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National News Archive from 2010
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of National News
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excerpts from the years 2000 | 2001 | 2002
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- AL: Inmate May Face Execution Because
of Mailroom Mix-Up
Cory Maples, an inmate on Alabama's
death row, may pay for a simple clerical
error with his life. When copies of an Alabama
court ruling in his case were sent to the
New York law firm handling his appeals, both
copies were returned unopened because the
firm's attorneys representing Maples had
left the firm. By the time the error was
discovered, Maples's time to appeal
had expired.
(6/9/10, DPIC Update)
- CA: Democrats
Put Death Penalty Replacement in Platform
The California Democratic Party Platform
for 2010 now states: To promote safe communities,
California Democrats will: ... Replace
the death penalty with a term of permanent
incarceration, which will serve to protect
the public, provide swift and certain justice
for victims' families, and save the state
an estimated $1 billion over the next five
years. (4/18/10, ACLU of Northern California)
- FL:
Former Warden Calls Executions Traumatic
for Prison Staff
on McAndrew, a former warden who oversaw executions on Florida's death row, recently
testified at a New Hampshire hearing regarding the trauma prison staff endure
during an execution. McAndrew said, "Many colleagues turned to drugs and
alcohol from the pain of knowing a man had died at their hands. And I've been
haunted by the men I was asked to execute in the name of the state of Florida."
(8/23/10, DPIC Update)
- GA: Federal Judge Sets High Standard
of Proof and Rejects Troy Davis's Innocence
Claim
On August 24, U.S. District Court Judge William
T. Moore Jr. rejected Troy Davis’s
petition to overturn his conviction for killing
a police officer in 1989 in Georgia. Judge
Moore chose a high standard of proof that
Davis would have to meet to establish his
innocence claim.
(6/30/10, DPIC Update)
- GA: Troy Davis Evidentiary Hearing Set
for June
Federal District Court Judge William Moore
set a date in June, 2010 for the evidentiary
hearing regarding Troy Davis' claim
of actual innocence. Davis filed an original
habeas corpus petition with the U.S. Supreme
Court in 2009 asserting that new evidence
from witnesses who had recanted their trial
testimony established his innocence.
(5/3/10, DPIC Update)
- IL: Illinois Commission Questions Use
of Millions for Death Penalty Prosecutions
The Illinois Capital Reform Study Committee,
created by the state legislature in 2003
and headed by Thomas P. Sullivan, a former
U.S. Attorney, recently issued its sixth
and final report on the Illinois death
penalty. The report found that taxpayers
are spending tens of millions of dollars
on the prosecution of a large number of
death-penalty cases, even though relatively
few result in actual death sentences. Since
2003, 18 people have been sentenced to
death, even though 500 defendants had capital
charges brought against them.
(11/22/10, DPIC Update)
- KY: Anti-Death Penalty Movement Wooing
Conservatives
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Roy Brown seems like a rarity - a conservative who's against
the death penalty. But to Brown, a state senator and the 2008 Republican nominee
for governor of Montana, the philosophy aligns perfectly with conservative ideology.
He's one of the more high-profile figures reaching out to other social and fiscal
conservatives, hoping to create a bipartisan movement against capital punishment. "I
believe that life is precious from the womb to a natural death," Brown said. (1/18/10,
Lexington Herald-Leader)
- MS: DNA Test Clears Three Wrongfully
Convicted Inmates Who Might Have Been Executed
Lawyers from the Innocence Project, who accepted
a request for help from Dixon, cited studies
showing the ubiquity of false confessions
and requested a DNA test of the evidence.
... Ruffin's
exoneration will be the first instance in
Mississippi where DNA evidence has cleared
an inmate posthumously.
