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Texas carries out 500th execution amid questions of fairness

On June 26th, Kimberly McCarthy became the 500th person to be executed in Texas since the state resumed the death penalty in 1982. McCarthy’s execution proceeded despite claims that racial bias played a role in the conviction and death sentence.

McCarthy, an African American convicted of killing her neighbor Dorothy Booth, faced a nearly all white jury for both the trial and sentencing. During jury selection, only four non-whites made it through to the final round, three of whom were later removed by the prosecution. Across the country the race of the victim has a profound effect on which crimes receive the death penalty. Studies in states as diverse as California, Maryland, Ohio, and Georgia have found that people convicted of murdering a white victim, as was the case for McCarthy, are many times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed African Americans or Hispanics.

In Texas, nearly 75% of death sentences awarded over the past 5 years have been imposed on people of color, 46% African Americans and 28% Hispanic.

Sam Millsap, a former district attorney in San Antonio, says his attitude towards the death penalty “went through a sea-change.” Says Milsap: “realised that the system I always had so much confidence in was making far too many mistakes.”

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A Broken Promise in Texas: Race, the Death Penalty and the Duane Buck Case

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. released a new video highlighting the racial discrimination in the Texas death penalty system and the shocking case of death-sentenced prisoner, Duane Buck.

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Mr. Buck was sentenced to death in Harris County (Houston), Texas, after his trial prosecutor elicited testimony from a psychologist indicating that Mr. Buck was more likely to be dangerous because he is Black. A Broken Promise in Texas contains powerful, never-before-seen interviews with Texas civil rights leaders, elected politicians, the surviving victim in the Buck case, one of Mr. Buck’s trial prosecutors and Mr. Buck’s family members, among others, calling for a new, fair sentencing hearing.

The video’s release comes at a critical juncture, as Mr. Buck may soon be at risk of execution: the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is currently considering Mr. Buck’s appeal for a new sentencing hearing and the Court is expected to rule in the coming weeks.

Tell Texas to keep its promise, sign the petition calling for a new, fair sentencing hearing for Duane Buck.

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There are some Nebraskans that need to hear from you

This morning a few Nebraskan lawmakers prevented a vote on the death penalty through filibuster – despite there being an apparent majority who would have voted for repeal.

Some of those repeal supporters in particular made the death penalty’s flaws crystal clear throughout the 11-hour debate.

It is critical that these key leaders know that the nation is watching – and is excited by what they see.

Sign our open letter thanking Nebraska’s champions for repeal.

We didn’t get a vote on repeal this year, but we are closer than ever before.

Lawmakers took a “test vote” yesterday and repeal supporters won – getting 26 votes.

Last time Nebraska voted on the death penalty, only 13 lawmakers voted for repeal. We’ve nearly doubled our support!

Newspapers and experts within Nebraska are saying that these test votes mean if we’d had a vote on the bill, it would probably have passed.

Legislators gave some of the most eloquent speeches we’ve ever heard, many of them sharing why they changed their minds from being against repeal to now supporting it.

Show these champions how much we appreciate their hard work by signing this open letter.

“Today’s filibuster is a desperate, last ditch effort to ignore the writing on the wall and delay the end of this failed public policy,” said Stacy Anderson, EJUSA’s state partner from Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

“But it is just delay, because the death penalty is coming to an end in our state and everyone knows it.”

Our supporters in the Unicameral hit it out of the park, but they need to keep swinging, so that next time we get our vote!

Thank key Senators for hammering home just how broken Nebraska’s death penalty really is.

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Repeal of Death Penalty Signed Into Law In Maryland

Maryland’s Governor, Martin O’Malley, today signed the legislation to repeal Maryland’s death penalty. The new law makes Maryland the sixth state in six years to end the death penalty.

Maryland represents the first time a Governor put the full weight of his office behind a campaign to end the death penalty. Governor O’Malley sponsored the bill, testified on its behalf in front of the General Assembly, and made numerous public statements in support of repeal.

