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National News Archive from 2008
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of National News
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- FL: Prosecutors Won't Seek Death for
Caylee's Mom
Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty
for a Florida woman charged with killing
her missing 3-year-old daughter, according
to court documents filed Friday.
... Casey Marie Anthony, 22, is
charged with killing her daughter, Caylee
Anthony, in a case that has received national
attention.
(12/5/08, CNN.com)
- GA: Federal Appeals Court Considers Sufficiency
of Evidence in Troy Davis Case
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals
for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta heard arguments
in the Troy Davis case on December 9. The
judges weighed whether Davis' new evidence
was sufficient to merit a more extensive
hearing and perhaps a new trial. One of the
judges, Rosemary Barkett, said she would
like to see the innocence claims fleshed
out in a further hearing.
(12/15/08, DPIC Update)
- GA:
Execution Delayed for Troy Davis
A
federal appeals court gave a last-minute
reprieve Friday to a Georgia man set
to be executed for the 1989 killing of
an off-duty police officer even though
several witnesses have changed their
accounts of the crime. Troy Davis, 40,
was scheduled to be executed Monday.
But the three-judge panel of the 11th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered
defense attorneys and prosecutors to
draft briefs that address whether Davis
can meet "stringent requirements" to
pursue the next round of appeals. Davis'
supporters have called for a new trial
because seven of the nine key witnesses
against him have recanted their testimony,
and the doubts about his guilt have won
him the support of former President Jimmy
Carter and other prominent advocates.
(10/24/08, ABC News)
- GA: Supreme Court Denies Troy Davis
Death Row Appeal
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected
an appeal from a Georgia death row inmate
who has gained international support for
his claims of innocence in the murder of
a Savannah police officer in 1989. ...
The justices had issued a stay of execution
two hours before Davis was to be put to death
last month. The court's latest action clears
the way for corrections officials to set
a new date to execute him, perhaps in the
next few weeks. (10/14/08, CNN.com)
- GA:
Troy Davis Facing Execution in Georgia
Despite Recantation of Eye-Witnesses
Troy
Davis has been scheduled for execution
on September 23 in Georgia, despite serious
doubts about his guilt. The state Parole
Board has scheduled a clemency hearing
on September 12 to review evidence related
to the fact that seven of the nine eye-witnesses
that testified against Davis have recanted
their statements. Davis’ lawyers
say they have evidence exonerating him
and implicating another person as the
killer. (9/15/08, DPIC Update)
- 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)
- LA:
Louisiana Must Pay $14 Million to Man
Exonerated From Death Row
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a $14 million award to
John Thompson, a former death row inmate in Louisiana who was exonerated after
withheld evidence was revealed. Thompson spent 18 years in prison, including
14 years in the solitary confinement of death row in Angola Prison. He came within
one month of being executed in 1999 when his attorneys discovered blood evidence
that should have been turned over to the defense years ago. The new evidence
cleared Thompson of an armed robbery conviction, which in turn had influenced
his trial for an unrelated murder. At his re-trial on the capital murder charge,
Thompson was acquitted in thirty-five minutes by a jury in 2003. Thompson sued
the District Attorney's Office of Orleans Parish in 2003 and won a jury verdict
in 2007. The jury also awarded $1 million for attorneys' fees. (12/23/08, DPIC Update)
- MD:
Maryland Commission Recommends Abolition
of Death Penalty in Final Report
The legislative commission established to
examine the death penalty in Maryland has
recommended abolition of the punishment by
a vote of 13-9. The Maryland Commission on
Capital Punishment released its final report
on December 12, detailing the reasons for
its recommendation. "There is no good
and sufficient reason to have the death penalty," Chairman
Benjamin R. Civiletti said at a news conference.
Regarding the commission's recommendation
of repeal rather than reform, he said, "There
are so many faults, so many flaws within
the system that we could not imagine ...
ways in which to cure it."