(9/27/10, DPIC Update)
- NC: Video Footage Released of Execution
Facility
Captured on film, the warden of North Carolina's
Central Prison (Marvin Polk) narrates the
preparation and final hours before an execution
in Raleigh, where the state execution facilities
are located. 3/22/10,
Images of the Death Penalty)
- NY: DNA Clears Man Wrongly Convicted
of Murder
A New York truck driver, Frank Sterling,
who spent nearly 19 years in prison for
murder, was released on April 28, after
testing of DNA found in the victim's clothing
excluded him as the killer. (5/3/10, DPIC Update)
- OH:
Federal Judge Rules Botched-Execution
Inmate Can Fight Second Try
Romell Broom, a death row inmate who underwent
a botched execution attempt can continue
to argue that a second try would be an
unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment,
a federal judge ruled Friday.
(8/27/10, Cleveland.com)
- OH:
Sign Petition to Save Kevin Keith
Ohio may execute an innocent man unless
you take action! Kevin Keith is scheduled
to be executed on September 15th, despite
a wide range of new evidence that suggests
he is innocent. Keith, who has been on
Ohio's death row for 16 years, was convicted
on the basis of faulty eyewitness identification.
(8/23/10, Death Penalty Focus)
- OH:
Help Save Kevin Keith
Kevin Keith is a 46-year-old man currently
on death row in the state of Ohio. Keith
is scheduled to be put to death on September
15, in spite of overwhelming evidence
that he is an innocent man. Groups including
the Ohio Innocence Project, the National
Innocence Network, and a group of leading
eyewitness and memory experts are petitioning to
urge the Ohio Parole Board and Gov. Ted
Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin
Keith. (7/20/10, ACLU Blog of Rights)
- OH: After 20 Years, Ohio Death Row Inmate
May Be Exonerated
The court had ruled in 2006 that state prosecutors
improperly withheld evidence about their
star witness that could have exonerated D'Ambrosio
at his 1989 trial.
(3/8/10,
CNN.com)
- OK: Oklahoma City Bombing Victim's Father
Says Executions are Not Part of the Healing
Process
Bud Welch, father of Julie Welch who was
killed in the Oklahoma City Bombing, recently
appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, just
a few days before the 15th anniversary of
the bombing in Oklahoma. Welch, who is the
president of Murder Victims' Familes for
Human Rights, has been a long-time opponent
of the death penalty and has said that executions
are more often "staged political events" instead
of a part of the healing process for victims.
(4/26/10, DPIC Update)
- TN: Arbitrariness Shown in Different
Outcomes in Similar Murder Cases
Gaile Owens and Mary Winkler
are two women who committed similar crimes
under similar circumstances in Tennessee.
Both women suffered from abuse from the
spouses they killed, and both were examined
by the same psychologist, twenty years
apart. The psychologist said both women
suffered from battered woman's syndrome.
... One is now free and has
custody of her children. Owens is on death
row, awaiting execution by lethal injection.
(1/4/10, DPIC Update)
- TX: Another Texas Execution Thrown in
Doubt by New DNA Tests
Recent DNA tests raise serious doubts about
the conviction of a man executed in Texas
in 2000. ... "The DNA results prove
that testimony about the hair sample on which
this entire case rests was just wrong. Unreliable
forensic science and a completely inadequate
post-conviction review process cost Claude
Jones his life."
(11/15/10, DPIC Update)
- TX: Prosecutors Accuse Former District
Attorney of Egregious Misconduct in Innocence
Case
At a recent press conference in Texas, prosecutors
accused former district attorney Charles
Sebesta of hiding and tampering with evidence,
and of threatening witnesses in order to
convict Anthony Graves in 1994. Graves was
recently exonerated from death row and freed
after 18 years of confinement for a crime
he did not commit.
(11/8/10, DPIC Update)
- TX: Anthony Graves Becomes 12th Death
Row Inmate Exonerated in Texas
Anthony Graves was released from
a Texas prison on October 27 after Washington-Burleson
County District Attorney Bill Parham filed
a motion to dismiss all charges that had
resulted in Graves being sent to death row
16 years ago. ... "This is not a case
where the evidence went south with time or
witnesses passed away or we just couldn't
make the case anymore. He is an innocent
man."