“A few years ago, you would not see a governor with national ambitions making the end of the death penalty a banner issue,” said Shari Silberstein, Executive Director of Equal Justice USA (EJUSA), a national organization that supports death penalty repeal. “But supporting repeal of the death penalty is no longer a politically risky move. The death penalty is no longer the ‘third rail’ of politics.”

The dwindling of the controversy around repeal of the death penalty reflects a growing realization that the flaws in the death penalty system cannot be fixed. Maryland is a prime example of a state that took great pains to make their death penalty system more accurate. Maryland instituted a moratorium on executions in 2002, conducted two major studies in 2003 and 2008, and enacted significant reforms to the death penalty in 2009 that made Maryland’s death penalty one of the narrowest in the nation.

“Maryland tinkered with its death penalty for over a decade before finally accepting it can’t be fixed. Even the man who led the charge to fix Maryland’s death penalty four years ago is saying it can’t be done,” said Silberstein.

The architect of the 2009 reforms, Maryland Senator Bobby Zirkin, previously supported the death penalty but this year became a pivotal vote in favor of repeal. Zirkin said that Maryland still risked executing an innocent person and that the state’s death penalty failed families of murder victims.

“There are very few people left who think the death penalty works,” said Silberstein. “Most agree that the death penalty is a disaster, so repeal is no longer necessarily a personal philosophical platform. It’s a common sense solution to an otherwise intractable problem.”

“Maryland is the latest in a national trend of states concluding the death penalty is a failure. Six states in six years have repealed the death penalty,” said Silberstein. “And it will not be the last.”

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Illinois’ Death Penalty Abolition Fund to help provide support to family members of homicide victims

Illinois is using the savings from repealing the death penalty to improve support for families of homicide victims. Funds for this initiative came from the Death Penalty Abolition Fund, which was established as a result of Illinois’ repeal of the death penalty in 2011. The goal was to make sure that repeal was more than just the death penalty’s absence, but that something better for victims’ families would take its place.

Organizations that coordinate and provide direct services to the families of victims can apply for a grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Read more about the grant, and how to apply, here.

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Join EJUSA in Philadelphia in May!

EJUSA is pleased to support Mothers in Charge in hosting a national conference on violence prevention!

The Cost of Violence: National Conference on
Violence Prevention and Behavioral Health
May 6-7, 2013
Philadelphia, PA
Register

EJUSA is a proud sponsor of two conference sessions – a panel about the death penalty and a leadership training for grassroots partners.

Register now and look for us!

Our National Organizer, Lex, is organizing and moderating the death penalty panel, featuring Kim Davis, whose brother Troy Davis was executed in 2011, Vickye Coward, whose son Tyler was murdered in Connecticut, and our national partner Diann Rust-Tierney of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Our Executive Director, Shari, will lead the training session for grassroots leaders.

Mothers in Charge is an incredible group of mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and sisters who are working together to save lives, advocate for families affected by violence, and provide services ranging from youth intervention to counseling and grief support services for families of murder victims. Most of MIC’s members have lost children to violence and have devoted their lives to preventing another mother from having to experience this tragedy.

We have no doubt the conference will be inspiring and important.

We hope to see you there.

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106 years ago, Kansas Repealed the Death Penalty. Time to Revisit History?

One hundred and six years ago today Kansas became one of the first states to pass legislation ending the death penalty.

Kansas’ death penalty was reinstated a few times since 1907, most recently in 1994. But it was never embraced.

In 2010 the State Senate voted 20-20 on repealing the death penalty, with 12 Republicans and 8 Democrats saying ‘yes’ to repeal. This was the first time in the modern era a repeal vote garnered more Republicans than Democrats.

Last year’s legislative hearing on the death penalty was dominated by repeal supporters. Murder victims’ families, law enforcement, and members of the legal community all testified. Committee chair Rep. Pat Colloton made her first public statement in favor of repeal.

Thousands of repeal supporters from the EJUSA community and our state partners at the Kansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty have already called on leaders in Kansas to end the broken system. Now – on the anniversary of the day Kansas repealed the death penalty in 1907 – it’s time to raise the volume.

