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News Commentary Archive from 2010
- Archive
of News Commentary
See all CADP News Commentary links
and excerpts from the years 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003
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Broken Links
- ACLU
Report Finds Severe Deficiencies in
Capital Representation and Appeals
According
to a new report by the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) entitled, "Slamming
the Courthouse Doors: Denial of Access
to Justice and Remedy in America," many
states severely restrict access to justice
for capital defendants and limit the
availability of remedies to correct errors. Read
PDF Report. (12/20/10, DPIC Update)
- Possible
Case of Innocence on California's Death
Row
A recent op-ed by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New
York Times focuses on the possible innocence of Kevin Cooper, a black defendant
on California's death row. Kristof writes,
"This case is a travesty. It underscores
the central pitfall of capital punishment:
no system is fail-safe. How can we be about
to execute a man when even some of America’s
leading judges believe he has been framed?"
(12/13/10, DPIC Update)
- America's
Death Penalty "Broken
Beyond Repair"
An op-ed by Bob Herbert of the New York Times
highlights issues raised by former Supreme
Court Justice John Paul Stevens that changed
his mind on the death penalty in the U.S.
Herbert cites information collected by the
Death Penalty Information Center and points
to shoddy defense and state misconduct in
the deliberate withholding of evidence as
prominent abuses in the system.
(12/6/10, DPIC Update)
- Outlaw Death Penalty to Save Lives and
Cash
Starting next week, the state Legislature
will have a chance to put an end to a long-running
source of injustice -- the death penalty.
We've long supported the moratorium on
the death penalty in Illinois and reforms
designed to protect innocent people from
execution. But now there is an opportunity
to abolish capital punishment in Illinois
altogether. The state Legislature should
jump on it. Already, Illinois has had too
many close brushes with wrongful executions.
In recent years, a staggering 20 men sentenced
to death have instead been freed.
(11/22/10, DPIC Update.
Editorial by the Chicago Sun-Times.)
- Death for the Death Penalty
A few days ago, Anthony Graves called his
mother and asked what she was cooking for
dinner. She asked why he wanted to know.
He said, "Because I`m coming home." Maybe
it sounds like an unremarkable exchange.
But Anthony Graves had spent 18 years behind
bars, 12 of them on death row, for the
1992 murder of an entire family, including
four young children, in the Texas town
of Somerville. It wasn`t until that day,
Oct. 27, that the district attorney`s office
finally accepted what he`d been saying
for almost two decades: he is innocent.
(11/8/10, The Daily Camera. News commentary
by Leonard Pitts.)
- PBS Frontline to Air Documentary on Norfolk
Four
Frontline’s documentary, The Confessions,
investigates the conviction of four Navy
sailors for the rape and murder of a woman
in Norfolk, Virginia in 1997. The documentary
highlights some of the high-pressure police
interrogation techniques, including the threat
of the death penalty, sleep deprivation,
and intimidation, that led each of the "Norfolk
Four" defendants to confess.
(11/8/10, DPIC Update)
- "No Justification" for
Recent Execution
On October 29, a New York Times editorial
raised many concerns regarding the recent
execution of Native American Jeffrey Landrigan
in Arizona. The Times said "the system
failed him at almost every level, most disturbingly
at the Supreme Court." Landrigan's
execution garnered national attention because
a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental
forced the state to seek the drug from foreign
suppliers. Despite repeated orders from a
federal District Court judge, Arizona refused
to divulge the source of their lethal drug
supply.
(11/1/10, DPIC Update)
- Growing Conservative Sentiment Concludes
Death Penalty Not Needed
In a recent op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
two leading conservatives declared that
the death penalty in the United States "is
no longer a necessary form of punishment." Richard
A. Viguerie and Brent Bozell urged
their fellow conservatives to consider that
the death penalty "is an expensive government
program with the power to kill people." "Conservatives," they
wrote, "don't trust the government is
always capable, competent, or fair with far
lighter tasks."