(11/1/10, DPIC Update)
- TX: Frontline to Examine Possible Innocence
of Man Executed in Texas
On October 19, PBS's FRONTLINE will air Death
by Fire, a documentary closely examining
the evidence used to convict Cameron Todd
Willingham of the arson deaths of his three
children.
... Willingham's case is also being examined
by the Texas Forensic Science Commission
and a special Court of Inquiry that may determine
that Texas executed an innocent man.
(10/11/10, DPIC Update)
- TX: Commission Says Case of Executed
Man Based on Flawed Science
In a preliminary report, the Texas Forensic
Science Commission recently found that fire
investigators used flawed science in the
case that led to the death sentence and execution
of Cameron Todd Willingham.
(8/2/10, DPIC Update)
- TX:
Judge Rules Death Penalty Unconstitutional
Houston District Judge Kevin Fine granted
a pretrial motion in a capital case and
declared the death penalty in Texas unconstitutional.
Judge Fine said the state's law violates
a defendant’s right to due process
because of the risk of executing an innocent
person.
(3/8/10,
CNN.com)
- TX: Inmate Facing Execution Denied DNA
Testing
Henry Skinner is scheduled for execution
in Texas on February 24 despite the lack
of DNA testing of critical evidence from
the crime scene that could lead to his exoneration.
(2/8/10, DPIC Update)
- TX: Texas to Execute Man 32 Years After
the Crime; Many Say He's Not the Same Person
David Powell, who was sentenced
to death in 1978 for the shooting of Austin
police officer Ralph Ablanedo,
faces execution in Texas on June 15. During
his 30 years on death row, Powell has shown
sincere remorse and regret for his actions.
... Although some police officers in Austin
continue to support Powell's execution, at
least one officer has said Powell is no longer
the same person who committed the murder.
(6/7/10, DPIC Update)
- USA: Religious Leaders to Gather in Texas
for Unique Dialogue on the Death Penalty
On January 18, 2011, seven religious leaders
from Texas will hold a groundbreaking panel
discussion in Houston addressing faith-based
views on the death penalty. The panel will
be moderated by Sister Helen Prejean. (12/20/10, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Costs of Representation in Federal Death
Penalty Cases
A recent report to the Committee on Defender
Services of the Judicial Conference of the
United States by Jon Gould and Lisa Greenman
provided an update on the costs of representation
in federal death penalty cases. The report
examined all cases in which the federal death
penalty was authorized by the U.S. Attorney
General between 1998 and 2004. The authors
found that "The median cost of a case
in which the Attorney General authorized
seeking the death penalty was nearly eight
times greater."
(12/13/10, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Poll Shows Growing Support for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty
(Washington, D.C.) The Death Penalty Information
Center today released the results of one
of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted
of Americans’ views on the death penalty.
A national poll of 1,500 registered voters
conducted by Lake Research Partners shows
growing support for alternatives to the death
penalty compared with previous polls. A clear
majority of voters (61%) would choose a punishment
other than the death penalty for murder,
including life with no possibility of parole
and with restitution to the victim’s
family (39%), life with no possibility of
parole (13%), or life with the possibility
of parole (9%). In states with the death
penalty, a plurality of voters said it would
make no difference in their vote if a representative
supported repeal of the death penalty; and
a majority (62%) said either it would make
no difference (38%) or they would be more
likely to vote for such a representative
(24%).
Read
poll results PDF. (11/22/10, DPIC Update)
- USA: How Arbitrary? 10% of U.S. Counties
Account for All Recent Death Sentences
A recent article in Second Class Justice,
a weblog dedicated to addressing unfairness
and discrimination in the criminal justice
system, highlighted that the death penalty
continues to be arbitrarily applied in
the United States. Citing figures from
the American Judicature Society, author
Robert Smith revealed that only 10% of
U.S. counties accounted for all of the
death sentences imposed between 2004 and
2009, and only 5% of the counties accounted
for all death sentences between 2007 and
2009. (10/25/10, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Why Someone Might Confess to a Crime
He Did Not Commit
More often than many realize,
innocent people falsely confess to crimes
they did not commit, according to a recent
review in the Chicago Tribune. For example,
Kevin Fox, was accused of sexually assaulting
and murdering his 3-year-old daughter in
Illinois. He confessed to the crime after
spending 14 hours in interrogation, during
which police ignored his requests for a
lawyer and told him that they would arrange
for inmates to rape him in jail. Fox was
later released after DNA evidence excluded
him as a suspect, and another man was subsequently
charged with the crime. (7/19/10, DPIC Update)
- USA:
The Slow Death of the Death Penalty?