(12/15/08, DPIC Update)
- MD:
State Police Spied on Anti-Death Penalty
Groups
A day after the American Civil Liberties
Union released documents showing that the
Maryland State Police spied on peace activists
and anti-death penalty groups, Gov. Martin
O'Malley vowed yesterday not to allow state
law enforcement agencies to monitor people
exercising their right to free speech.
... The files depict a pattern of spying
and surveillance over a 14-month period
in 2005 and 2006. During that time, agents
infiltrated the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance,
a peace group; the Baltimore Coalition
Against the Death Penalty; and the Committee
to Save Vernon Evans, a death row inmate.
(7/19/08, The Baltmore Sun)
- MO: Prosecutorial Discretion Results
in Arbitrary Application of the Death Penalty
Death penalty prosecutions in Missouri illustrate
the arbitrariness that is applied county
by county across the country in capital cases.
(7/21/08, DPIC Update)
- 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)
- NJ:
One Year Later, Prosecutors Find No Problem
with Abolition of Death Penalty
In December 2007, New Jersey became the first state to legislatively abolish
the death penalty in 40 years. In commenting on the absence of capital punishment
for one year, a number of state prosecutors found no problems with the new system. "We
have not viewed it as an impediment in the disposition of murder cases," said
Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, who served on a state study commission
that reviewed the death penalty. "As a practical matter, we have really
seen no difference in the way we conduct our business in prosecuting murder cases."
(12/23/08, DPIC Update)
- OK:
Man Faces June Execution Based on Jailhouse
Snitch; Rebuttal Evidence Excluded
by Judge
Terry Lyn Short is scheduled to be
executed on June 17 in Oklahoma. He was
convicted of causing a fire that killed
Ken Yamamoto in 1995. The key witness against
Short at trial was a jailhouse informant
who testified in return for leniency on
charges that he was facing. Defense counsel
at trial sought to present testimony of
a third inmate in the same cell who was
prepared to refute everything that the
jailhouse informant had said. However,
the trial judge refused to let this witness
testify, and his story was never heard.
(6/9/08, DPIC Update)
- 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:
Texas Man Who Didn't Kill Set for Execution
Texas
is scheduled to put a man to death
this month even though he never killed
anyone, in what would apparently be the
first execution of its kind in more than
a decade. (8/8/08, ABC News)
- 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: Death Sentences, Executions Drop
in 2008
The number of executions in U.S. prisons
hit a 14-year-low in 2008, continuing a
downward trend and coinciding with a drop
in juries handing out death sentences,
according to a year-end report. The Death
Penalty Information Center estimates 111
defendants will be sentenced to death this
year, the lowest figure since executions
were reinstated in 1976. ... "Courts,
legislatures and the public are increasingly
skeptical about the death penalty, whether
those concerns are based on innocence, inadequate
legal representation, costs, or a general
feeling that the system isn't fair or accurate." (12/11/08,
CNN.com)
- USA: Higher Murder Rates Related to Gun
Laws
States with softer gun laws have higher rates
of handgun killings, fatal shootings of police
officers, and sales of weapons that were
used in crimes in other states, according
to a study due out in January 2009. The study's
38-page report, underwritten by a group of
over 300 mayors and obtained by the Washington
Post, focused on tracking guns used in crimes
back to the retailers that first sold them.
(12/8/08,
DPIC Update)
- USA: Judge Stays First U.S. Military
Execution in 47 Years
A federal judge has stayed what would be
the nation's first military execution since
1961, saying the U.S. soldier -- who was
convicted of rape and murder two decades
ago -- should have more time to pursue a
federal appeal. (12/3/08, CNN.com)
- USA:
First Military Execution Since 1961 Scheduled
Next Month
A U.S. soldier convicted of rape and
murder two decades ago will be executed
December 10 in the nation's first military
execution since 1961, the Army said Thursday.