(10/11/10, DPIC Update)
- Peculiar Institution: America's
Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition
This new book by David Garland offers a fresh perspective on why
the death penalty endures in the United States when so many other countries in
the Western world have already abolished it. ... Garland concludes that the death
penalty has survived in the United States because it is deeply connected to the
fundamentally American institutions of local autonomy and popular democracy.
(9/27/10, DPIC Update)
- Connecticut Post Opposes Capital Punishment
Even in the Face of Heinous Murders
A recent editorial in the Connecitcut Post
called for the end of the death penalty
in the state even as the trial began in
a capital case cncerning horrific murders
in Cheshire in 2007. In 2009, the Connecticut
General Assembly voted to repeal the death
penalty but Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed
the bill, citing the Cheshire crimes. The
editorial cited a variety of reasons for
repealing the death penalty, including
its inability to deter crime, high costs,
and the danger of executing innocent defendants.
The editorial said, "To be sure, we are outraged
by the brutal crimes committed against the
Petit family. . . . But outrage and sympathy
do not outweigh our firm belief that it is
wrong - plain and simple - for the government
to take an individual life." (9/20/10, DPIC Update)
- Guest commentary: Crime and Punishment
As Amnesty International's Colorado State
Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator, I
read a lot about the knotty problems of
justice worldwide. It seems to me those
who experience violence, trauma, and loss
of life will never really experience justice
and closure as understood by us ordinary
people and as reported in the media. A
macabre case in Saudi Arabia recently makes
this point tellingly. (9/9/10, The Camera)
- Actions Affirming Catholic Opposition
to Capital Punishment
The organization Catholics Against Capital
Punishment recently noted activities related
to the Catholic Church's official position
on the death penalty. For the first time
in recent years, the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops’s annual Respect
Life program is urging its participants to
make opposition to the death penalty a significant
part of carrying out the Church’s
pro-life teachings.
(8/30/10, DPIC Update)
- New DPIC Podcast Explores Victims' Families
and the Death Penalty
The latest edition of the Death Penalty Information
Center's series of podcasts, DPIC on the
Issues, is now available for download. This
podcast, Victims and the Death Penalty, explores
the issues faced by murder victims' families
when capital punishment is being considered.
(8/23/10, DPIC Update)
- What Price is Too High for Death Row?
In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
announced that his administration plans
to borrow over $64 million from the state’s
general fund for the construction of a
new death row at San Quentin. At the same
time, the governor’s lawyers have
recently sought approval from the courts
to furlough state workers and reduce their
pay. Teachers, police officers and firefighters
are losing jobs because of the budget crisis.
(8/23/10, DPIC Update)
- Life Sentence Plea Helps California Victim's
Family Move On
Recently, a California man pled guilty to
the 2006 murder of Highway Patrolman Earl
Scott. ...
An editorial in the Modesto Bee noted that the plea will save the county over
$1 million in additional expenses that would
have been spent in a capital trial. Moreover,
the paper noted, the emphasis can now be
put on the victim, rather than on the pepetrator.
(8/16/10, DPIC Update)
- Implications of Texas Execution Based
on Flawed Science
A recent editorial in the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram raised questions about Texas'
entire death penalty system, given the
preliminary finding by the Texas Forensic
Science Commission that arson experts relied
on outdated and flawed science during their
investigation of a death penalty case of
Cameron Willingham who was executed in
2004. (8/9/10, DPIC Update)
- False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict
the Innocent
A new book written by Jim and Nancy Petro
offers a comprehensive analysis of how miscarriages
of justice result in wrongful convictions.
Jim Petro, a former Republican Attorney General
of Ohio, has observed the justice system
from all sides and was appalled by the frequent
mistakes in the criminal justice system.
(8/9/10, DPIC Update)
- Retired Prosecutor Says Death Penalty
Does Not Serve Families of Homicide Victims
Dan Glode, a former district attorney in
Lincoln County, Oregon, recently criticized
the death penalty for "the enormous
expense in dollars and emotional capital
[it takes] for the families of homicide victims." Writing
in the Newport News-Times, he experienced
crime both as a prosecutor and as a relative
of a murder victim.