As
Capital Punishment Is Used Less Often,
Arguments Persist Over its Validity - and
Death Row Inmates Continue to Wait. When
it comes to issues of crime and Punishment.
the stakes are never higher than when
the crime is murder, and the punishment
is death. Opinion about capital punishment
is sharply divided in the United States,
and the debate is playing out right now
in two very different Death Row cases.
(CBS News, 6/13/10)
- USA:
American Board of Anesthesiologists Bars
Participation in Executions
The American Board of Anesthesiologists (ABA),
representing 40,000 members, recently ruled
that it will revoke the certification of
any member who participates in an execution
by lethal injection. Most hospitals require
board certification for their anesthesiologists.
According to the board secretary Mark Rockoff,
the decision reflects the ABA's belief that
anesthesiologists are "healers, not
executioners."
(5/10/10, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Death Row Inmates' Long Wait for Execution
May Be Second Punishment
The AFP recently examined the time an inmate
spends on death row between sentencing and
execution and questioned if inmates are being
punished twice with long-term imprisonment
and execution. (4/26/10, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Just or Not, Cost of Death Penalty Is
a Killer for State Budgets
Capital murder trials and death row boondoggles
are wreaking havoc on budgets across the
country as many states are now rethinking
the death penalty, which is enormously
costly and rarely imposed even after successful
prosecutions. Every time a killer is sentenced
to die, a school closes. That is the broad
assessment of a growing number of studies
taking a cold, hard look at how much the
death penalty costs in the 35 states that
still have it. Forget justice, morality,
the possibility of killing an innocent
man or any of the traditional arguments
that have been part of the public debate
over the death penalty. The new one is
this: The cost of killing killers is killing
us. (3/27/10, Fox News.com)
- USA:
Debating the Cost of Capital Punishment
As cash-strapped states consider the high
cost of sentencing prisoners to death,
capital punishment has fallen on hard times.
In New Mexico, which voted to abolish the
death penalty last year, State Rep. Gail
Chasey (D., Albuquerque) specifically noted
the tax dollars that would be saved. “We
can put that money toward enhancing law
enforcement, public works, you name it,” she
said. In 2009, 10 other states considered
ending capital punishment. In New Jersey,
which halted executions in 2007, a commission
found that switching a single condemned
inmate’s sentence to life without
parole would save the state $1.3 million
in incarceration costs alone, because death-row
inmates receive special housing and security.
Repealing the death penalty in North Carolina,
where 169 prisoners are on death row, could
save that state $11 million a year in incarceration
costs and legal fees associated with the
extensive appeals process, according to
a study published in American Law and Economics
Review in December.
(1/31/10, Parade Magazine) - USA:
American Police Beat Reports "Death
Penalty Comes with a Hefty Price Tag"
A recent article in the American Police Beat
highlights the concerns that police chiefs
have with the costs and ineffectiveness of
capital punishment. The article notes, "The
problem, according to the police chiefs is
the fact that capital punishment is costing
states hundreds of millions of dollars for
relatively few executions and nothing in
the way of crime deterrence.
