rush recklessly to war
with Iraq we are killing a veteran of the first
Gulf War." (3/18/03, CNN.com)
- USA:
More Executions in Southern States
WASHINGTON -- While the death penalty remains
common in most of the United States, executions
increasingly take place only in the South,
according to the end-of-the-year report from
the Death Penalty Information Center. In 2002,
86 percent of the nation's 71 executions took
place in the South. Texas
led the way again with 33 executions, and
thereby "accounted for three times as
many as the total in the West, Midwest and
Northeast states combined," the group
said. "For the second straight year, Texas
was the only state to execute juvenile offenders," the
group said. Despite international protests,
the state put to death three convicted murderers
who were younger than 18 at the time of their
crimes, all of whom were black. (1/2/03, The
Daily Camera)
- UT:
Utah Prepares for 2 Firing-squad Executions
in June
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- The only state
that dispatches condemned inmates by firing
squad is assembling gunmen for back-to-back
executions next month. ... Of the 850 inmates
put to death in the United States since the
U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment
in 1976, two have died by firing squad, both
in Utah. ... A hood will be put over the condemned
man's head and a target will be pinned over
his heart. The executioners will fire simultaneously
from gun portals in a separate room at the
inmate, seated in a chair about 30 feet away.
(5/22/03, CNN.com)
- VA:
Jurors Recommend Death for Sniper Muhammad
VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (CNN) -- Jurors
on Monday recommended John Allen Muhammad
be sentenced to death for orchestrating last
year's sniper shootings in the Washington
area. (11/24/03, CNN.com)
- VA:
Sniper Trial Adds to VA Death Penalty Legacy
VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (Reuters) -- Even
before the first witness is called in the
murder trial of accused sniper John Muhammad,
lawyers focused on the death penalty, the
ultimate punishment for crime that has a
four-century history in Virginia. ... As
they picked jurors to hear his case, prosecutors
and
defense attorneys in this
southern resort city seemed to leap beyond
innocence or guilt to ask about whether prospective
jury members could impose death. And while
some flinched, all successful candidates
said they could follow Virginia's law. (10/16/03,
CNN.com)
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