(7/26/10, DPIC Update)
- Former Police Investigator Says Law Enforcement
Doesn't Need the Death Penalty
Terrence Dwyer, formerly with the New York
Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation,
recently chronicled the evolution of his
thinking about the death penalty and whether
it serves the needs of law enforcement. Dwyer
cited several examples of recent exonerations
and noted, "Clearly, by keeping the
death penalty in place, we run the unacceptable
risk of executing the innocent. Those of
us in law enforcement do our best to take
the guilty off the streets, and more often
than not we get it right. But in a world
where mistakes are inevitable, the death
penalty has no place."
- Five Myths About the Death Penalty
Much of what we think we know about American
capital punishment comes from the longstanding
debate that surrounds the institution.
But in making their opposing claims, death-penalty
proponents and their abolitionist adversaries
perpetrate myths and half-truths that distort
the facts. The United States' death penalty
is not what its supporters - or its opponents
- would have us believe. (7/18/10, The
Washington Post)
- Former New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice
Calls for Abolition
Joseph P. Nadeau, who served on New Hampshire's
Supreme Court for six years and as a judge
for 37 years, recently testified before
the state's death penalty commission about
his opposition to the practice. In an op-ed,
Judge Nadeau summarized the moral and practical
reasons why he believes capital punishment
should be repealed.
(6/28/10, DPIC Update)
- Death Row Debacle
There is something disturbing and distasteful
about allowing states to take shortcuts
in their quests to put convicts to death.
But that is the essence of a deal Congress
struck with the states in the mid-1990s.
States that guaranteed and paid for a robust
system of legal representation for poor
death-row inmates could fast-track federal
appeals of state capital-punishment convictions.
To qualify, a legal defense program had
to be certified as acceptable by the federal
courts. (6/22/10,
Editorial by the Washington Post)
- Death by Firing Squad Highlights Inhumanity
of Death Penalty
When Ronnie
Lee Gardner is strapped into
a chair early on Friday morning, and a hood
is placed over his head and a small white
target is pinned over his heart, the citizens
of Utah - and indeed the entire country -
will be reminded in the most graphic of fashions
of the nation's ongoing adherence to the
barbaric, arbitrary and bankrupting practice
of capital punishment. (6/17/10, ACLU Blog
of Rights)
- The Spectacle Doesn't Change the Facts
So it is no small wonder that the death
penalty is increasingly falling into disuse.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty
less often, and jurors are returning death
sentences less often as well. The active
use of the death penalty is confined to
a handful of states. Even in Utah, despite
this splashy appearance on the executing
stage, executions are very rare, with less
than a dozen people on death row. (6/17/10,
The Huffington Post)
- Debate: Death Penalty Only Hurts Victims'
Families
Reallocating wasted dollars and attention
from the death penalty to mental health resources
would meet the real needs of murder victims'
family members. Gardner's high-profile execution
is an opportunity for the country to rethink
the death penalty. Let's put murderers in
prison and turn our attention and resources
to the real needs of murder victims' family
members. (6/17/10, AOL News)
- Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection
Continues in Death Penalty Cases
A recent study published by the Equal Justice
Initiative, a nonprofit human rights and
legal services organization in Alabama,
shows that the practice of excluding blacks
and other racial minorities from juries
remains widespread and largely unchecked,
especially in the South.
(6/7/10, DPIC Update)
- Murder Victim's Family Helps Case Settle
with Life Sentence
A desire for revenge, an eye for an eye,
would have been entirely understandable.
Somehow, the Carsons managed to resist
it in the name of their daughter. For their
courage in even facing this day, they deserve
the admiration of all. Their daughter was
a very special person. The same may be
said of those who raised her.