(1/11/10, DPIC Update)
- USA: Group Gives Up Death Penalty
Work
Last fall, the American Law Institute, which
created the intellectual framework for the
modern capital justice system almost 50 years
ago, pronounced its project a failure and
walked away from it. There were other important
death penalty developments last year: the
number of death sentences continued to fall,
Ohio switched to a single chemical for lethal
injections and New Mexico repealed its death
penalty entirely. But not one of them was
as significant as the institute’s move,
which represents a tectonic shift in legal
theory. (1/4/10, New York Times)
- USA:
More Innocence Network Exonerations in
2009
Twenty-seven people were exonerated and
released from prison this year, including
some who had been on death row, according
to a new report from The Innocence Project,
a national litigation and public policy
organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully
convicted people. The 27 exonerees served
a combined 421 years in prison for crimes
they did not commit. (1/4/10, DPIC Update)
- UT: Utah Religious Leaders Express Concerns
about the Death Penalty in Anticipation
of Firing Squad Execution
The upcoming execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner,
who has opted to be killed by a firing squad
in Utah on June 18, has attracted the attention
of many people of faith in the state. Hours
before Gardner's execution, prominent religious
leaders will gather for a vigil to protest
the execution. Religious leaders from groups
often associated with being supportive of
the death penalty have recently voiced concerns
about the practice.
(6/14/10, DPIC Update)
- UT: Murder Victim's Family in Utah Opposes
Upcoming Execution
Family members of the victim whom Ronnie
Lee Gardner killed in Utah are now asking
that his life be spared. Gardner's attorneys
have requested a clemency hearing and the
family members of the victim, Michael Burdell,
would be called to testify in favor of
sparing Gardner's life. Gardner has chosen
to be executed by firing squad. "Knowing
Michael, as I did, he would not want Ronnie
Lee to be executed," said Donna Nu,
Burdell's former girlfriend at a court
hearing recently. "Further, he would
not want to be the reason Ronnie Lee is
executed." (5/10/10, DPIC Update)
- VA: Virginia Puts Woman to Death by Lethal
Injection
Teresa Lewis, who was given a lethal injection,
was pronounced dead at 9:13 p.m. ET at Greensville
Correctional Center in Jarratt. Death penalty
opponents argued that Lewis, a 41-year-old
grandmother, should not have died for a 2002
conspiracy that spared two triggermen a capital
sentence. She was the first woman executed
in Virginia in nearly a century.
(9/23/10, CNN.com)
- VA: Supreme Court Won't Stop Execution
of Virginia Woman
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied
a stay of execution appeal from Teresa Lewis,
scheduled to be the first woman executed
in the United States in five years. Virginia
Gov. Bob McDonnell previously rejected a
clemency request from the death row inmate,
who is set to die by injection Thursday evening.
(9/21/10, CNN.com)
- VA:
Governor Denies Clemency to Teresa Lewis,
Woman with Low IQ
On September 17, Governor Robert McDonnell
announced that he would not grant clemency
to Teresa Lewis, who is scheduled to be
executed in Virginia on September 23. Requests
for a commutation of her death sentence
had come from thousands of individuals,
from mental health groups, the European
Union and novelist John
Grisham.
(9/20/10, DPIC Update)
- VA: Woman with Mental Disabilities Facing
Execution
An execution date of September 23 was recently
set for Teresa Lewis, the only woman on
Virginia’s
death row. Although a number of other people
were involved in the same crime, including
the actual shooters of the two victims,
Lewis was the only person sentenced to
death. (8/2/10, DPIC Update)
- VA: Troubling the Waters Against the
Death Penalty
Lynn Greer will be swimming to make a point - to remind us of the risk of executing
an innocent person. And she will be raising funds for VADP to help them eliminate
that risk, by ending the death penalty in Virginia once and for all. (7/16/10,
The Huffington Post)
- VA:
Anatomy of an Execution
A new book authored by Todd Peppers and
Laura Trevvett Anderson, "Anatomy
of An Execution," follows the story
of Douglas Christopher Thomas, a juvenile
offender who was executed in Virginia in
2000. ... The authors explore a variety
of death penalty issues surrounding the
case, including the quality of court-appointed
counsel, conditions on death row, and the
reasons for excluding the execution of
juveniles. (1/11/10, DPIC Update)
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