Our campaign strategist, Ben, has been on the ground in Kansas meeting with religious and civic leaders, victims’ family members and members of the legal community. He’s celebrating Kansas’ Repeal Day by amping up his efforts to make repeal a reality.

If you live in Kansas, join Ben and take action now. Email your legislators asking them to get back to their roots and help Kansas embody the potential of its past.

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Texan Imprisoned for 30 Years With No Conviction

The capital conviction of Jerry Hartfield, an illiterate man with an IQ of 51, was overturned in 1983. At that time, the appeals court ordered a new trial – but that trial never happened.

The case was at a virtual standstill until 2006, when another prisoner helped him file a handwritten motion asking that Hartfield either be retried or set free.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the petition, but a federal judge agreed with Hartfield, saying the decision overturning his conviction still stands. U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Hughes said, “Hartfield’s position is as straightforward and subtle as a freight train….The court’s mandate was never recalled, its decision never overturned, the conviction never reinstated; yet Hartfield never received the ‘entirely new trial’ ordered by the court.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit called the state’s defense of Hartfield’s incarceration “disturbingly unprofessional.” Essentially Hartfield has been languishing in prison despite having no legal conviction for 30 years.

Hartfield’s case is yet another example of a flawed criminal justice system. And a system that can bungle up a case this badly has no business putting people to death.

You can read more about Hartfield’s case in this article in the Huffington Post.

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Conservatives Call for Repeal in Montana

Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty renewed their call for repeal of the Montana’s death penalty following a recent ruling declaring the state’s execution method unconstitutional.

“Conservatives dislike waste and inefficiency. That is why we should cast a critical eye when the State is involved with the business of executing people,” said Roy Brown, former Montana State Senator. “When it takes over 20 years and hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars for extra legal fees and court costs, it is obvious that the process is full of waste and inefficiency.”

The Montana Senate has voted in favor of repeal each of the past three years, but the bill has not yet made it to the Governor’s desk. Last weeks ruling will require both the legislature and Department of Corrections to make changes to Montana’s execution protocol.

Choteau Republican Representative Christy Clark added, “It is time for Conservatives to do what they do best and insist that a wasteful inefficient government program gets off the books. Efforts to ‘fix’ the death penalty have failed, and legislative efforts to correct this technicality will only lead to additional litigation, longer delays, and more wasted time and money.”

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PA Coalition Against Rape Joins Calls to Stop Execution of Terrence Williams

Today the PA Coalition Against Rape joined numerous groups against sexual violence, hundreds of child advocates, faith leaders, and former jurors in calling on Pennsylvania’s governor to stop the execution of Terrance “Terry” Williams.

Pennsylvania is scheduled to execute Williams on October 3rd for killing two men, Amos Norwood and Herbert Hamilton.

What the jury who sentenced him to death did not know was that Williams was physically and sexually abused throughout his childhood and adolescence, including rapes that began when he was just six years old. The two men Williams killed had been his abusers.

“With our years of experience in reviewing claims of rape and other sexual violence, we speak out clearly that a crime was committed against Terry, nothing less,” wrote the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. “Under no construction of American law or societal norms, is the sexual exploitation of a 13 year old boy by a 50 year old man a relationship, homosexual or otherwise. It is rape and any suggestion to the contrary is offensive.”

Five jurors have submitted sworn affidavits saying they are opposed to Williams’ execution. They had previously voted for the death sentence because they did not know all the facts. The widow of one of the victims has also asked that Terry’s life be spared, along with hundreds of prominent supporters and 16,000 individual citizens.

Also today, members of the bipartisan Pennsylvania Senate Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment called on Governor Tom Corbett to postpone all upcoming executions until it completes its study of the death penalty and issues its findings in December 2013. Two of the four task force members, Senators Stewart Greenleaf (R) and Daylin Leach (D), and a dozen members of the advisory committee signed the letter to the Governor

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