(5/26/10, Editorial by the Charlotte News & Observer)
- The Echoes of an Execution Reverberate
Loud and Clear
A real-life story told in "Willie
McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair" a
half-hour documentary to be broadcast Friday
on NPR. ... For nearly 15 years, beginning
in 1940, Mississippi used a "traveling
electric chair" that moved from county
to county to execute prisoners convicted
of capital crimes. What is perhaps most
unusual about the McGee case, though, is
not the portable electric chair or even
the public nature of the execution, but
the live radio coverage that accompanied
it, which was recorded and is excerpted
in Mr. Richman's
documentary. (5/5/10, New York Times)
- American
Bar Association Publishes "The State
of Criminal Justice 2010"
Ultimately, our society must decide whether
to continue with a system that has been
found in study after study to be far more
expensive than the actual alternative – in
which life without parole is the most serious
punishment. The question has become substantially
more important given the severe economic
downturn in 2008-10. In view of the lack
of persuasive evidence of societal benefits
from capital punishment, this is one ineffectual,
wasteful government program whose elimination
deserves serious consideration.
(5/3/10, DPIC Update)
- Death
Penalty "Neither Just Nor
Moral"
More than a decade has passed since the
state of Utah executed a convicted murderer.
Now, as the state prepares to once again
apply the death penalty, is a good time
for Utahns and their elected leaders to
consider abandoning this archaic and deeply
flawed form of punishment. In the interim
between the execution of Joseph Mitchell
Parsons in 1999 and the expected setting
of a death date for Ronnie Lee Gardner,
the legal, moral and ethical arguments
supporting capital punishment in Utah have
been eroding like sand castles at high
tide. That is because the state-sponsored
killing of a human being, no matter how
heinous the crime, is permitted by a system
that has been proven beyond doubt to be
inherently capricious, unfair and shockingly
fallible. And, one by one, state legislatures
across the country are deciding that they
can no longer justify, even for merely
financial reasons, retaining the death
penalty as their supreme form of punishment.
Already, 15 states have dropped the death
penalty and some dozen others have looked
at following suit. Lifetime imprisonment
under severe restrictions, arguably worse
than death, has become the preferred
alternative.
(4/17/10, Editorial by the Salt Lake Tribune)
- Capital
Punishment Leaves US on Wrong Side of
History
The United States of America, proud
of its commitment to fairness and justice,
is being left behind on one of the most important
international human rights issues of our
age. We are way behind the curve. Surpassed
in human rights by, most recently, Togo and
Burundi. The US has a worse record on the
essential human right to life than Turkmenistan,
Ukraine, Liberia, Mexico and Rwanda. And
those are only a few of the nations that
have left us in the dust, just in this century
so far. In 2009, only 18 nations on the planet
executed human beings. This great nation
is in that small, shameful community. To
be precise, we placed at number five, behind
Saudi Arabia, but with more state killing
of people than Yemen, Sudan, Viet Nam and
Syria. China executed more than all other
nations combined last year, but they're just
the leader of a club we should not be proud
to belong to. (4/16/10, The Jurist)
- Death
Penalty Hurts - Not Helps - Victims'
Families
Kathleen Garcia, a victims' advocate and
expert on traumatic grief, recently shared
her opinions on the death penalty in New
Hampshire, a state that is studying the
issue through its Commission on Capital
Punishment. Garcia, a member of New Jersey's
Death Penalty Study Commission, wrote, "Make
no mistake - I am a conservative,
a victims’ advocate and a death penalty
supporter. But my real life experience
has taught me that as long as the death
penalty is on the books in any form, it
will continue to harm survivors. For that
reason alone, it must be ended." Garcia
suffered through the murder of a family
member in 1984, but has found the death
penalty to be much more harmul than helpful: "It
is my opinion, as well as the view of other
long-standing victim advocates throughout
New Jersey, that our capital punishment
system harmed the survivors of murder victims.
It may have been put in place to serve
us, but in fact it was a colossal failure
for the many families I serve."
(4/5/10, DPIC Update)
- Death Row's Elimination Would Save Money
A recent editorial in the Spokane (WA)
Spokesman-Review called for elimination
of the death penalty in light of its high
costs and the state's tight budget.