... Gray's execution by injection will
be carried out by Fort Leavenworth soldiers
at the Federal Correctional Complex in
Terre Haute, Indiana, the Army said in
a news release. ... In July, President
George W. Bush approved the Army's request
to execute Gray. ... The U.S. military
hasn't actively pursued an execution
for a military prisoner since President
John F. Kennedy commuted a death sentence
in 1962. Nine men are on military death
row. (11/20/08, CNN.com)
- USA: Representation and Costs in Federal
Death Penalty Cases
In June 2008, the Office of Defender Services
of the Administrative Office of the U.S.
Courts published a report analyzing the cost,
quality and availability of defense representation
in federal death penalty cases. The report
determined that federal capital trials in
which the death penalty was sought were substantially
more expensive than non-death penalty federal
trials; however, a death sentence was handed
down in only one-quarter of the cases. (10/13/08, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Espy Execution Files Added to Archive
The files on executions in America compiled
by noted historian M Watt Espy, Jr are to
become part of the National Death Penalty
Archive located at the State University of
New York at Albany. The Espy collection,
entitled “Executions in America,” documents
more than 15,000 executions in the United
states dating back to 1608 and colonial Jamestown.
Among the unique materials are handwritten
ledgers with an alphabetical listing of executed
individuals by state and by date from the
1600’s through 1995 and over 1,000
books. (9/29/08, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Former U.S. Attorney Cites Improper Federal
Death Penalty Pressure
Former U.S.
Attorney Paul Charlton expressed relief
that the Justice Department is no longer
seeking to execute a defendant in the
case that was cause for his termination.
Charlton told the Associated Press that
he did not think the government had sufficient
evidence to pursue the death penalty
in the prosecution of Jose Rios Rico.
Charlton's boss, former Attorney General
Alberto Gonzalez, wanted him to pursue
it anyway and testified to a Senate panel
that he fired Charlton over his “poor
judgment” in the case. The present
administration has reached a plea deal
with Rico that takes the death penalty
off the table. "A more seasoned
group of individuals are reviewing these
decisions now," Charlton said of
the Department of Justice. (9/29/08, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Bush OKs Execution of Army Death Row
Prisoner
President Bush on Monday approved the execution
of an Army private, the first time in over
a half-century that a president has affirmed
a death sentence for a member of the U.S.
military. ... President Kennedy was the last
president to stare down this life-or-death
decision. On Feb. 12, 1962, Kennedy commuted
the death sentence of Jimmie Henderson, a
Navy seaman, to confinement for life. (7/28/08,
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)
- UT: Supreme Court Says Death Sentences
Will Be Reversed Unless Legislature Provides
for Adequate Counsel
Utah's Supreme Court recently
expressed concern that the lack of qualified
defense attorneys for indigent death row
inmates could unravel capital sentences.
In a unanimous decision in the case of
death row inmate Michael Archuleta, Associate
Chief Justice Michael Wilkins said
the court might be forced to reverse capital
sentences because the low pay and the complexity
of such cases have shrunk the pool of Utah
attorneys who will accept them. "It
falls to us, as the court of last resort
in this state, to assure that no person
is deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without the due - and competent - process
of law," Wilkins wrote. "Without
a sufficient defense, a sentence of death
cannot be constitutionally imposed." He
wrote that the justices may soon be forced
to reverse a death sentence and impose
life without parole on such grounds if
the legislature fails to provide adequate
resources.
(11/17/08, DPIC Update)
- WA:
Top Medical Officer Resigns Over Participation
in Executions
The top medical officer for the Department of Corrections in the state of Washington
has resigned in order to avoid any participation in the state's execution process.
As the doctor responsible for preparing others to carry out lethal injections,
Dr. Marc Stern concluded that his ethical obligations as a physician required
that he recuse himself from such actions and that resigning was the only way
to fully remove himself from this process. Dr. Stern, who supervised 700 employees
around the state, said that the American Medical Association and the Society
of Correctional Physicians oppose physician involvement in executions, "and
they say physicians should not supervise somebody who is involved in executions."
(12/23/08, DPIC Update)
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