(3/22/10, DPIC Update)
- Challenging
the Constitutionality of the Federal
Death Penalty
A recent article in
the Akron Law Review asks whether the
Federal Death Penalty Act (FDPA) is
in compliance with the Sixth Amendment's
right to confront witnesses because
it allows hearsay evidence in determining
whether a defendant is eligible for
the death penalty. ... Allowing the
government to prove statutory aggravating
factors … with testimonial hearsay,
even where the defendant has never had
an opportunity to cross-examine the declarant(s),
is not constitutional." (3/22/10, DPIC Update)
- Caution Urged on Death Penalty Expansion
John Whitehead, president of the conservative
Rutherford Institute, recently voiced concerns
in the Huffington Post about expanding
the death penalty in Virginia. He noted, "As
capital punishment studies have shown,
whether or not you are sentenced to death
often has little to do with the crime committed
and everything to do with your race, where
you live, and who prosecutes your case." (3/1/10, DPIC Update)
- MSNBC Reports on Costs of Death Penalty
View the online video. (2/22/10, CADP)
- Resources on the Death Penalty for Communities
of Faith
The Death Penalty Information Center has
recently updated its information packet
entitled "Death
Penalty Resources for Communities of Faith." This
packet was initially developed to help
a wide spectrum of religious groups address
the death penalty by providing information,
discussion questions, and multi-media resources.
(2/8/10, DPIC Update)
- Conservative Leaders Call for End to
Death Penalty
Roy Brown, state senator and
2008 Republican nominee for governor of
Montana, said that opposition to capital
punishment aligns well with his conservative
ideology. He is reaching out to social
and fiscal conservatives, hoping to create
a bipartisan movement against capital punishment.
Brown noted, "I
believe that life is precious from the
womb to a natural death." He continued, "Criminals
should be prosecuted. I want it to be life
without parole. In the long run, that's
much cheaper."
(2/1/10, DPIC Update)
- A Decade of Progress on Death Penalty
Justice
A recent editorial in the Dallas Morning
News recalled that the paper had reversed
its position in support of the death penalty
in April 2007.
... "These are all signs that courts,
prosecutors, politicians and the public are
recognizing the problems in our imperfect
system of justice," the editorial states. "This
newspaper feels more strongly than ever that
those flaws are sufficiently widespread that
the justice system cannot be trusted to impose
irreversible sentences of death." (1/25/10, DPIC Update)
- Death
Penalty System Irretrievably Broken
A recent editorial in the Charlotte Observer
in North Carolina cited the American Law
Institute's decision in 2009 to separate
itself from the death penalty system as another
reason for the state to abolish the practice.
The ALI, whose model death penatly standards
were instrumental in the U.S. Supreme Court's
decision to allow the reinstatement of capital
punishment in 1976, has recently disavowed
its own recommendations because the many
problems of the system had rendered it unworkable.
The editorial also cited a recently published
study by Duke University Professor Philip
Cook that concluded North Carolina could
save $11 million annually over the costs
of life imprisonment if it abolished the
death penalty. (1/18/10, DPIC Update)
- Kill the Death Penalty
The editor of the
editorial page of the Palm Beach Post recently
called for an end to the death penalty
in Florida. Citing DPIC's recent report
on the costs of the death penalty, Randy
Schultz notes that, "Every objective
study shows that life imprisonment costs
much less than sentencing someone to death." (1/11/10, DPIC Update)
- Denial of Death: Time to End Capital
Punishment
An editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune recently
called for an end to capital punishment,
stating that "the legal, moral and
practical arguments against capital punishment
have evolved from sound to unassailable" since
the punishment was reinstated over 30 years
ago. (1/11/10, DPIC Update)
- Researchers
Find "No Empirical Support" for
Deterrence Theory
Researchers from the University of Texas
at Dallas recently published a study on whether
executions deter homicides using state panel
date and employing well-known econometric
procedures for panel analysis. The authors
found "no empirical support for the
argument that the existence or application
of the death penalty deters prospective offenders
from committing homicide." (1/4/10, DPIC Update)
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